Academic boredom among students in higher education: A mixed-methods exploration of characteristics,contributors and consequences

Academic boredom usually contributes adversely towards student engagement and performance across a diverse range of settings including universities. The formal study of academic boredom in higher education remains, however, a relatively underdeveloped field and one surprisingly neglected in the UK. Rooted in Control-Value Theory, details of a mixed-methods exploration of academic boredom among 235 final year undergraduates attending a single university in England are presented. Quantitative data included measurement using the BPS-UKHE, a revised boredom proneness scale developed for use across the sector. Qualitative data arose primarily from 10 research interviews. Findings indicate that about half of all respondents experienced the most common precursors of academic boredom at least occasionally; traditional lectures with a perceived excess and inappropriate use of PowerPoint stimulating the actual onset of boredom more than other interactive forms of delivery. Coping strategies included daydreaming, texting and turning to social media. Academic boredom also occurred during the completion of assignments used to assess modules. Differences between those more prone to academic boredom than others extended to self-study (fewer hours), attendance (good rather than excellent) and degree outcome (lower marks). Findings are considered valuable empirically and theoretically, leading to recommendations surrounding boredom mitigation which challenge cultural traditions and pedagogical norms.     

Academic boredom,approaches to learning and the final-year degree outcomes of undergraduate students

Academic boredom is a largely negative and disabling achievement-related emotion. In this mixed-methods exploration of 224 students attending a single university in England, academic boredom was found to arise at the point of course delivery, while studying at other times and during the completion of assignments for assessment. Quantitative data from the recently adapted Boredom Proneness Scale for use across the UK higher education sector (the BPS-UKHE) and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), enriched with qualitative data from 10 semi-structured research interviews, indicate that those with a higher propensity towards academic boredom than others displayed the deep, strategic and surface profiles of ‘less effective learners’. This was reflected in their interest in ideas, their ability to organise resources and manage time, what they had to memorise or do to ‘get by’, their achievement motivation and their sense of purpose. As part of a greater evolving network of other contributing factors, this translated into lower final degree marks and fewer ‘good’ degree awards. Recommendations surrounding boredom mitigation and approaches to learning are suggested which warrant serious consideration. The work presented here makes an important contribution to a surprisingly neglected field of UK higher education research and the student engagement agenda.     

大学生参加健身、健美运动的心理效应探因

利用文献资料法，调查访问法对大学生参加健身、健美运动的心理效应进行探讨，从中发现健身、健美运动具有悦体与审美效应、移情与宣泄效应和交往效应。健身、健美运动将会为大学生在追求体形健美、体魄强健的同时，达到心理的最佳效应奠定基础。     

Academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of final year Education Studies students at university

This work explores the relationships between academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of 179 final-year Education Studies students attending a single university in England. Adopting a mixed-methods design, with data collection employing a combination of questionnaires and individual research interviews, findings suggest that all participants exhibited some measurable disposition towards academic boredom, with traditional lectures and work leading to the completion of assignments the main sites and triggers for the actual onset of academic boredom itself. Amid overwhelmingly encouraging responses from course expectations to course demands, reflecting the successful promotion of deep ways of working, as well as a clear sense of satisfaction with their teaching and learning environment overall, cluster analysis reveals the presence of five structurally related groups of students with profiles which help identify those typically more engaged and effective learners from others. Path analysis reveals a series of complex inter-connections, with academic boredom emerging as a strong predictor of surface approaches and organised effort as well as contributing indirectly towards degree outcome as a whole. The implications for boredom mitigation are considered.     

Situational interest helps correct misconceptions: An investigation of conceptual change in university students

Instructional Science - Many learners possess misconceptions regarding instructional content; toward this aim, educational practitioners employ teaching practices that support learners’...     

An investigation on the scientific thinking ability of fourth year university students

This paper reports on a study which examined the ability of a sample of fourth year university students to think scientifically when presented with a range of chemical phenomena. The main data collection instrument was the clinical interview. Each subject was interviewed in-depth for about one hour on a one-to-one basis. Each interview was taped, transcribed verbatim and then analysed. Five familiar chemical reactions ere used as foci for discussion in the interviews. For each reaction, each interviewee was asked, among other things, to make predictions about the overall energy change involved, and to make explanations as to why the change took place, i.e., the driving force for the change. The results show that the majority of the interviewees were using perceptually dominated thinking rather than conceptually dominated thinking; at the same time, they were unable to use science concepts consistently across the five reactions. It can thus be inferred that they were unable to think scientifically. Reasons for the lack of scientific thinking ability are explored and suggestions on alleviation of the problem are offered.     

Relationships between learning approach,procrastination and academic achievement amongst first-year university students

Individual differences in student learning influence academic performance, and two aspects influencing the learning process are the particular learning approach the students use and procrastination behaviour. We examined the relationships between learning approaches, procrastination and academic achievement (measured 1 year later as the grade point average (GPA)) amongst 428 first-year university students. Deep and strategic learning approaches positively predicted GPA, and a mediation analysis showed that the strategic learning approach also partly mediated the effect between deep learning approach and GPA. Less procrastination was associated with a strategic learning approach, but procrastination tendencies did not predict GPA. Recommendations are made for educating new students in cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, helping reduce their procrastination and facilitating the use of deep and strategic learning approaches.     

Massification and the large lecture theatre: from panic to excitement

In this article I examine the role of the contemporary university in light of the mass increase in class sizes that has occurred on an international scale. While we may look nostalgically back to a time when lectures numbered a few hundred students and tutorials had as few as ten, massification at undergraduate level is an inescapable fact of academic life today. I argue that this development is an opportunity and a challenge for lecturers and particularly teacher-researchers, who can and have risen to this challenge to strive for better and more creative teaching practices, without compromising the quality of content or delivery. I outline some of the strategies that I have employed with my first year sociology cohort, which numbers over 1,000 students, and the satisfaction and inspiration that comes from successfully reaching out to such a large student population. In addition, I canvas the positive impacts that derive from including students in the course development process, including to the extent that their input contributes to pedagogical research.     

Acceptance of mobile technologies and M-learning by university students: An empirical investigation in higher education

Education and Information Technologies - Mobile-learning (M-learning) apps have grown in popularity and demand in recent years and have become a typical occurrence in modern educational systems,...     

研究生学术规范教育的调查研究

通过对当前研究生的学术规范教育现状的调查研究,了解到:研究生群体中存在学术不规范的行为,研究生非常缺乏学术规范的知识,研究生的学术规范教育还远远不够。针对这样的情况,高校还需做出更多努力来加强研究生的学术规范教育,从而提高研究生的质量,促进我国学术事业的发展。     

Adaptability,engagement, and degree completion: a longitudinal investigation of university students*

University entry and the passage through university is a time of great change. The extent to which students are able to adjust to successfully navigate this change (adaptability) is likely to influence their academic outcomes. Prior research has identified a link between university students’ adaptability and academic achievement via behavioural engagement. The current longitudinal study extends this research by examining whether university students’ adaptability predicts degree completion via behavioural engagement. Undergraduate students (N = 186) were surveyed for their adaptability and behavioural engagement at degree commencement. Their completion status was extracted from the University Records System at the end of the degree. Findings showed that adaptability predicts both positive and negative behavioural engagement, and that negative (but not positive) behavioural engagement predicts degree completion. Adaptability was also found to influence degree completion indirectly via negative behavioural engagement. These findings hold important theoretical and practical implications for educators and researchers seeking to understand how students manage the transition to university and the extent to, and mechanisms by which students’ adaptability is associated with university degree completion.     

高职学生英语词典使用策略调查研究

采用定量分析的方法,从词典使用观念、显性词典教学、词典使用概况、输入性学习和输出性学习时词典使用等四方面,对高职学生英语词典使用状况进行了调查研究。调查结果表明,高职学生在词典使用中存在着词典使用意识淡漠、过于依赖电子词典、使用频率低下等诸多问题。研究同时发现,成功的英语学习者和不成功的英语学习者在词典使用方面存在许多差异,并提出了有针对性的高职学生词典使用策略培训建议。     

An investigation into the receptivity of undergraduate students to assessment empowerment

Providing empowerment to students with regard to assessment procedures is a potential mechanism for increasing students’ satisfaction with their education programme and environment. The receptivity of students is likely to vary according to several factors, including their confidence in the ability of assessors to adequately judge the quality of their work, their understanding of assessment procedures and the degree of autonomy they feel is appropriate. Their perception of these factors can also be expected to vary according to how advanced they are in their degree programme. This paper presents the results of a pilot study into the receptivity of first‐ and third‐year undergraduate geography students to various mechanisms and concepts associated with assessment empowerment. Some receptivity to empowerment relating to choice of assessment was observed in first‐year students but the greatest receptivity was found in third‐years, at both individual and community empowerment levels. Third‐year students displayed an increased desire for assessment choice, criteria choice and community empowerment, and decreasing confidence in the lecturer as assessor. Based on these initial results, a methodology for incorporating assessment empowerment into undergraduate teaching is outlined.     

China's recruitment of African university students: policy efficacy and unintended outcomes

This article explores how Sino-African relations are affected by the growing number of Africans who pursue higher education in China. China actively recruits African university students in order to increase soft power and generate income from the export of education services. Semi-structured interviews with African university students suggest that China fails to reach these policy objectives because the students are disappointed with the quality of the education they receive. However, the students engage in trade and contribute to the fast-growing export of Chinese products to African markets, thereby reinforcing the ties between China and Africa in unintended ways.     

An output comparison of open university and conventional university students

Previous economic studies of the Open University have concentrated on the cost side; this paper looks at the output of the Open University compared to conventional universities. In 1976 multiple choice questions were included in the two second level economics examination papers (D222 and D282); norming data for these questions had already been generated for thousands of university students from 1970 to 1973 during the course of the Economics Education project. The findings show that OU students score at the same level as first year conventional university students in microeconomics, and score significantly higher than third year CU students in macroeconomics. To check whether the favourable performance of OU students was due to being “test-wise” in multiple choice questions, two essay questions from the 1976 Open University D282 paper were set in a conventional university and a “blind” marking exercise was carried out. The result indicated that OU students performed at least as well as their CU counterparts. Further tests were carried out to check on the effect of students previously having taken OU economics courses and whether OU economics students are representative of all students.     

An investigation into the academic acculturation experiences of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong

Over the past few decades, Mainland China has witnessed a massive outflow of students to higher education institutions in Hong Kong. In the context of an up-surge in Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, this research aims to explore (1) why Mainland Chinese students choose to study in Hong Kong over other higher education systems, (2) perceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of studying in Hong Kong, and (3) challenges in the process of acculturation from their homeland to Hong Kong. Five key themes are identified: education, finance, learning culture, language, and discrimination/labelling. While Mainland Chinese students often struggle to blend into the new environment, most gradually become accustomed to the local way of life. What remains a challenge is (perceived) discrimination following political tensions over the “one China, two systems” framework. This paper identifies the expectations and dissatisfactions of the participants with regard to studying in Hong Kong, ultimately offering higher-education administrators an insight into how to better cater for the expanding share of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong’s universities. This research is significant because it extends the literature by examining acculturation and cultural adaptation issues in an increasingly globalized context.     

Motivation and coping with the stress of assessment: Gender differences in outcomes for university students

The main objectives of the present research were to test a conceptual model linking motivational processes involved in coping with the stress of university assessment, and to examine gender differences in these processes. Self-determined motivation was hypothesized to predict coping strategies and the response to assessment-related stress, and coping was hypothesized to play a considerable role in short- and long-term outcomes of assessment. We examined this model using multiple group path analysis. In Study 1 (N = 265), music students’ use of engagement-coping strategies led to stronger musical career intentions, while disengagement-coping strategies led to weaker intentions. In Study 2 (N = 340), students’ increased use of engagement coping, and decreased use of disengagement coping strategies led to higher grades, higher positive affect and lower negative affect. In both studies, engagement and disengagement-coping were predicted by autonomous and controlled motivation, respectively. Motivation also indirectly predicted academic outcomes through stress appraisal and coping. While women experienced higher levels of stress, men were more negatively affected by the use of disengagement-oriented coping. Gender differences were also found on the links between engagement-oriented coping and outcomes. These results fill an important gap in the literature regarding gender differences in the outcomes coping in education, as well as contributing to a better understanding of the processes linking motivation, coping and academic outcomes.     

Enhancing the transition of commencing students into university: an institution-wide approach

The importance of the first year experience (FYE) to success at university is well documented and supported with the transition into university regarded as crucial. While there is also support for the notion that a successful FYE should have a whole-of-institution focus and models have been proposed, many institutions still face challenges in achieving institution-wide FYE program implementation. This paper discusses the origins, theoretical and empirical bases and structure of an institution-wide approach to the FYE. It uses a case study of the Transitions In Project (TIP) at the Queensland University of Technology to illustrate how institution-wide FYE program implementation can be achieved and sustained. The TIP had four interrelated projects focusing on at-risk students, first year curriculum, learning resources and staff development. The key aim of TIP was to identify good practice and institutionalise it in a sustainable way. The degree of success in achieving this is evaluated.     

Academic self-concept,perceptions of the learning environment,engagement, and learning outcomes of university students: relationships and causal ordering

Higher Education - Two studies were conducted to examine the relationships among university students’ academic self-concept, perceptions of the learning environment, engagement, and learning...