Personality traits, teamwork competencies and academic performance among first-year engineering students

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuok Ho Daniel Tang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

PurposeIt is commonly believed that personality traits determine a person's ability to work in a team and academic performance. However, studies have shown inconsistent results with some personality traits better than the other in predicting students' performance in different academic majors. The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelation between personality traits, teamwork competencies and academic performance among first-year first semester engineering students in an Australian university located in the Sarawak state of Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThe Individual and Team Performance (ITP) metrics were administered among 189 students to gauge their personality traits as well as self-rated and peer-rated teamwork competencies. The correlations between personality traits and teamwork competencies as well as correlations of both the variables to academic performance were subsequently analyzed.FindingsThis study shows no significant difference between the self-rated and peer-rated teamwork competencies. Adventurous trait appears to negatively correlate with teamwork competencies. This study also reveals teamwork competencies as better predictors of academic performance than personality traits. Commitment and focus show relatively larger effect on academic performance. It can be concluded that commitment is the most significant factor to excel in first-year engineering in the university. Therefore, interventions that promote commitment is crucial to academic performance of the first-year first semester engineering students.Practical implicationsThis study promulgates the development of team competencies which are more crucial to academic excellence than personalities. It is useful for the design of team learning activities which lead to the development of teamwork competencies while improving academic performance. It shows that team activities which reinforce commitment especially and focus secondarily, will have significant positive effect on academic performance of the first-year engineering students generally.Originality/valueWhile most studies in this area examine the correlation between personality traits and academic performance, this study is among the very few that looks into the aspect of teamwork competencies. This study also finds its value in its regional significance as such correlational studies are not prevalent in Malaysia.

scholarly journals First semester academic performance: The importance of early indicators of non-engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Van der Meer ◽  
Stephen Scott ◽  
Keryn Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Retention Strategy ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
The University

Success, progression and retention of students are goals of many university strategic directions and policies. For many decades it has been recognised that the greatest focus in any retention strategy should be on first-year students. University of Otago too has goals around student success. The Strategic Plan of the institution also identified that in the context of a fiscally constrained environment, all of our activities and processes need to be assessed for efficiency and effectiveness.  To this end, a pilot was undertaken in one area of the university to identify possible indicators of first-year students’ non-engagement in the first semester and their possible impact on the first semester academic performance. The findings suggest that there are indeed some indicators that predict Grade Point Average at the end of the first semester.

scholarly journals Predicting Undergraduate Level Students’ Performance Using Regression

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139
Author(s):  
S Akuma ◽  
H Abakpa
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
University Environment ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Cumulative Grade Point Average ◽  
Moderating Factors ◽  
The University

Students’ academic performance in the university environment changes from one academic year to another as they climb up the ladder of their academic programme. Predicting students’ academic performance in higher educational institutions is challenging due to the lack of a central database of students’ performance records. The other challenge is the lack of standard methods for predicting students’ performance and other moderating factors like physical, economic and health that affect students’ progress. In this work, we predicted students’ performance based on previous academic results. A model to predict students’ performance based on their Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) was developed using Linear Regression Algorithm. A dataset of 70 undergraduate students studying Computer Science was analyzed and the results show that the model was able to predict the 4th year CGPA of the Students using the previous Cumulative Grade Point of the past three years with an accuracy of 87.84%, and a correlation of 0.9338. This study also identified students’ second semester CGPA in the first year and their first semester CGPA in the second year as the most important CGPAs that affect the accuracy

scholarly journals Mathematical Skills and the Academic Performance of Junior and Senior Electrical Engineering Students of the University of Eastern Philippines

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Kenneth Bryan F. Abaigar ◽  
Benjamin D. Varela
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
Mathematical Skills ◽  
The Third ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Final Grades ◽  
The University

The study was conducted to determine the mathematical skills and the academic performance of the junior and senior electrical engineering students of the University of Eastern Philippines. Descriptive-correlational method of research was used with a total enumeration of the regular students from third year to fifth year electrical engineering students.     The findings revealed that male students dominated all the three year levels of the electrical engineering course. It was also found out that there were more regular fifth year engineering students than the third year and fourth year students. Meanwhile, the third year students got the highest average rating in the final grades of first year and second year mathematics and the lowest average rating belonged to the fifth year students. The learning style of the three-year levels was found to be visual while in terms of study habits, the third year students have very good study habit. It was also found out that the level of mathematical skills of the three-year levels were low, but the level of academic performance of the three-year levels were found out to be good. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship of the student profile and their mathematical skills. The results showed that the average of final grades in all first-year mathematics, and the students’ year level have significant relationship with the mathematical skills of the students. Meanwhile, the profile variables found to be significantly related to academic performance were the average of final grades in first year mathematics, average of final grades in second year mathematics and study habits of the students’ respondents. Lastly, the mathematical skills had no significant relationship to the academic performance of the student-respondents.

scholarly journals ENGINEERING STUDENTS AND THE LIBRARY - FORGING THAT CRITICAL FIRST LINK

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin M. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
First Year ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Library Support ◽  
The University ◽  
Incoming Students ◽  
Experience Difficulty

Engineering librarians occasionally experience difficulty getting an initial “in,” that all-important first connection with engineering students and faculty. In part, that may be because many do not have engineering degrees themselves. That said, a fundamental question arises- where and how can they make that initial contact? Equally important, how can the goals of the engineering faculty and the Library support one another? Engineering schools usually have a first year course intended to introduce broad aspects of the profession, and to show that Engineering does not exist in isolation. Rather, it interacts with and impacts upon society in a multitude of ways. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board mandates those same goals, and also requires that students learn to communicate adequately, both orally and in writing, and work effectively as part of a project team. The University of Regina Faculty of Engineering uses two first year classes to begin this process. It is at that point, in the first semester, that a connection between incoming students and the Library starts to be forged.

University Entry Scores as a Predictor of Academic Performance in a Health Information Management Program

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Magennis ◽  
Jennifer Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Health Information Management ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The University

The university entry scores for school leavers admitted to the first year of the Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Information Management) degree at the University of Sydney in 1996 were examined to determine whether the Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) was a good predictor of academic performance, as measured by grade point average (GPA). The study also examined Higher School Certificate (HSC) results in English and mathematics, and preference selection for the health information management (HIM) course to determine whether any of these had predictive validity. The results showed that TER, HSC English and mathematics scores and preference for the course were all poor predictors of academic performance in the student's first year. Low TER was not associated with low GPA and low scores in English and mathematics were not associated with low GPA. There was no significant difference between the performance of those students who listed the HIM course as their first preference and those who did not. These results suggest that there may be no need to establish a minimum entry level for admission to the HIM course, or for prerequisites in English and mathematics. It may be that multiple criteria are required to predict academic success in this course.

scholarly journals An Academic Performance Indicator Using Flexible Multi-Criteria Methods

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 2396
Author(s):  
Olga Blasco-Blasco ◽  
Marina Liern-García ◽  
Aarón López-García ◽  
Sandra E. Parada-Rico
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
R Programming Language ◽  
Recent Method ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Support Policy ◽  
R Programming ◽  
The University

Composite indicators are a very useful tool for conveying summary information on the overall performance of institutions and facilitating decision-making. Increasingly, there is a demand for indicators that allow performance to be assessed after the implementation of a strategy. This has several difficulties, and in this paper, we address three of them: how to evaluate at different points in time, how to estimate the weighting of the criteria and how to normalize the data. Our proposal is based on multicriteria techniques, using a recent method, uwTOPSIS, and is applied to data collected from 2975 students enrolled in the first year of science and engineering at the Industrial University of Santander (Colombia) from the first semester of 2016 to the first semester of 2019. In the paper, we show that our proposal makes it possible to measure and evaluate the academic performance of students at two points in time, and this allows the University to know whether its student support policy has been successful and to what degree it has been effective. Due to the large amount of data handled, data management has been done using R programming language, and model implementation has been done with Python.

scholarly journals Determinants of Student Persistence in Completing BS Agriculture Degrees in the University of the Philippines

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-114
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Ortega-Dela Cruz ◽  
Maria Ana T. Quimbo
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Related Factor ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Agriculture Students ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
National University ◽  
Faculty And Administrators ◽  
The University

The study used descriptive research design to identify factors that explain persistence of BS Agriculture (BSA) students in the University of the Philippines Los Baños during their first year of college as they moved on to the next year level towards degree completion. In addition to selfadministered questionnaire, Key Informant interviews were also conducted. Findings reveal that institution-related factor particularly the institution’s commitment to academic excellence constitutes most to the experiences of agriculture students. Analysis of Variance reveals a significant difference in the persistence of BS Agriculture students across year levels. The results of the study point out that, as per responses of the students as well as the faculty and administrators interviewed, the University has not gone far enough to ensure that BSA students are supported in an efficient manner. The University of the Philippines, being the National University has much opportunity to make positive changes in persistence of these special populations of agriculture students. Thus, it needs to take steps toward making more of a commitment to student success.

Engineering for good: A case of community driven engineering innovation

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chinweike Eseonu ◽  
Martin A Cortes
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Technology Innovation ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
First Year ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
Social Consideration

There is a culture of disengagement from social consideration in engineering disciplines. This means that first year engineering students, who arrive planning to change the world through engineering, lose this passion as they progress through the engineering curriculum. The community driven technology innovation and investment program described in this paper is an attempt to reverse this trend by fusing community engagement with the normal engineering design process. This approach differs from existing project or trip based approaches – outreach – because the focus is on local communities with which the university team forms a long-term partnership through weekly in-person meetings and community driven problem statements – engagement.

Correlating entrance data and first year academic performance of students enrolled in the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Porto

2021 ◽  
pp. 030641902110156
Author(s):  
TMGP Duarte ◽  
AM Lopes ◽  
LFM da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
First Year ◽  
Female Type ◽  
The University ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Over Time

Understanding how the academic performance of first year undergraduate students is influenced by home, personal and institutional factors is fundamental to delineate policies able to mitigate failure. This paper investigates possible correlations between the academic performance of students at the end of high school with their achievements at the end of first year university. Data for students in the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering (MIEM) program within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto are analysed for the period 2016/2017 to 2019/2020. The students’ performance is measured by two metrics and the students are structured as a whole and by groups, according to their gender (Male/Female), type of secondary school (Public/Private), living place (Away/Home) and the rank of MIEM in their application list of options (Option 1/Option 2–6). The information is organized statistically and possible correlations between the data are investigated. The analysis reveals limited correlation between the two metrics, meaning that all students may exhibit good or poor results at the end of first year in MIEM, independent of their status at entrance. An unanticipated pattern is exhibited for the group Option 2–6, since it shows that, despite entering into MIEM without top application marks, the students in this group can perform as well as the others. This behavior is consistent over time.

First-Year Engineering Students’ Conceptualization of Entrepreneurial Mindset

2021 ◽  
pp. 251512742110292
Author(s):  
Darby R. Riley ◽  
Hayley M. Shuster ◽  
Courtney A. LeMasney ◽  
Carla E. Silvestri ◽  
Kaitlin E. Mallouk
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
College Student ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Multidisciplinary Design ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Semester ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Reflection Prompts

This study was conducted to examine how first-year engineering students conceptualize the Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) and how that conceptualization changes over the course of their first semester of college, using the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)’s 3Cs as a starting point. Students enrolled in an introductory, multidisciplinary design course responded to biweekly reflection prompts on their educational experiences (either in high school or as a first-year college student) and related this experience to one of the 3Cs of EM: Curiosity, Connections, or Creating Value. Results indicate that students’ conceptualization of the 3Cs often align with definitions of EM from KEEN, as well as foundational works in the entrepreneurship field, and that their interpretation of each of the 3Cs does change during their first semester in college. For instance, students were less likely to write about curiosity and more likely to write about creating value at the end of the semester compared to the beginning.

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