scholarly journals The Relationship Between Academic Trait Boredom, Learning Approach and University Achievement

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Hemmings ◽  
Russell Kay ◽  
John G. Sharp

This study explored factors that influence academic achievement and hence, future career prospects. The relationships between the factors, academic trait boredom, approach to learning and academic achievement were examined using data collected from university students at a small English university and from their student records. The initial statistical analysis revealed significant effects of gender on learning approach and two of the three academic trait boredom subscales. Female students proved to be less prone to academic trait boredom than their male counterparts. A model was then developed that showed how a student’s choice of learning approach was influenced by academic trait boredom and impinged on academic achievement. This modelling also confirmed that students who are more prone to academic trait boredom are also more likely to adopt a surface approach to learning rather than a deep or strategic one. The results of this investigation have implications for students, lecturers, course designers and learning support staff both here in this one location as well as elsewhere across the higher education sector.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengdong Gan ◽  
Fulan Liu ◽  
Chi Cheung Ruby Yang

This study examines how prospective EFL teachers conceive of assessment for learning (AfL) practices and how these perceptions relate to their learning approaches. The study evaluated, in three teacher training universities’ in China, 692 prospective EFL teachers’ responses to a self-report instrument regarding assessment for learning practices and students’ learning approach. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between their perceived AfL experience and their tendency to adopt an achieving or deep approach to learning. Results also reveal that a surface approach to learning was negatively correlated to AfL experience, suggesting that in the Chinese university environment, the more AfL features incorporated into the classroom teaching and assessment processes, the less likely students adopt a surface approach to learning. This study also provides evidence of the potential differences in students’ responses to AfL as a result of different institutional environments. Implications of the results for addressing potential barriers to implementation of AfL in the Chinese context are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. p70
Author(s):  
Lewis R. Gale ◽  
Clifford Nowell

The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of amotivation on academic performance and to test whether the impact of motivation on academic performance differs across students from China and the U.S. Using data from Chinese and U.S. students located in their home countries, we find amotivation negatively impacts academic performance of both groups of students. We also show that external motivation is positively associated with academic achievement. While these findings are consistent with results from previous studies, we extend the understanding on the relationship between motivation and academic performance by demonstrating that the magnitude of the detrimental impact of amotivation differs between students in the two countries and that the positive impact of higher levels of external motivation provides similar benefits for both groups of students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuf F. Zakariya ◽  
Simon Goodchild ◽  
Kirsten Bjørkestøl ◽  
Hans K. Nilsen

This study was framed within a quantitative research methodology to develop a concise measure of calculus self-efficacy with high psychometric properties. A survey research design was adopted in which 234 engineering and economics students rated their confidence in solving year-one calculus tasks on a 15-item inventory. The results of a series of exploratory factor analyses using minimum rank factor analysis for factor extraction, oblique promin rotation, and parallel analysis for retaining extracted factors revealed a one-factor solution of the model. The final 13-item inventory was unidimensional with all eigenvalues greater than 0.42, an average communality of 0.74, and a 62.55% variance of the items being accounted for by the latent factor, i.e., calculus self-efficacy. The inventory was found to be reliable with an ordinal coefficient alpha of 0.90. Using Spearman’ rank coefficient, a significant positive correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   0.27 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the deep approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy, and a negative correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   − 0.26 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the surface approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy. These suggest that students who adopt the deep approach to learning are confident in dealing with calculus exam problems while those who adopt the surface approach to learning are less confident in solving calculus exam problems.


2019 ◽  
pp. 146978741986020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bunce ◽  
Melanie Bennett

The marketization of higher education and focus on graduate employability and earnings data has raised questions about how students perceive their roles and responsibilities while studying for their degree. Of particular concern is the extent to which students identify themselves as consumers of their higher education, for example, whether they view their degree as a purchasable commodity to improve future earnings. This is because research has found that a stronger consumer identity is related to lower academic performance. This study examined whether this relation could be explained by the impact of a consumer identity on the extent to which students adopt deep, surface or strategic approaches to learning. The hypotheses were that the relation between consumer identity and academic performance would be mediated by approaches to learning, whereby a consumer identity would be related to adopting a more surface approach, a less deep approach and less strategic approach. Undergraduates completed an online questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they identified as a consumer, their approaches to learning and academic performance. The analysis partly supported the hypotheses: a stronger consumer identity was related to a more surface approach to learning. However, a surface approach to learning did not mediate the relation between consumer identity and academic performance. Conversely, a deep approach to learning mediated the relation between consumer identity and academic performance, whereby a stronger consumer identity was related to lower academic performance through its negative impact on a deep approach to learning. There was no relation between consumer identity and strategic approach to learning. Implications of students identifying themselves as consumers of their higher education are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sonia Bharwani ◽  
Durgamohan Musunuri

Over the years, the education system in India has been following a surface approach to learning which is characterised by lecture-based classroom teaching and rote learning. However, there is a growing clamour for intersection of theory and practice in the field of management education. A shift in focus from a teacher-centric approach to a student-centric, learning-focused approach is required. There are many learning models which enable students to develop their cognitive abilities and to learn from experience. Several of these models are based on the practice of reflection. Reflection as a process is meant to facilitate self-awareness in the context of practice. This research paper aims at understanding the significance of reflection. It also proposes to throw light on the practice of reflection as understood by students and the role of the instructor in creating a learning environment in which reflective learning is facilitated.


Author(s):  
Sonia Bharwani ◽  
Durgamohan Musunuri

Over the years, the education system in India has been following a surface approach to learning that is characterised by lecture-based classroom teaching and rote learning. However, there is a growing clamor for intersection of theory and practice in the field of management education. A shift in focus from a teacher-centric approach to a student-centric, learning-focused approach is required. There are many learning models that enable students to develop their cognitive abilities and to learn from experience. Several of these models are based on the practice of reflection. Reflection as a process is meant to facilitate self-awareness in the context of practice. This chapter aims at understanding the significance of reflection. It also proposes to throw light on the practice of reflection as understood by students and the role of the instructor in creating a learning environment in which reflective learning is facilitated.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åge Diseth

The relationship between personality, approaches to learning, and academic achievement was investigated. Two different undergraduate student samples, totalling 310 students, participated in the study. Results showed the expected significant correlations between the personality factors of openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness, on the one hand, and deep, surface, and strategic approaches to learning, on the other. A significant negative correlation between surface approach and achievement was observed in sample 1. In sample 2, achievement was positively correlated with neuroticism, openness, and deep approach, and negatively correlated with agreeableness. Path analysis showed that each approach to learning was predicted by multiple personality traits, and that academic achievement was predicted by approaches to learning. A separate analysis showed that the relationship between openness and achievement was mediated by a deep approach to learning. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


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