Remodeled high school library increases use and improves course performance

Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) have considerable difficulties in adjusting to the requirements of the academic environment. The major risk factors are: cognition deficiency, insufficiently developed adaptive skills, lower levels of self-regulation of behavior, and social and functional incompetence. The goal of this research was to establish the relationship among self-regulation skills, the level of intellectual disability, academic success, and sex in students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. The sample included 131 students with mild and moderate ID, of both sexes, between 8 and 24 years of age. Self-Control Rating Scale (SCRS) was used to assess the level of self-regulation skills. Academic success of students was expressed as the average grade at the end of the school year. A considerable interrelation was found between the level of adoption of self-regulation skills, the level of intellectual development and general academic success in students with ID. Significant influence of the participants' sex on the quality of self-regulation was found only in participants with moderate ID. Female participants had better achievements than male participants.

A Survey of Provosts Indicates that Academic Libraries Should Connect Outcomes to University Goals

Abstract
 
 Objective – This research focuses on First-Time-in-College (FTIC) student library usage during the first academic year as number of visits (frequency) and length of stay (duration) and how that might affect first-term grade point average (GPA) and first-year retention using the generalized propensity score (GPS). We also want to demonstrate that GPS is a proper tool that researchers in libraries can use to make causal inferences about the effects of library usage on student academic success outcomes in observation studies. 
 
 Methods – The sample for this study includes 6,380 FTIC students who matriculated in the fall 2014 and fall 2015 semesters at a large southeastern university. Students’ library usage (frequency and duration), background characteristics, and academic records were collected. The Generalized Propensity Score method was used to estimate the effects of frequency and duration of FTIC library visits. This method minimizes self-selection bias and allows researchers to control for 
 
 demographic, pre-college, and collegiate variables. Four dose-response functions were estimated for each treatment (frequency and duration) and outcome variable (GPA and retention).
 
 Results – The estimated dose-response function plots for first-term GPA and first-year retention rate have similar shapes, which initially decrease to the minimum values then gradually increase as the treatment level increases. Specifically, the estimated average first-term GPA is minimized when the FTIC student only visits the library three times or spends one hour in the library during his/her first semester. The threshold for first-year retention occurs when students visit the library 15 times or spend 21 hours in the library during their first semester. After those thresholds, an increase in students’ library usage is related to an increase in their academic success.
 
 Conclusions – The generalized propensity score method gives the library researcher a scientifically rigorous methodological means to make causal inferences in an observational study (Imai & van Dyk, 2004). Using this methodological approach demonstrates that increasing library usage is likely to increase FTIC students’ first-term GPA and first-year retention rates past a certain threshold of frequency and duration.

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of academic success of South African students. The study focused on 164 first to fourth year students. The extent to which students’ grade 12 performance, the type of high school they attended and their academic self-concepts contributed to their academic success during the entry and integration stages of students’ academic careers were examined. The combination of the three variables predicted a significant amount of the variance in the academic success of students in both the entry and integration stages of their academic careers. While all three variables made a unique and significant individual contribution in the entry stage, only grade 12 performance and academic self-concept explained a significant amount of the variance in the academic success of the students in the integration stage. Academic self-concept explained the largest amount of variance in academic success for both groups.

The article first explores open distance learning (ODL) as a delivery mode for professional teacher development programs in South Africa by comparing the ODL models of selected universities in developing, developed, and newly industrialized contexts. The article then reports on an empirical investigation conducted about the effect of contact class and vacation school attendance on the academic success of students (n=1310) who wrote examination papers (n=4931) for a variety of modules in four purposefully selected Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) programs at the School of Continuing Teacher Education (SCTE) of the North-West University in South Africa. Descriptive statistics show the majority of students did not attend any contact classes or vacation schools, while still performing academically above average. Computing Spearman’s rank-order correlations (r), no practically significant correlations were found between contact class and vacation school attendance and the academic success of students. However, ANOVA analyses reveal that it was beneficial for students to rather attend three contact sessions, than two or no contact sessions.

Researching the Relationship between the Influence of Games on Elementary School Students, Their Gender and Lesson Success Variables and Their Game Preferences.

This study aims to analyze the effect of time management on student academic success, analyze learning motivation on student academic success, analyze procrastination behavior on student academic success, and analyze time management, learning motivation, and procrastination behavior on student academic success. The research unit is student employee class semester III and V FEB PGRI University of Semarang academic year 2020/2021. Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires via google form, with a total of 80 students as respondents. Methods of data analysis using multiple linear regression using SPSS software version 25. The results showed that time management on student academic success had a positive and significant effect. Learning motivation on student academic success shows a negative and insignificant effect. Procrastination behavior on student academic success shows a negative and insignificant effect. Then simultaneously time management, learning motivation, and procrastination behavior on student academic success have a positive and significant effect of 15.6%.)

This study examined the structural relationship between age, grit (i.e., perseverance of effort and consistency of interest), conscientiousness, self-control, and school success of female students at an Open University in Korea. We analyzed 509 students' responses, and it turned out that the level of perseverance of effort was negatively correlated with academic maladjustment. Also, perseverance of effort had a positive indirect effect on grade point average scores. Conscientiousness and self-control were found to be positively correlated with grit factors and they had negative effects on academic maladjustment through perseverance of effort. Age had both direct and indirect effects on grit and academic success of the students.

Maintaining and cultivating student engagement is critical for learning. Understanding factors affecting student engagement can help in designing better courses and improving student retention. The large number of participants in massive open online courses (MOOCs) and data collected from their interactions on the MOOC open up avenues for studying student engagement at scale. In this work, we develop an interpretable statistical relational learning model for understanding student engagement in online courses using a complex combination of behavioral, linguistic, structural, and temporal cues. We show how to abstract student engagement types of active, passive, and disengagement as meaningful latent variables using logical rules in our model connecting student behavioral signals with student success in MOOCs. We demonstrate that the latent formulation for engagement helps in predicting two measures of student success: performance, their final grade in the course, and survival, their continued presence in the course till the end, across seven MOOCs. Furthermore in order to initiate better instructor interventions, we need to be able to predict student success early in the course. We demonstrate that we can predict student success early in the course reliably using the latent model. We also demonstrate the utility of our models in predicting student success in new courses, by training our models on one course and testing on another course. We show that the latent abstractions are helpful in predicting student success and engagement reliably in new MOOCs that have not yet gathered student interaction data. We then perform a closer quantitative analysis of different features derived from student interactions on the MOOC and identify student activities that are good indicators of student success at different points in the course. Through a qualitative analysis of the latent engagement variable values, we demonstrate their utility in understanding students’ engagement levels at various points in the course and movement of students across different types of engagement.

This study investigates the impact of integrative curriculum implementation and character education on the academic success of students in Islamic boarding schools in East Java. Utilizing a quantitative research design, the study gathered data from a sample of 150 students, employing a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 to measure responses. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 25 to determine the relationship between the variables. Findings reveal a significant positive effect of both integrative curriculum and character education on academic performance. Integrative curriculum implementation (r = 0.64, p < 0.01) and character education (r = 0.58, p < 0.01) were both positively correlated with academic success. Multiple regression analysis showed that these variables together explained 52% of the variance in academic success. The results underscore the importance of a holistic educational approach that combines academic and character development to enhance student outcomes. These insights offer valuable implications for educators and policymakers aiming to improve educational strategies in Islamic boarding schools.

The aim of this study is to determine effect of children’s rights education supported by games on academic success of students, permanence of the knowledge learned and their attitudes related to children’s rights. The study was conducted with the participation of a total of 56 students. 27 of these students were within the experimental group while 29 of them were within the control group. Pre-test final-test control group pilot model was used in the research. The researcher prepared a success test as a data collection tool in order to measure academic knowledge of students. “Children’s Right Attitude Scale” developed by Kepenekci (2006) was used to determine attitudes of students towards children’s rights before and after the application. A diary was written after each play played by students within the experimental group in order to obtain qualitative data for the research. Quantitative data obtained were analyzed by t-test according to dependent and independent groups by using SPSS program. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. Statistical results obtained as a result of the research determined that there was not a meaningful difference between the academic success of experimental group students and control group students before pre-test application and their attitudes towards children’s rights. After the final-test application, it was seen that there was a meaningful difference in favour of experimental group between the academic success and attitudes towards children’s rights of the test group and the control group. However, in permanence test performed 30 days after the final-test application, no meaningful difference was observed between final test and permanence test of both groups. When diaries constituting the qualitative part of the research were examined, it was seen that the student had better times, became happy and excited while they were playing. It was also revealed that the students loved the course and the teacher of the course more than they used to do owing to the play.

Comparison of the Impacts of Writing to Learn and Writing to Communicate Activities on Academic Achievement in TESL Classrooms

The main question of the study is “What are the impacts of Writing To Learn (WTL) and Writing To Communicate (WTC) activities on the academic success of the English learning students?”. This study aims to compare the effects of WTL and WTC activities on academic success of students in English lessons. The study was carried out with 59 (27 male, 32 female) ninth grade high school students in 2015-2016 in Turkey. One of the quantitative designs, quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent control group was used in the study. Experimental group had 30 students (16 female, 14 male) and control group had 29 students (16 female, 13 male). Present Perfect Tense Academic Achievement Test (PPTAAT) and Rubrics developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools in the study. Students in the experiment group wrote “WTL letters” and the control group students wrote “WTC letters” for four weeks as in class and homework assignments. There are four hypotheses of the research and analyses were made to prove the correctness of them. All of the hypotheses were corrected based on the results. As a result of the study, it was detected that there is a statistically meaningful difference for the benefit of the experimental group. It can be said that writing WTL letter helps students learn English better than writing WTC letter. Teachers can be recommended to change the way they use writing from WTC to WTL.

Objective: Our study was planned to examine the academic achievement, physical activity, smart phone use and sleep quality of university students. Methods: Young individuals between the ages of 18-25 studying at a vocational school were included in the study. While recording the demographic information of the participants, individuals were classified as "heavy users" and "light users", taking into account the duration of smartphone use during the day. In addition, the physical activity levels of the individuals were evaluated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), the smartphone usage level with the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Form (SAS-SF), and the sleep quality with the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: A total of 424 people, 326 of whom were women, with a mean age of 20.30±1.34 years, participated in the study. It was determined that 70.3% of the participants used smartphones for more than 4 hours a day. It was determined that there was a weak negative correlation between the academic success of the students and their physical activity levels, and that their academic success was not affected by smart phone use and sleep quality. However, it was determined that there was a weak positive correlation between the sleep quality of the students and their smartphone use. It was observed that the physical activity levels of male students were higher, while the academic success and sleep quality of normal education students were better. Conclusion: We think that active life, adequate and conscious smartphone use and quality sleep habits can affect academic success in university students.

WANTED: Predictors of academic success. There is a need to know the degree of relationship between certain factors and "the academic success of students in the theological seminary." No single predictor has been found to be always reliable. The best predictors examined in this study were: undergraduate grade point average, GRE composite scores, and undergraduate major. No significant difference was discovered between the academic success of full-time and part-time students. Evidence points toward the need for further study and for continuation of multiple criteria for admissions committees with emphasis upon undergraduate grade point averages as predictors of academic success. Jamison's (1965:90) study at the Theological Seminary of the University of Dubuque attempted to "determine the degree of relationship, if any, between certain factors and the academic achievement of students of a theological seminary." A multiple criteria approach was recommended. This paper reports a similar study of predictors of academic suc-, cess. These relate to admissions policies stated in the catalog of the Harding Graduate School of Religion.