First-year university students’ academic success: the importance of academic adjustment

Considering the pivotal role of academic adjustment for student success, it is important to gain insight into how several motivational and behavioural factors affect academic adjustment and the extent to which academic adjustment influences student success. This empirical study investigated how intrinsic motivation, academic self-efficacy, self-regulated study behaviour and satisfaction with the chosen degree programme influenced academic adjustment in university and how these variables and adjustment affected three important indicators of student success: grade point average (GPA), attained number of credits (ECTS) and intention to persist. The sample consisted of 243 first-year university students in the Netherlands. Structural equation modelling showed that academic adjustment was influenced by intrinsic motivation, self-regulated study behaviour and degree programme satisfaction, which together explained 72% of the variance in adjustment. Motivational and behavioural variables did not influence GPA and credits directly but through academic adjustment. Furthermore, only satisfaction with the degree programme predicted intention to persist. These results point to the importance of academic adjustment in predicting university GPA and credits and the pivotal role of satisfaction with the degree programme in predicting intention to persist. Universities could integrate the development of self-regulated study skills—the biggest contributor to academic adjustment—in the first-year programme. Moreover, looking at the importance of students’ satisfaction with the programme, communication and collaboration between secondary schools and universities should be enhanced in order to help students to choose a university degree programme that matches their abilities, interests and values.     

Age,gender, ethnicity and the digital divide: university students’ use of web‐based instruction

This paper focuses on the effects of social–structural factors (age, ethnicity and gender) on university students’ use of web‐based instruction. The study uses data from registration questionnaires of students at the Open University of Israel. During the period between 1995 and 2002 there has been a continuous increase in the proportion of students who use the Internet and email for study purposes. However, a significant minority (one‐third of the students) are still not Internet users. Previous studies have referred to the digital divide in terms of differences in access to the relevant hardware and explained it mainly by social and structural factors. Current research tends to focus on the digital divide in terms of use rather than access, and explains it mainly by micro, individual and situational characteristics. The present study shows that structural factors such as age, gender and ethnicity also play a significant role in the continuous existence of the usage gap. The social and educational implications of this gap are discussed.     

The role of perceived autonomy support in predicting university students’ academic success mediated by academic self-efficacy and school engagement

This research analysed relationships between perceived teachers’ autonomy support and academic success, with self-efficacy and school engagement acting as mediators. This was a survey of 870 students from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), with a mean age of 26.99 years (SD = 5.09), 50.6% were men. Factor structure for measures was established. Then a structural equation model based on theoretical considerations was estimated. Final outcomes were grades and subjective well-being. Self-efficacy and school engagement were considered mediators, and the exogenous variable was perceived teacher’s autonomy support. This initial model fitted the data well, but several theoretically driven modifications were made and a final model was established. Teacher’s autonomy has important direct effects on engagement and self-efficacy, and it also was a direct predictor of subjective well-being. Self-efficacy and engagement had direct effects on subjective well-being. Grades were explained by the effects of self-efficacy, cognitive, and emotional engagement. As a conclusion, the main chain of effects hypothesised among the variables fitted the observed data well, and can, therefore, be tentatively supported: self-efficacy and engagement mediate the effects of autonomy support on academic achievement.     

Examining the mediating effect of learning strategies on the relationship between students’ history interest and achievement

Research into the effect of interest consistently indicated that interest positively related to students’ achievement; however, the mechanism through which it affected the learning result remained an open question. This study intended to examine how learning strategies mediated the relationship between interest and achievement in the domain of history learning. Biggs Learning Process Questionnaire, which distinguishes between the surface and deep-level learning strategies, was adopted to describe students’ learning process. Structural equation modelling and the distribution of products test were used to evaluate the mediating effect. Based on available resources, the participants were seventh grade students in China. Analyses revealed that the surface-learning strategy served as a mediator, but the deep-learning strategy did not play the same role.     

Investigating the relationship between students’ attentive–inattentive behaviors in the classroom and their literacy progress: Chapter 1 Introduction: Effects and context

The co-occurrence of inattentiveness and poor literacy achievement is problematic for a significant number of children and adolescents. Such problems are resistant to intervention and constitute substantial management difficulties for parents, educators and health professionals. Due to conceptual and methodological deficiencies endemic to inquiry in this field, findings from prevailing explanatory models are inadequate and misleading. However, the identification of salient contributing factors is difficult for two key reasons. First, indicators of poor literacy achievement and inattentiveness are heterogeneous and overlap. Second, there has been a persistent failure of researchers to fit cross-validated models that adequately reflect the complex inter-relationships that operate among multivariate, multilevel factors affecting child behavior and educational outcomes. The chapter concludes with an acceptance of Hinshaw’s (1992, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 893–903) “challenge,” namely: “The challenge for the field is to derive explanatory models with sufficient rigor and complexity to handle the diversity of causal factors” (p. 151).     

Investigating the relationship between students’ attentive–inattentive behaviors in the classroom and their literacy progress: Chapter 5 Implications of the findings

The findings are discussed in terms of their methodological and substantive implications. This includes evaluations of the methods used to: (1) assess students’ attentive–inattentive behaviors in the classroom, (2) assess their literacy progress, and (3) analyze the data. A critical evaluation of the fitted explanatory models is provided, suggesting that prevailing unidirectional, single-level, explanatory models purporting to “account” for the overlap are inadequate. Two major substantive implications for current and future intervention policies and practices are discussed. First, early success in literacy is vital for students since it has significant positive effects on both their early and subsequent attentive behaviors and achievement hence reducing the need for subsequent behavioral management interventions. Second, since teachers make a difference, the need to provide them with structured approaches to the teaching of early literacy is paramount.     

Japanese university students’ longing for an idealized France and encounters with global English in Europe

Higher Education - Japanese college students’ akogare (meaning “longing”) for an idealized West has conventionally been researched and discussed under the assumption that the West...     

Investigating the relationship between students’ attentive–inattentive behaviors in the classroom and their literacy progress: Chapter 6 Epistemological and methodological issues: A synthesis

An overview of the investigation is provided within the framework of a discussion of epistemological and methodological issues related to the status of claims to knowledge in the field. Future research must confront the inherent complexity and substantive richness of the phenomena being investigated by employing conceptual orientations and investigative methodologies that are commensurate with that complexity. The challenge is to refocus the prevailing psycho-behavioral models accounting for the overlap between inattentive behavior problems and poor academic achievement — together with their related intervention emphases — to educational ones. Indeed, It is the considered view of the authors that the personal, social and financial costs of failure to meet this challenge will be both unsustainable and unbearable.     

Pathway to success: using students’ insights and perspectives to improve retention and success for university students from low socioeconomic (LSE) backgrounds

In an increasingly complex landscape of diversification and massification, universities are grappling with challenges of student attrition. This paper presents findings from a project investigating how students from low socio-economic backgrounds at a regional Australian university perceive challenges and supports associated with retention and success. Twenty-seven students received intensive one-to-one support from a Faculty-embedded ‘academic advisor’, and reflected on this support, their overall student experience, and strategies to enhance student success. Students identified a range of challenges that they experienced across an academic year (personal circumstances, lack of preparedness for university study, timely access to support, course/programme difficulties) and what worked well for them (academic advisor, University support services, growing confidence in self as competent student, peer support). A range of strategies for enhancing student success were identified by students, namely consistency across teaching design and delivery, transparency of delivery modes, mandatory orientation, access to a dedicated academic advisor, and increased peer connectedness. The applicability and viability of the proposed strategies within current higher education settings are explored.     

Writing essays: does self-efficacy matter? The relationship between self-efficacy in reading and in writing and undergraduate students’ performance in essay writing

Self-efficacy beliefs have been identified as associated with students’ academic performance. The present research assessed the relationship between two new self-efficacy scales (self-efficacy in reading [SER] and self-efficacy in writing [SEW]) and students’ writing performance on a piece of assessed written coursework. Using data from first and second year undergraduate psychology students at a UK university (N?=?145), the results showed that both SER and SEW were related to actual writing performance. Overall the results support the importance of the concept of self-efficacy in relation to student performance. We discuss the relevance of self-efficacy on students’ perceptions and self-regulations.     

Understanding student learning in context: relationships between university students’ social identity,approaches to learning,and academic performance

This research focuses on understanding how socio-psychological dimensions such as student social identity and student perceptions of their learning community affect learning at university. To do this, it integrates ideas from phenomenographic research into student learning with ideas from research on social identity. In two studies (N = 110, and N = 97) the relationships between student social identity, perceptions of the learning community, approaches to learning, and academic performance were explored. Our findings suggest that a strong student social identity is associated with a deep approach to learning, which in turn is linked to higher academic performance. Also, perceptions of learning community mediate the relationship between student social identity and deep approaches to learning. Significantly, a surface approach turns out not to be associated with student social identity or perceptions of the learning community, but it is negatively related to academic performance. Our research argues for the value of an integration of complementary frameworks, emphasising social and psychological aspects of the learning experience that can be used to improve our understanding of how and why students vary in the quality of their learning.     

Providing transparency and credibility: the selection of international students for Australian universities. An examination of the relationship between scores in the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT), final year academic programs and an Australian university’s foundation program

Throughout 2003–04 five cohorts of students in their final year of school studies in various Malaysian colleges and a group of students completing an Australian university foundation year in Malaysia sat the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT). The ISAT is a multiple‐choice test of general academic abilities developed for students whose first language is not English. Both sets of scores were examined to investigate the relationship between skills measured by the academic programs and the generic reasoning skills measured by the ISAT. The data were examined by looking at correlations and patterns of the ISAT scores, and the total academic program scores and individual subject scores. As well, multiple regression was used to examine if the ISAT could act as a predictor for academic program scores. Although the ISAT and measures of achievement in the academic programs are two completely different instruments, the study showed that: (i) the scores were positively and significantly correlated; (ii) patterns of co‐variation of the ISAT and academic program scores demonstrate a positive relationship; and (iii) there is evidence that achieving a high score in the academic programs requires high reasoning skills, as measured by the ISAT. The findings of this study indicate that the ISAT is a useful predictor of student ability for use in the university selection process for international applicants.     

The relationship between engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences

While there has been a good deal of discussion about the scholarship of teaching and learning, and models have been developed to understand its scope, the effects on students’ learning of academics engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning are unclear. In the context of initiatives to develop the scholarship of teaching and learning in a large research‐intensive university in Australia, this paper discusses the relationship between faculty performance on a set of scholarly accomplishments in relation to teaching and learning from 2002 to 2004, and changes in students’ course experiences from 2001 to 2005. The paper provides evidence of the relationship between the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences and demonstrates the effectiveness of institutional strategies to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning.     

Exploring the relationship between students’ learning styles and learning outcome in engineering laboratory education

Abstract

It is a commonly accepted notion that people take different approaches in learning. Although attention has been given to learning styles as one of the determinants of learning performance, there is are limitations to the inferential approach to understanding the impact of learning styles on learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of learning preference on student learning outcome in engineering labs. The findings of this paper contribute to the existing literature in two ways. This study describes the typology of participants’ learning styles, confirming some results from similar research. Additionally, it examines the impact of learning styles, using the Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic (VARK) inventory as indicators of students’ learning outcomes, and how the findings confirm or contradict prior research results in important ways. Further, this study includes demographic information to investigate the influence on learning outcome. Discussions of the results from both analyses will contribute to an academic understanding of the critical success factors of the learning process and their practical application in laboratory learning.     

Academics’ perceptions of what it means to be both a parent and an academic: perspectives from an English university

Higher Education - This article explores male and female academics’ perceptions of what it means to be both a parent and an academic and the relations between them. Based on an Interpretative...