scholarly journals The interplay of personal and contextual diversity during the first year at Higher Education: Combining a quantitative and a qualitative approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-77
Author(s):  
Tobias Jenert ◽  
Taiga Brahm
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
First Year ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Contextual Differences

Research on student transition into Higher Education (HE) has taken different theoretical perspectives. First, studies investigated personal variables such as students´ self-efficacy, emotions and motivation regarding the transition from school to HE. A second strand of research focused on contextual variables, for instance college effectiveness research. With this paper, we combine both the personal and the contextual approach. We aim to investigate the interaction between personal and contextual diversity during the transition into HE, taking into account students’ diversity in particular with regard to gender and individual characteristics, such as self-efficacy. We explored the heterogeneity in students’ personal characteristics by conducting a latent profile analysis (LPA) based on students’ intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy and anxiety before entering Higher Education. LPA resulted in three distinct profiles, with significant differences in how students perceived the first year. This finding suggests that students’ personal characteristics when entering Higher Education influence how they experience the study environment. To investigate the interplay between individual and contextual differences in more detail, we conducted a qualitative longitudinal study with 14 first-year students in parallel with the panel survey. We found that individual students react very differently to specific characteristics and events of the first-year environment. Our study adds to the growing body of research that aims to grasp the complexity of interactions between individual and contextual differences. Specifically, we illustrate how combining quantitative and qualitative methods can provide new insights into person-context interactions.

scholarly journals A latent profile analysis of first-year university students’ academic expectations

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M. Araújo ◽  
Cristiano Mauro Assis Gomes ◽  
Leandro S. Almeida ◽  
Jose Carlos Núñez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Expectations ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
Latent Profile

Academic expectations are an important variable in the explanation of adaptation and academic success in higher education. This paper uses latent profile analysis as a person-centered statistical approach to classify students into groups of similar types of expectations for higher education, at the beginning of the first year in university. Participants were 2,478 first-year Portuguese students. Based on the scores of seven dimensions of expectations, we identified six classes of students. Most students (84%) presented moderate levels of expectations, while 8% and 4%, respectively, reported very high and low expectations. One class represented a group of students (4%) with high expectations for the quality of education and for political engagement and citizenship and lower expectations for social interaction and attending to social pressures. Male and older students showed more positive expectations. Students from privileged family backgrounds are more likely to present higher expectations for political engagement and citizenship experiences, and lower expectations for social interaction and leisure and attending to social pressures. Keywords: latent profile analysis; person-centered; expectations; higher education; first-year students

scholarly journals First-Year Students’ Time Use in College: A Latent Profile Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 958-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Fosnacht ◽  
Alexander C. McCormick ◽  
Rosemarie Lerma
Keyword(s):  
Time Use ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Latent Profile

Using Latent Profile Analysis to Harness the Heterogeneity of Nonretained College Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-473
Author(s):  
Tracey N. Sulak ◽  
Jennifer Massey ◽  
David Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Private Research ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
The University ◽  
Latent Profile

Universities struggle to raise retention rates among first-year students. Traditional analyses have not only focused on large-scale issues and addressed the needs of the majority but also done little to change overall retention numbers. The current study demonstrates the benefit of using a person-centered approach to retention research. Latent profile analysis was used to examine all nonretained, first-year students ( n = 515) from the 2011 cohort at a private, research-intensive university. The larger population of nonretained first-year students appeared to contain several smaller, subpopulations, and these smaller groups differed on key variables collected by the university. The differences in the subpopulations indicate a need for greater specificity in retention programming.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Higher Education: First-Year Students’ Expectations toward Distance Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Cicha ◽  
Mariia Rizun ◽  
Paulina Rutecka ◽  
Artur Strzelecki
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Computer Anxiety ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
E Learning

The article deals with distance education, which as a teaching method had to be suddenly introduced in schools and higher education institutions as a result of the global pandemic situation. The paper captures the second wave of Poland’s pandemic situation in relation to global circumstances and the methods of conducting distance learning used across the globe. The purpose of this study was to investigate first-year students’ expectations about the education shift to distance learning. GETAMEL, which is the adapted General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-Learning, was used in the study. The study analyzed the influence of Experience, Subjective Norms, Enjoyment, Computer Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy on students’ expectations in the context of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. To test the research model presented during the research, The Partial Least Squares method of Structural Equation Modeling was used. An online survey was created to conduct the research, which collected data from 670 Polish first-year undergraduate students. The acquired data were analyzed using the SmartPLS 3 software. The results of the research indicated that the most important factors that influence the feelings of students and can convince them to change from teaching in the classroom to teaching in the distance learning model are the feeling of pleasure in this form of education and a sense of self-efficacy. The results of this study may be of particular interest to education practitioners, including teachers, and a starting point for further research on e-learning models, including, in particular, the understanding of students’ expectations regarding distance learning.

scholarly journals “I Wanted a Profession That Makes a Difference”—An Online Survey of First-Year Students’ Study Choice Motives and Sustainability-Related Attributes

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8273
Author(s):  
Anna Oberrauch ◽  
Helga Mayr ◽  
Ivan Nikitin ◽  
Tanja Bügler ◽  
Thorsten Kosler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
First Year ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Teacher Training Students ◽  
Study Choice

Higher education institutions are obligated to facilitate students in the development of sustainability competencies, which enable them to act as “change agents” in their future profession-specific environment. Therefore, students’ study motives, prior knowledge, attitudes, and experiences regarding sustainability should be considered when designing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes. The present study compares first-year students in teacher training with first-year students in other study programmes and explores their study choice motives as well as sustainability-related conceptions, engagement and self-efficacy beliefs using a semi-standardised online questionnaire. Results show that the choice of study is dominated by intrinsic factors and the relevance of extrinsic factors differs by degree programmes with lower extrinsic values for the teacher training students. Regarding sustainability, we find simple and often unelaborated concepts. Teacher training students show significantly higher scores than non-teacher training students regarding the sustainability-related behavioural domain and self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, a gender gap increasing with age and with lower sustainability scores for older males could be identified but only for teacher training students. In conclusion, the results show valuable starting points as well as challenges that should be considered when designing target-oriented learning processes in (inter)disciplinary sustainability courses at higher education institutions.

Overconfidence of vocational education students when entering higher education

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark P. Bowden ◽  
Subhash Abhayawansa ◽  
John Bahtsevanoglou
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – There is evidence that students who attend Technical and Further Education (TAFE) prior to entering higher education underperform in their first year of study. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of self-efficacy in understanding the performance of students who completed TAFE in the previous year in a first year subject of microeconomics in a dual sector university in Melbourne, Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilises data collected by surveys of 151 students. Findings – A student’s self-efficacy is positively associated with their marks in a first year subject of microeconomics. However, the relationship between final marks and self-efficacy is negative for those students who attended TAFE in the previous year suggesting that they suffer from the problem of overconfidence. When holding self-efficacy constant, using econometric techniques, TAFE attendance is found to be positively related to final marks. Research limitations/implications – The findings are exploratory (based on a small sample) and lead to a need to conduct cross institutional studies. Practical implications – The research points to the need for early interventions so that TAFE students perform well in their first year of higher education. It also points to potential issues in the development of Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) programs. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the inter-related impact of attendance at TAFE in the previous year and self-efficacy on the subsequent academic performance of TAFE students.

Friendship Group Composition and Juvenile Institutional Misconduct

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon E. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Incarcerated Youth ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Friendship Networks ◽  
Institutional Misconduct ◽  
Latent Profile

The present study examines both the patterns of friendship networks and how these network characteristics relate to the risk factors of institutional misconduct for incarcerated youth. Using friendship networks collected from males incarcerated with California’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), latent profile analysis was utilized to create homogeneous groups of friendship patterns based on alter attributes and network structure. The incarcerated youth provided 144 egocentric networks reporting 558 social network relationships. Latent profile analysis identified three network profiles: expected group (67%), new breed group (20%), and model citizen group (13%). The three network profiles were integrated into a multiple group analysis framework to examine the relative influence of individual-level risk factors on their rate of institutional misconduct. The analysis finds variation in predictors of institutional misconduct across profile types. These findings suggest that the close friendships of incarcerated youth are patterned across the individual characteristics of the youth’s friends and that the friendship network can act as a moderator for individual risk factors for institutional misconduct.

A FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ ADAPTATION TO DIFFICULTIES AT HIGH EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
Nailya R. Salikhova ◽  
◽  
Aida R. Fakhrutdinova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Transition To Higher Education ◽  
Study Participants

Data from an empirical study aimed at identifying the difficulties faced by students in their transition to higher education, the overcoming of which is important for personal development, are presented in the article. The study participants (n=179) were asked to describe the difficulties of transition from school to University in the 1st year based on analysis of their autobiographical memory. The content analysis of texts allowed identifying the main themes and compiling a list of challenges, and then the frequency of occurrence of each of them was determined. According to the results, the most actual difficulties are the different aspects of integrating into the new social community due to sharp changes in the social environment during the transition from school to University. A big challenge is the need for self-organization in educational and everyday matters, planning and organizing your time. The third most frequently mentioned is learning difficulties, especially those related to mastering the material in the new educational environment. Problematic areas of adaptation to higher education that have not been previously reflected in the sources are the establishment of a common life in the dormitory, pressure from parents, the manifestation of their individuality, the increase in the length of classes and the pace of learning, romantic relationships and language barriers. The difficulties of the first examination session are much less frequently mentioned, and are more frequently mentioned when examining the current adaptation process. The results of the study can be used for the development and subsequent implementation of a system of practical measures aimed at helping students to adapt to the new environment and conditions. Such assistance to students in building a new way of life at a university, especially at an early stage of study, is necessary not only to improve the effectiveness of the educational process, but also to facilitate the processes of personal growth and development of students

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