Linkages between approaches to learning,perceived stress and expected and actual academic outcomes among first-semester psychology students

Previous research indicates that higher educational students’ perceptions of stress are in part related to the teaching and learning context, and influence academic outcomes. This study intends to deepen our understanding of these processes by examining the linkages between approaches to learning, perceived stress and expected and actual academic outcomes within a specific educational setting. First-semester psychology students (N = 191) completed a questionnaire, including short versions of ASSIST and PSS, and estimated their course grade before a written examination. Later, actual grades were added. The results suggest that surface approach to learning is positively associated with high levels of perceived stress, and reflected in lower levels of expected grades. The relationships between deep and strategic approaches to learning and perceived stress seem to be more ambivalent, despite positive associations with expected grades. Coping and motivational aspects of the concepts of surface and strategic approaches to learning seem to be crucial to understanding the linkages between the examined factors. Also, the significance of a strategic approach in relation to actual academic outcomes is highlighted.     

The reciprocity between student-faculty informal contact and academic performance of university undergraduate students

A nonrecursive theoretical model was developed through a review of the literature to assess the degree of reciprocity between faculty contact and academic performance. Data was gathered from 1,096 freshmen and sophomores at a single research university. Contrary to expectations, GPA and faculty contact did not strongly affect one another. GPA was most strongly affected by high school performance and academic integration, and faculty contact was most influenced by advisor contact, talking in class, and memberships in campus organizations. The findings suggest that men and women and freshmen and sophomores were affected by faculty contact in different ways.An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Chicago, March 1984.     

大学生学习成绩影响因素的实证研究

本文利用所授课班级的学习成绩作为样本数据,运用SPSS软件对不同高考入学成绩、不同性别学生的学习成绩进行方差分析。结果表明高考入学成绩不同的学生学习成绩不存在显著差异,而女学生的学习成绩明显高于男学生的学习成绩,且两者之间存在显著差异。另外,本文进一步探讨了转专业是否对大学生的成绩具有影响,结果表明非转专业学生的学习成绩明显高于转专业学生的学习成绩。     

Implementation of the flipped classroom and its longitudinal impact on improving academic performance

Educational technology research and development - The objective has been to know the impact of the flipped classroom methodology on the academic performance of students during their training...     

Learning approaches,study time and academic performance

This study investigated the relationship between learning approach, time spent studying and grades awarded. A class of mechanical engineering students (N=34; male) were asked to keep an hour-by-hour study diary for one week. The Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) provided measures of these students' approach to study tasks. Use of a surface approach to learning was found to be positively correlated with both high attendance in class and greater hours of independent study time. The former is explained by the surface learner's need for the lecturer to define the course; the latter by the inefficiency of a surface approach. Poor grades in spite of long study hours mirror an inefficient surface approach. This finding suggests the need for individual study counselling. Case studies show that the use of a deep approach does not result in good grades unless accompanied by sufficient work. The diary method in conjunction with the SPQ appears to be a promising method for researching workload, study times and other related variables.     

森林生物量的根冠分配特征及其影响因子分析

根冠比(shoot ratio, RS)通常用来描述植物同化产物在地上(茎、枝叶)和地下部分(根)的分配比例,受到生物因子和环境因子的共同影响和制约,是陆地生态系统模型中同化产物分配模块的重要参数.根冠比是一个动态参数,而目前多采用经验性常数,影响了模型对生态系统碳储量及碳分配的客观评估.本文利用全国森林生态系统的生物量及其环境因子数据集分析了根冠比的变化特征,阐明了根冠比对土壤质地和气候变量等影响因子的响应趋势.结果表明:我国森林生态系统的根冠比中值为0.23,根冠比在森林生态系统内部数值变化较大;随着土壤质地由黏土至壤土、砂土的变化,根冠比变大;落叶针叶林的根冠比最大,常绿针叶林次之,而常绿阔叶林和落叶阔叶林根冠比最小;总体上根冠比表现出与多年平均降水、多年平均气温和干旱度系数等变量显著负相关;次生林的根冠比与降水、温度、干旱度系数等显著负相关,原始林与人工林关系不明显;不同植被功能型和土壤质地的森林,根冠比对气候变量的响应关系不同,证明森林的受影响程度、植被功能型和土壤类型等改变着根冠比对气候变量的响应特征.     

Understanding effects of COVID-19 on undergraduate academic stress,motivation and coping over time

The rapid and unprecedented shift from face-to-face instruction to remote online learning as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on teaching and learning in Higher Education: students had to adapt to a new way of learning, away from typical campus settings and their peers, and to new forms of assessments. This study examined academic stress, learning strategies, motivation and ways of coping from a sample of 177 unique students from a large London university, collecting primary data via survey at three time points during the academic year 2020/21 when teaching was remote and online only. Our findings show how patterns in academic stress, learning strategies, motivation and coping vary over the course of the academic year giving novel insight into how student learning and adaptation to the situation changed over time. We also report on differences in these patterns according to year group and for those students who are the first-in-family to attend university and those who are not. Based on these findings we identify priority areas where higher education institutions should support undergraduate students and provide evidence that some groups of students may need more and targeted support to secure their ongoing learning and well-being.     

The impact of living group social climate on student academic performance

The relationship between living group social climate and freshman scholastic achievement was examined in 36 fraternity groups and 18 male residence hall groups. Certain aspects of a living group's social environment, as measured by the subscales of the University Residence Environment Scale (Moos and Gerst, 1974), were significantly correlated with the freshman members' level of achievement (after controlling for high school grades and college entrance exam scores). Among fraternity groups, freshman achievement was higher in groups that emphasizedacademic achievement and competition, and lower in groups that emphasizedstudent influence. Among residence hall groups, freshman achievement was lower in groups that emphasizedtraditional social orientation. The results suggest that student living groups can affect the academic performance of their freshman members.     

Criterion-related validity of the WRAT-R and K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom academic performance

The validity of most psychological and educational tests is established using correlational procedures examining the linear relationship between performance on the two instruments. Concurrent validity developed in this manner is commonly viewed as verification of the acceptability of a test. Few studies exist examining the degree to which test performance covaries with real-life performance appraisals. This study examined the concurrent validity of the WRAT-R and the K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom levels of performance in reading and mathematics. Participants were 134 third and fourth graders enrolled in a regular education setting. In addition, this study compared the test performance of average students on two widely used standardized educational achievement tests in order to determine whether the tests yielded significantly different performance estimates relative to grade level functioning.     

Relatedness between jobs and academic majors: its relationship to academic involvement of college students

The study considered 10,072 third-year college students in Taiwan who had paid jobs while studying and found that students who worked in jobs related to their academic majors scored significantly higher on the academic involvement scale than students working in unrelated jobs. In addition, the effect of relatedness between jobs and majors did not interact significantly with either the effect of working on/off campus or the effect of working part-time/full-time.     

Academic delay of gratification and children's study time allocation as a function of proximity to consequential academic goals

Students (N = 302) in Chinese elementary schools were assessed regarding their academic delay of gratification (ADOG) and reported the time they devoted to non-school study and playtime during an extended interval prior to taking a high-stakes final exam. Students high compared those low in ADOG were more likely to spend time studying and less time playing several weeks prior to the exam. Growth curve analyses verified, however, that this difference diminished as a function of the temporal proximity to the exam, and that the group differences were non-existent just before the exam. Associations between ADOG and students' academic motivation and use of learning strategies replicated those obtained previously with adults in the USA. Results contribute to the general literatures on volition, homework and the dynamics of conflicting goals and action tendencies.     

The impact of attendance and student characteristics on academic achievement: findings from an undergraduate business management module

The article provides an empirical investigation into the impact of attendance and student characteristics on academic achievement in higher education. It is based on a study of 127 students who completed coursework for a taught undergraduate business management module at London Metropolitan University between 2003/4 and 2005/6. The article concludes that there is a significant positive correlation between attendance and academic achievement. However, regression analysis suggests that students who attend are already predisposed to academic achievement and that their propensity to achieve is largely determined by entry qualifications, age, cultural background, work and course. Student characteristics that were not found to have a significant impact on academic achievement include mode of study, gender, living arrangements, commuting time, marital and dependency status, language and nationality.     

Quality of Learning on an MBA Programme: The impact of approaches to learning on academic performance

This investigation: first, examines some psychometric properties of the scores obtained on a 30 item short form of the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI) using samples of postgraduate management (MBA) students (n=75); second, examines the relationship between scores on the three dimensions of the RASI and background variables of age, gender and prior educational experience; third, tests for any relationship between the background variables and academic performance as measured by four distinct types of assessment; and fourth, examines the relationship between scores on the three dimensions of the RASI and academic performance. No previous published work has examined the approaches to learning of postgraduate business students. Key findings include: the instrument has satisfactory psychometric properties; and scores obtained on the RASI using samples of MBA students are good predictors of academic performance in continuous assessment tasks but poor predictors of performance in examinations and oral presentations.     

Effort allocation in tournaments: The effect of gender on academic performance in Italian universities

We consider the academic performance of Italian university graduates and their labor market position 3 years after graduation. Our data confirm the common finding that female students outperform male students in academia but are overcome in the labor market. Assuming that academic competition is fair and that individual talent is equally distributed by gender, we suggest that the gender gap evident in degree scores is endogenously due to the greater effort exerted by female students. We find that females face a greater increase in labor market returns from signalling through academic performance. This higher prize explains the greater effort exerted by females and the higher probability of winning the academic competition.     

Relative academic performance and its relation to facet and overall satisfaction with interactive telecourses

An investigation was conducted in which 288 undergraduate college students taking 17 live, interactive telecourses at 68 remote sites were asked to report their satisfaction with various aspects of their telecourses as well as their overall satisfaction with those courses. In addition, a measure of relative academic performance was calculated for each student in which performance in the current telecourse was compared to prior academic performance. Results showed that high levels of relative performance were associated with (1) student satisfaction with the technological aspects of the courses, (2) student satisfaction with the promptness of material exchange with the instructor, and (3) overall student satisfaction. Practical implications of these results are discussed.

     

Reformed undergraduate instruction and its subsequent impact on secondary school teaching practice and student achievement

The Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) Program is one of several reform efforts supported by the National Science Foundation. The primary ACEPT reform mechanism has been month‐long summer workshops in which university and community college science and mathematics faculty learn about instructional reforms and then attempt to apply them in their courses. Previous ACEPT evaluation efforts suggest that, when implemented, the reforms boost undergraduate student achievement. The initial purpose of the present study was to discover whether enrollment of preservice teachers in one or more of these reformed undergraduate courses is linked to the way they teach after they graduate and become in‐service teachers. Assuming that a link is found, a second purpose was to discover whether the presumed positive effect is in turn linked to their students' achievement. In short, the answer appears to be yes, at least among the biology teachers and students surveyed. Compared with controls, the biology teachers who had enrolled in one or more ACEPT reformed course during their teacher preparation program demonstrated significantly higher scores on the measure of reformed instruction and their students demonstrated significantly higher achievement in terms of scientific reasoning, nature of science, and biology concepts. These results support the hypothesis that teachers teach as they have been taught. Furthermore, it appears that instructional reform in teacher preparation programs including both methods and major's courses can improve secondary school student achievement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 939–957, 2003     

The idea of impact and its implications for academic development work

In the current context of higher education, those working in academic development feel the need to demonstrate the impact that their work makes on achieving desired institutional outcomes. In this paper, we examine the concept of impact, consider the various meanings of impact and review ways that the term has been used rhetorically and conceptually in relation to academic development. We explore our experience of working in an academic development unit (ADU) and what role impact may have played in our motivations and outcomes. Specifically, we document the changes in the focus, format and language of the ADU's annual reports over three years and reflect on what these revealed to us about our approach to academic development work and the idea of impact.

Dans le contexte actuel de l'enseignement supérieur, ceux qui oeuvrent dans le domaine du développement pédagogique ressentent le besoin de démontrer l'impact de leur travail en relation avec les résultats institutionnels escomptés. Dans cet article, nous examinons la notion d'impact, nous étudions ses diverses significations et nous passons en revue les façons avec lesquelles cette notion a été utilisée aux plans rhétorique et conceptuel en lien avec le développement pédagogique. Nous explorons notre expérience de travail au sein d'une unité de développement pédagogique (ADU) et quel rôle l'impact a pu jouer à l'égard de nos motivations et de nos résultats. De façon plus spécifique, nous documentons les changements de focus, de format ou de langage observés dans les rapports annuels de notre ADU sur une période de trois ans et réfléchissons à ce que cela nous a révélé au sujet de notre approche à l'égard du travail de développement pédagogique et de la notion d'impact.     

The relationship between affective response to social comparison and academic performance in high school

The goal of the present study was to study the relationship between affective responses to social comparison and test scores among high school students. Our analyses showed that three types of responses to social comparison could be distinguished: an empathic, constructive, and destructive response. Whereas girls scored higher on empathic response, boys scored higher on destructive response. In addition, students who had a high social comparison orientation (SCO) scored higher on all three types of responses than students who expressed a low SCO. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for previous performance, a destructive response was negatively related to performance on tests for reading comprehension and mathematics. An empathic response was positively related to performance on reading comprehension only whereas a constructive response compensated the negative relationship between destructive response and reading comprehension. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.