Abstract
The current study aimed to analyze the relationships between students’ background variables (students’ academic preparation and sociocultural status), students’ cognitive and behavioral engagement, and an outcome variable (academic achievement). One sample of 380 first-year students who were studying in different scientific areas participated in the study. Students answered a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of their first semester in college. To increase ecological validity, students’ cognitive and behavioral engagement and academic achievement were assessed using a specific curricular subject of the course as a reference. Students’ grades were collected through academic services. Data from both time points were analyzed with a structural equation model (SEM), and data showed a goodness of fit of SEM in both time points. Findings indicate that cognitive and behavioral engagement mediated the relationship between students’ background variables and their academic achievement. The analysis of both SEM allows us to understand that academic achievement at the end of the semester is closely related to what happens at the beginning of the semester (e.g., approach to learning, study time). Thus, promoting students’ engagement at the beginning of the semester should be considered a priority, as the first part of the first semester represents a critical period for students and for their integration in college. Thus, universities should consider improving their mechanisms of collecting information to allow for early identification, support, and monitoring of students at risk of dropping out, showing high level of disengagement and low academic achievement.
Highlights
Educational research has been examining the factors that influence and correlate with college students’ academic achievement and psychosocial development (Winne and Nesbit, 2010; Woitschach et al, 2017; Meens et al, 2018; Willems et al, 2019)
Besides the chi-square (χ2) and its probability associated (p), the information given by Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) and the adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index (AGFI), introduced by Jöreskog and Sörbom (1984); the Comparative Fit index (CFI; Bentler, 1990); the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999); and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), including confidence intervals (Browne and Cudeck, 1993) were used
The hypothesized mediational model has shown a good fit in both time points; some differences have been observed regarding the structural relationships in the model
Summary
Educational research has been examining the factors that influence and correlate with college students’ academic achievement and psychosocial development (Winne and Nesbit, 2010; Woitschach et al, 2017; Meens et al, 2018; Willems et al, 2019). The adoption of a particular approach to learning, either deep or surface one, represents the students’ answer to personal or contextual factors related to specific subjects and to the perceived demands concerning a certain learning task (Rosário et al, 2013a) This responsive dynamic has been related to the student engagement construct as well, which is considered malleable and situational and is influenced by individual and contextual factors (Fredricks et al, 2004; Kahu, 2013). The current study has two major goals as follows: analyze the mediation role of students’ engagement on the relationship between background variables (i.e., academic preparation and sociocultural status) and outcome variables (i.e., academic achievement) and analyze the invariance of the mediational model in the two time points. H5: No statistically significant differences are expected in the mediational model for the two time points (hypothesis of model invariance)
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