Academic Struggle Research Articles

Academic Struggle: A Case Study of Undergraduate First Year Medical Students

Academic struggle is a concern for students, medical schools, and the society. As academic struggle is not idiopathic and instantaneous, qualitative research could provide an in-depth understanding on why it occurs. This qualitative research aimed to explore reasons of failure among Malaysian Year 1 struggling medical students through the lens of Theories of Action. This study adopted a single, embedded case design. Six medical students repeating their Year 1 studies performed a written reflection describing their experiences and behaviours during Year 1. Then, semistructured interviews were conducted with each student, and data were analysed by two researchers. Independent analysis was compared, and discrepancies were resolved through discussions between the researchers. Each student narrative demonstrated difference in behaviours and experiences. Students showed limited learning engagement or demonstrated ineffective learning methods. Narratives indicated various reasons such as being overconfident or unmotivated to study for these behaviours. However, interpreting based on Theories of Action, the students’ failures could be explained by three types of invalid governing variables found in the data. Students may have performed their actions based on inadequate knowledge, possessing misbeliefs, or demonstrating no rationales at all. Invalid governing variables may have led to ineffective actions, and subsequently, resulting in unintended consequences. Hence, all students failed the mid-year and/or end-year assessments. Struggling students lacked the valid governing variables in rationalising their actions. Based on the Theories of Action, to deeply assess and alter their governing variables, struggling students are recommended to perform double loop learning.

Exploring Parental Pressure on Academic Performance among Adolescents

Adolescents experience many issues during development phases, such as career, academic struggle, mental health, and social skills. In addition, other aspects can impact the outcome of adolescents, such as parents, family, friends, and environment. Parenting style is one of the significant factors influencing adolescent academic performance. Therefore, how parents treat their children will determine their academic performance. This study aims to explore the parental pressure on academic achievement among adolescents. This study employed qualitative research through an in-depth interview. The instrument has three sections, each containing five questions in the protocol document to guide the data gathering. Next, purposeful sampling was utilized to recruit participants who could provide in-depth and detailed information about the phenomenon. Findings demonstrate that a supportive parenting style will improve adolescents' academic achievement. On the other hand, the authoritarian parenting style often puts high expectations on their children's academic achievement, which eventually causes stress for them. Therefore, parental involvement remains essential for positive youth development, especially in education, and should be more flexible in raising their children. Hence, parents must be aware of their children's academic or practical abilities. This will help students be more successful in their life because they do something they are interested in.

Mendelian randomization found no causal relationship between omega-6 fatty acids and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is usually known as a hyperkinetic syndrome. It is also one of the primary reasons for academic struggle in children, and the most prevalent behavioral disorder especially in young people. Arachidonic acid (ARA), which is found in high concentrations in the brain, is formed in large part from gamma-linolenic acid (GLE). Mendelian randomization (MR) is an advanced method for overcoming the drawbacks of observational studies and using human genetics to guide prevention strategies for ADHD. This study aims to examine the therapeutic effect between omega-6 fatty acids and ADHD by means of a two-sample MR design.

How Students Experience Faculty Responses to Academic Struggle

Despite large investments of human and financial resources in college student success, the 6-year graduation rate for US public universities remains at approximately 60% (NCES, 2018). In an effort to understand faculty roles in mitigating and exacerbating student learning, we interviewed 50 students from two public universities in the US Mid-west about their experiences of academic struggle. Faculty behaviors that students identified as helping them persevere through academic struggle included patience with questions, approachability, and the ability to convey knowledge in multiple ways. We present implications for creating the conditions that increase professors' ability to help students.

Growth Mindset Intervention Improves Performance of Highly Nontraditional Introductory Psychology Students at a Community College

Background Research suggests growth mindset interventions can support student achievement, particularly among students at risk of academic struggle, but it remains underspecified which at-risk populations will benefit from such interventions. Objectives This study aimed to experimentally evaluate whether highly (vs. moderately or minimally) nontraditional community college students would benefit from a growth mindset intervention and whether their performance differed at baseline and after the intervention. Method A sample of 155 students in introductory psychology at a 2-year community college was randomly assigned to complete a growth mindset or control intervention, and all participants completed an extensive background survey. Results Results showed improved exam performance among highly nontraditional students in the mindset (vs. control) condition but no benefit among other students. Highly nontraditional students showed similar pre-intervention performance to peers, but their exam scores declined more over the semester than did control peers. Conclusion Growth mindset interventions may offer a low-cost strategy for supporting nontraditional community college students at risk of a downward performance trajectory. Teaching Implications Instructors can use easily administered mindset interventions to support at-risk students’ academic performance. They may also wish to evaluate the performance-related messages they convey to students and work to create a growth-oriented classroom environment.

William Nordhaus: A disputable nobel? externalities, climate change, and governmental action

In 2018 William Nordhaus was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to the macroeconomics of climate change. Nevertheless, Nordhaus since the early 1970s was engaged in an academic struggle to contrast the major supporters of The Limits to Growth. Later, though acknowledging some impact of climate change on economic activity and suggesting taxes on greenhouse emissions, he systematically opposed pessimistic views concerning global warming; thus putting off governmental action. The aim of this paper is to enquire into the Nordhaus’s contributions to the economics of climate change, and their impact on academic and public debates.

70 Identifying factors that play a significant role in the animal science transfer student experience

Abstract Transfer students make up 16.5% of the undergraduate population in the Animal Science (ANS) major, and transfer enrollment is on the rise. Transfers often face challenges that are different from their direct-from-high-school peers. The objective of this study was to determine the factors that affected the transfer transition from a previous institution to the ANS department. Based on focus group (n=6) feedback, a survey instrument was developed and piloted. Using pilot data, a factor analysis was performed and the instrument was tested for reliability. Once validated, the instrument was used to collect data from first semester ANS transfer students (n=47). No incentives were offered, and participation was voluntary. Between-factor Pearson correlations were estimated, and responses to scale questions were tallied. Significant negative correlations were observed between social integration and risk of attrition (r=-0.53, p< 0.01), and between social integration and academic struggle (r=-0.48, p< 0.01). Social integration was positively correlated with overall satisfaction within the ANS department (r=0.638, p< 0.01). Students who felt socially integrated were more confident academically, more comfortable at ISU, and were less likely to leave. Students had a positive view of the ANS department if they were involved in clubs and student organizations (r=0.42, p< 0.05). Transfers who were satisfied with instructor interactions tended to be more content with the overall transfer process (r=0.44, p< 0.01). Approximately 72% of respondents felt that paying for school created a lot stress in their life, but 52% felt satisfied with the financial assistance they received. Only half of the respondents reported that the pre-registration orientation helped prepare them for transfer to ISU, but 95.9% of ANS transfers reported that they understood the requirements for graduation. These data will inform policy and procedures related to transfer student onboarding and the promotion of social interactions with peers.

The Contribution of Bilingualism, Parental Education, and School Characteristics to Performance on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals: Fourth Edition, Swedish.

Assessment of bilingual children in only one language fails to acknowledge their distributed linguistic competence and has been shown to overidentify language disorder in bilingual populations. However, other factors, sometimes associated with bilingualism, may also contribute to low results in language assessments. Our aim was to examine the impact of these factors on language abilities. We used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – Fourth Edition, Swedish (CELF-4) to investigate core language abilities of 224 7- to 8-year-old children. Results showed 30 and 80% of monolinguals and bilinguals, respectively, performing more than 1 SD below the normative sample mean, calling into question the clinical utility of the test. However, participant and school characteristics provided a deeper understanding of the skewed results. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38% of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores. With level of parental education entered the variance explained by the model increased to 52%, but the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 20%. Finally, with information added on school characteristics and enrollment in the school’s recreation center the model explained an additional two percent, with the unique contribution of bilingualism further reduced to 9%. The results indicate an increased risk for low results on the CELF-4 Core when children present with multiple risk factors. This highlights the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment of bilingual children and adolescents and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Available interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual’s development.

Mike by Andrew Norriss

Reviewed by: Mike by Andrew Norriss Elizabeth Bush Norriss, Andrew Mike. Fickling/Scholastic, 2019 [240p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-338-28536-9 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-338-28538-3 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-10 More of a distraction than a threat, Mike shows up from time to time at rising young tennis star Floyd Beresford’s practices and games, and when Floyd asks him to leave, Mike does—at least until the day he walks right beside the umpire’s chair during a match and Floyd asks that the game be stopped and the intruder removed. Only then does Floyd realize he’s the only one who can see Mike. A psychiatrist helps Floyd get to the bottom of why this projection is suddenly shutting down his game: Floyd really doesn’t want tennis to become his life. To placate his baffled parents, Floyd secures Mike’s agreement that he’ll play one last match, in which he [End Page 215] pretty much destroys his arrogant competitor. He then sets himself a new life course, a long-sublimated interest in marine biology, and then takes the slow but steady steps toward adulthood and a rewarding career. There are no bad guys here—no overwrought parents or quack shrinks, and even the vanquished tennis foe turns out to be okay—and Norriss treats the Mike phenomenon not as a pathology but as a very sane response to self-imposed pressure, a voice to be trusted. There’s a refreshing lack of angst here, yet Floyd’s got a grippingly rocky path ahead, filled with low-wage part-time work, academic struggle, swallowed pride, and continual concern over whether he has, or ever will, see the last of Mike. Nicely balanced between psychological dramedy and feel-good wish fulfillment, this British import is a congenial teen quick pick. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Supporting Students with Histories of Trauma in Libraries: A Collaboration of Accessibility and Library Services

This paper explores methods for building relevant, accessible academic services in the context of a liberal arts college with a growing population of students with psychological disabilities. This work is situated in a learning commons, where academic-support programs, including accessibility services and library services, work collaboratively with a shared goal of getting students to access support earlier and more often in their college careers. The college is home to many students who identify as holding marginalized identities, including those who are LGBTQ+, disabled, students of color, and/or international students, and are thus particularly susceptible to discrimination (Roberts et al. 2010; Seng et al. 2012; Ellis, n.d.; Harrell 2017; Coulter and Rankin 2017; Polaris, n.d.; Proctor, Semega, and Kollar 2016). In consultations with staff, students often name past academic experience as an underlying cause for academic struggle. Exploring this connection, staff observed that histories of trauma and marginalization can make it difficult for students to trust staff and have positive academic experiences. Through action research, the authors developed methods to better support students, including those with histories of trauma. The authors share their methods and suggestions to support readers interested in bringing this work into their communities.

Positioning Readers in One-on-One Conferences

Over the last few decades, scholars have conceptualized academic struggle, including learning disabilities, as socially constructed. When students, especially students of color, are constructed as struggling with school-based literacy, they can experience a variety of negative outcomes including higher dropout rates. In an attempt to unpack how academic struggle was constructed and deconstructed for two fifth-grade readers of color, we conducted a micoanalysis of the interactions between these readers and their teacher in one-on-one reading conferences. We examine how positions of struggle were (de)constructed, and findings suggest that the interactional key of the conferences, which was set by the teacher, seemed to contribute to how the students were positioned as readers within the conferring space.

Recognizing Psychiatric Comorbidity With Reading Disorders.

Reading disorder (RD), a specific learning disorder (SLD) of reading that includes impairment in word reading, reading fluency, and/or reading comprehension, is common in the general population but often is not comprehensively understood or assessed in mental health settings. In education settings, comorbid mental and associated disorders may be inadequately integrated into intervention plans. Assessment and intervention for RD may be delayed or absent in children with frequently co-occurring mental disorders not fully responding to treatment in both school and mental health settings. To address this oversight, this review summarizes current knowledge regarding RDs and common comorbid or co-occurring disorders that are important for mental health and school settings. We chose to highlight RD because it is the most common SLD, and connections to other often comorbid disorders have been more thoroughly described in the literature. Much of the literature we describe is on decoding-based RD (or developmental dyslexia) as it is the most common form of RD. In addition to risk for academic struggle and social, emotional, and behavioral problems, those with RD often show early evidence of combined or intertwined Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition childhood disorders. These include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and other SLDs. The present review highlights issues and areas of controversy within these comorbidities, as well as directions for future research. An interdisciplinary, integrated approach between mental health professionals and educators can lead to comprehensive and targeted treatments encompassing both academic and mental health interventions. Such targeted treatments may contribute to improved educational and health-related outcomes in vulnerable youth. While there is a growing research literature on this association, more studies are needed of when to intervene and of the early and long-term benefits of comprehensive intervention.

Queer People Who Enter ‘Straight’ Marriages: The Academic Community's Struggle to Understand an Anomalous Choice

ABSTRACTSince the early 1970s, the academic community has shown a good deal of interest in the motives of people who are sexually and romantically attracted to persons of their own gender but marry other-gendered partners. Despite more than 60 scholarly papers on the question over the past four decades, however, the current academic conversation has moved little since the early 1970s. The authors analyzed 66 scholarly works published between 1969 and 2012 that discussed gay- and bi-identified people's reasons for entering mixed-orientation marriages (marriage between a man and a woman, when one does and the other does not identify as heterosexual). Although the empirical literature consistently supports the importance of love for the other-gendered spouse, most authors have minimized this motive and emphasized the importance of negative motives related to the costs of being identified as gay (e.g., to hide, deny, or cure one's nonstraight sexual orientation). The authors argue that this distortion of the data stems from scholars’ unquestioned assumption of dominant cultural scripts regarding desire, love, and marriage. An essentialist understanding of sexual orientation, joined with a romantic view of marriage and a dyadic/monogamist view of romantic love, have rendered the frequently reported love of the queer spouse for the other-sexed partner problematical and ‘anomalous.’ The authors examine some of the strategies that have been used to minimize discrepant data and suggest alternate strategies to facilitate open academic inquiry into sexual phenomena that are ‘anomalous’ from the perspective of dominant cultural paradigms.

Is It Time to Decrease Preprofessional Pharmacy Requirements?

Is It Time to Decrease Preprofessional Pharmacy Requirements?

ICT enabled education and ICT driven e-learning strategies: Benefits and setbacks in Nigeria education system

Education is perceived here as schooling as well as the processes involved in gaining new knowledge, skills and attitude for the positive development of the beneficiary and that of the society. The use of technology that enables communication and the electronic capture, processing and transmission of information in education is an innovation that many nations across the globe struggle to achieve. This paper centres on ICT enabled education and ICT driven e-learning strategies: benefits and setbacks in Nigeria education system. It is in fact among the academic struggle to bring to the lime-light, the knowledge of ICT to scholars especially in the domain of education. The paper captured interesting discussion on the concept of information and communication technology including the various approaches in ICT enabled education. To further extend the knowledge of the audience, ICT driven teaching and learning strategies and the benefits of ICT applications in education were also covered. Specifically, ICT benefits to students and parents as well as setbacks of ICT use in education were explicitly highlighted. The paper concludes that the use of ICT in education is gradually taking shape in some tertiary institutions in Nigeria. On the other hand, ICT use is sparingly observed in the secondary and primary schools. The paper recommends amongst other measures that the federal republic of Nigeria should come up with strong policy on ICT use in the education system.

Subculture Theory: An Historical and Contemporary Assessment of the Concept for Understanding Deviance

Subcultures attract attention in culture, society, and the media because they have been theorized as not merely distinct from, but also in opposition to, the dominant culture. In the United States and the United Kingdom the concept of subculture has been a major explanatory tool for sociology and criminology to understand deviant behavior. For nearly a hundred years the concept has been at the center of academic struggle for superiority between rival paradigmatic approaches, which have employed different theoretical explanations. In this article I critically assess the origins and politics of the way the concept of subculture has been applied primarily to youth cultures in terms of the relationship between agency and constraint.

A Review of Historical Research on the Chosǒn Period and its Relation to Korean History Education

This study analyzes the trends and results of historical research on the Chos?n Period and its application to secondary school Korean history education.BR After the liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, Korean historians began an academic struggle to substantiate and theorize the history of Chos?n, whose image was studded with heteronomy, partisanship, and stagflation - namely the colonial view of history - by the works of Japanese governmental scholars. Strenuous efforts produced meaningful outcomes systematizing the internal development of a full dimensional social constitution, including its political, economical, social, and ideological sphere.BR Meanwhile in the 1990s historical perceptions derived from colonial modernization theory and post-nationalism aroused and caused controversy in the academic field, plunging the existing systematic understanding into confusion.BR But the secondary level Korean history education establishes the Chos?n period as a fully matured medieval society in Korean history, and its later and last stage is considered to be a period in which this medieval structure was in a process of being agitated and devolved. The image of Chos?n period have been formed and taught in a way that its ‘modern’ elements have been internally self-generated.

Admission Variables Predictive of Academic Struggle in a PharmD Program

Objective. To characterize and describe admission variables predictive of poor grade attainment by students in 2 pathways to a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program.Methods. A retrospective analysis of course grades of PharmD students admitted from 2000 to 2009 (N= 1,019) in the traditional degree pathway ("1 plus 5" degree program) and the provisional pathway (admitted directly from high school) was performed.Results. Four hundred three grades of D or less were earned by 183 (18%) students. There were more grades of D or less in the first pharmacy year. Receipt of an unsatisfactory grade was associated with all Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) subcategory scores, PCAT composite score, cumulative prepharmacy coursework hours, prepharmacy grade point average (GPA), prepharmacy science and math GPA, and interview score for accepted students in the traditional pathway. For students in the provisional pathway, PCAT-quantitative analysis, PCAT composite score, prepharmacy cumulative GPA, prepharmacy science and math GPA, English American College Testing (ACT) score, and composite ACT score predicted poor grades. Conclusion. Admissions committees should heed PCAT scores and GPAs, regardless of program pathway, while progression committees should focus on early program coursework when designing strategies to optimize retention.

Children's experiences of dialysis: a systematic review of qualitative studies

ObjectiveTo describe the experiences and perspectives of children and adolescents on dialysis.DesignA systematic review of qualitative studies was conducted that explored the experiences of children on dialysis. Electronic databases and...

Midsemester Academic Interventions in a Student-Centered Research University

In this descriptive study, the use of a midsemester Success Workshop is evaluated within the context of the persistence and motivation of students placed on academic probation in a state university between 2005 and 2010. Elements of the Success Workshop are described. The self-assessments, workshop evaluation results, and other institutional data for 2,630 diverse first-year students who showed signs of academic struggle and were required to attend a success-planning workshop at midsemester are examined. The value of early, personalized, resource-intensive outreach to at-risk students is discussed, with an emphasis on literature related to the correlation between student engagement and student success.