Academic Success In Higher Education Research Articles

Voices of twice-exceptional students in their first year of higher education

ABSTRACT This study analyzed the trajectories of five twice-exceptional students during their first year of higher education. The aim was to identify the personal and contextual barriers they faced and the enabling factors available to them. Based on a qualitative approach and a multiple-case design, narrative interviews were conducted with the participants. Three main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) higher education learning; (2) twice-exceptional student identity; and (3) educational trajectory. Results revealed that, despite the challenges of higher education transition, participants view the experience positively for its diversity and pluralism, which enable them to access a broad knowledge base, achieve greater self-knowledge, and construct an identity as twice-exceptional students. It also gives them the opportunity to analyze their educational trajectory and the turning points that have shaped it. The results serve to guide twice-exceptional students through their university experience, to ease their transition to higher education, and to promote their academic and socio-emotional well-being. Furthermore, they support the formulation of educational strategies and policies that address the specific needs of twice-exceptional students and promote their academic success in higher education.

INDICADORES DO SUCESSO ACADÊMICO NA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR: ANÁLISE SEGUNDO NATUREZA DOS CURSOS

ABSTRACT Academic success in Higher Education is a multidimensional construct, influenced by different variables in the student trajectory. Thus, we assessed the academic performance (CRE) of incoming Higher Education students, taking personal/social, adaptive, and learning-related variables, differentiating the analysis according to the nature of the courses. In this way, 715 students participated (age: M = 22.10 years, SD = 6.92), from 26 Higher Education courses at a Federal Institute of Paraíba (Brazil), whose data were collected in a documentary form and using an online questionnaire. The results indicate that the set of variables in the study explain 89% of the CRE of bachelor students, 85% of undergraduate students, and 84% of the performance of technological courses, with the following variables: emphasis on family income, option in choosing the course, extra-class contact with teacher and extracurricular activities, absences and discipline approvals versus completed disciplines. Implications of these results are highlighted for future interventions focusing on academic success and course completion.

Academic essay writing in an English medium instruction environment: Indonesian graduate students’ experiences at Hungarian universities

Academic writing is a key indicator of academic success in higher education, and high-quality academic text production may pose a great challenge to L2 English students within the framework of English-Medium Instruction (EMI). In Higher Education, one of the genres students are most frequently required to master is the academic essay. This small-scale qualitative study focuses on Indonesian graduate students' challenges when writing high-stakes academic essays in Hungarian EMI environments. The investigation aims to discover what challenges this environment poses to Indonesian students, with a specific focus on in-class and out-of-class support. The participants were four Indonesian graduate students required to write academic essays at Social Sciences Faculties of Hungarian universities. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed by applying the technique of qualitative coding. Findings indicate that the extent and quality of support students receive at institutional and subject course levels has a profound influence on academic essay writing achievements. A major implication is that offering courses in English academic writing and providing access to e-library, ensuring subject teachers' sufficient English proficiency levels and pedagogical skills, clarifying the content and requirements of essay assignments as soon as possible, and providing guidance and training regarding secondary research and online writing tools can effectively contribute to the development of students’ English academic essay writing skills.

Cognitive and non-cognitive predictors of academic success in higher education: a large-scale longitudinal study

ABSTRACT How important are learning strategies or personal attributes for learning outside of domain-specific knowledge or twenty-first-century transversal skills when predicting academic success in higher education? To address this question, we conducted a longitudinal study among 1,681 students at one of the leading universities in Hungary. Students took four tests and questionnaires when they entered the university. They measured knowledge from their previous studies (reading and mathematics), twenty-first-century skills like problem-solving and non-cognitive variables in learning strategies, motivation and attitudes. In the next five years, we followed their academic progress with the aim of detecting cognitive and non-cognitive predictors of academic success toward obtaining a degree and developing training programmes for the most important predictors to boost the probability of academic success. The overarching model, which was controlled for students’ socio-economic background, determined 18.4% of the variance in later academic success. Domain-specific knowledge from previous studies and learning motivation emerged as the strongest predictor, learning strategies proved to be the most stable of the other mediating factors as an independent predictor, and twenty-first-century transversal skills proved to be unimportant in earning a university degree. Results highlight the importance of transforming higher education so that it is consistent with the expectations of the twenty-first-century labour market, a future-fit education in Hungary.

Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success in Vietnamese Higher Education

Abstract Recent research has investigated predictors of English Medium Instruction (EMI) academic success in Higher Education in various contexts; however, mixed findings have been reported, and empirical research in emerging contexts like Vietnam is relatively scarce. In addition, little is known about the associations between tertiary EMI outcome, gender, and high school performance. To fill these research gaps, the present study was conducted to explore the roles of gender, high school grades, English language proficiency and vocabulary knowledge (both receptive and productive knowledge) in Vietnamese tertiary EMI academic achievement. To this end, 78 Vietnamese undergraduates majoring in business studies participated in the study. The participants took the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt et al. 2001) and Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation 1999) to measure their receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. Their English language proficiency test scores, EMI course grades, and high school grade point average (GPA) were also collected for data analysis. Simple linear regression analyses revealed that high school GPA, English language proficiency together with both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge significantly predicted EMI academic outcome while gender did not. The results are discussed with implications for EMI in Higher Education.

Learning experience during the pandemic: perspectives of foundation students

ABSTRACT This study examines the learning experiences including academic performance and assessments of Foundation students at a British University’s campus in Malaysia during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A focus on foundation students is important because First-Year Experience is crucial to their academic success in higher education. Using a mixed methods approach to enrich our study, we triangulate data from focus group interviews, a structured survey, and student performance – from two cohorts of students. One group transitioned from physical to online learning while the other group had their learning entirely online. The findings reveal challenges they faced as a result of the abrupt change to online learning, their adaptation and mitigation strategies and their responses to online assessments. Findings from this study show that many students struggled with synchronous learning and found it difficult to focus or attend synchronous classes due to a lack of conducive learning environment or technological challenges. Interestingly, students’ performance did not vary between cohorts that joined pre-pandemic and during the pandemic; across quantitative and qualitative modules, even though additional time allowance was allocated for online assessments. These findings are important for us to provide recommendations to improve existing institutional frameworks and strategies necessary to enhance support for student learning experience during times of crisis.

Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Achievement in Secondary Education in Nepal

The capacity to recognize, utilize, comprehend, control, and handle one's own and other people's emotions is known as emotional intelligence (EI). Higher EI holders effectively handle them and work efficiently. Yet, in Nepali practice, nothing has been done to identify pupils' EI. Objective of this study is to determine how emotional intelligence (EI) affects academic success in higher education. Secondary school students in grades 11 and 12 continued to be the study's primary target group. AS a sample, 486 of them were chosen at random from the group of pupils. Students from three districts and two provinces were chosen in equal numbers. To determine the impact of emotional intelligence, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) and SEE result were adopted. The ANOVA test was applied to determine the impact of EI on academic attainment. EI and academic achievement have a statistically significant relationship. Yet not all areas have a big impact on academic achievement. For instance, the capacity to use and manage one's own emotions has a significant influence on academic achievement; meanwhile the ability to recognize and manage other people's emotions has little effect on participants' academic performance. While more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement, the evidence suggests that emotional intelligence may play an important role in academic success.

The Impact of Long-Term Disruptions on Academic Success in Higher Education and Best Practices to Help Students Overcome Them

Disruptions in the delivery of academic content in higher education had been minimal as recently as 2020. Learning obstacles have not only become more frequent but also exhibit increased duration due to climate related natural disasters, and most recently, global health pandemics. The primary investigators explore the negative impacts these events have had on students’ academic success, and the best practices implemented by colleges and universities to help students overcome these issues, and persist in attaining personal and academic goals. Analysis will examine institutional-based efforts for academic student support, guidance, and motivation together with the students’ resiliency efforts. Analysis will also describe the effects on the online delivery of academic content. Findings demonstrate that one of the best ways institutions can encourage academic success is through self-resiliency, and that proactive steps mitigate stressful events.

Influence of equity group status and entry pathway on academic outcomes in higher education

ABSTRACT Higher education participation has increased worldwide given policies devoted to widening participation for under-represented groups, including the use of alternative entry pathways to university. It is, however, unknown if students admitted via alternative pathways perform well academically. This study uses data for 81,874 students from 16 Australian universities to examine academic performance by entry pathway. Students admitted via alternative pathways generally have poorer academic scores in their first year and over their course than peers coming from secondary school, particularly those entering via vocational education. However, students from enabling programs perform better academically than secondary school entrants. Further, students from under-represented groups are outperformed academically by their more privileged counterparts, particularly Indigenous students and those from low SES and non-English speaking backgrounds. These findings reflect the need to review academic support for students from certain entry pathways and equity groups to enhance their academic success in higher education.

Exploring Student-Athlete Grit as a Mediator in the Relationships Between Parenting, Academic Success, and Mental Health Outcomes

Due to demand for high performance inside and outside of the classroom, student-athletes are a unique subsection of college students. Researchers have focused on investigating protective factors, which may enhance student-athlete well-being and academic success in higher education and reduce athlete burnout. The current study examined grit as a mediator between parenting behaviors and academic success, mental health outcomes, and burnout in higher education among National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and Division II student-athletes (N =202). Overparenting behaviors were negatively associated with psychological autonomy granting, mental health outcomes, and athlete burnout. Psychological autonomy granting behaviors were positively associated with grit and negatively associated with mental health outcomes and athlete burnout. Student-athlete grit mediated the relationship between overparenting behaviors and mental health outcomes. Clinical implications include improving student-athlete parent onboarding protocol; student-athlete psychoeducation; and preventative outreach and health promotion among athletes, athletic staff, and university practitioners. In summary, these findings suggest that parenting behaviors and grit are factors that require more attention in fostering student-athlete success.

Evaluating the Gains of Using Stories in Medical Education–A Pilot Study Example

Objectives: Medical education develops day by day with the effect of its unique dynamics, excessive information load and changing education approach depending on its professional characteristics.The aim of this study wasto determineeffects on the knowledge and attitude gains of story usage in education. Material and Methods: This is a training intervention study with a twenty-five study group and twenty-five control group students. A 20-question test was applied to the students before and after the study, including the topics of course. In addition, students were asked to provide feedback on the educational practice. Results and Dıscussion: According to the results of this study applied with twenty-five students study and control groups; in addition to theoretical lessons, reading and discussing patient stories covering lesson topics significantly increases students’ academic knowledge (p <0.001). 90.4% of the students stated that the study generally met their expectations, 95.2% of them wanted to take this kind of application in other education modules and 89.6% of them stated that the study contributed to their learning. Coclusions: Student-centered interactive education sessions increase students’ academic success in higher education. The student feedbacks we obtained in our study results have guided our future education interventions. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 21 No. 03 July’22 Page: 694-701

Using Learner Analytics to Explore the Potential Contribution of Multimodal Formative Assessment to Academic Success in Higher Education

Blended learning pedagogical practices supported by learning management systems have become an important part of higher education curricula. In most cases, these blended curricula are evaluated through multimodal formative assessments. Although assessments can strongly affect student outcomes, research on the topic is limited. In this paper, we adopted a learning analytics approach to explore student engagement with formative assessments and the power of these assessments to predict student outcomes in an English for Academic Purposes courses in a Hong Kong university. The study retrieved the data logs from 7,815 students and used the data to analyze student engagement with the formative assessments. The results suggested that the students put effort into completing the assessments. The degree to which assessments predict learning outcomes depend on students’ level of subject knowledge and their understanding of the relevance of the assessments. This study showed that learning analytics provided reliable evidence for understanding students’ engagement and identifying at-risk students. Therefore, learning analytics research has the potential to inform pedagogical practice.

Students’ online information use and learning progress in higher education – A critical literature review

ABSTRACT Learning using the Internet has become a vital factor for academic success in higher education. Students increasingly rely on the Internet as their main information source. However, related research is still an emerging and highly fragmented field. Therefore, this study aims to provide a comprehensive and integrative review of research literature on student learning vis-à-vis using the Internet. The review encompasses research on students' strategies for searching, evaluating, and selecting online information, the use of this information for domain-specific learning, and the influence of the characteristics of both online information sources and learners on searching, evaluating, and selecting online information. Moreover, research on how this information-related behavior develops and affects learning outcomes is considered. The literature research, conducted in 2020, employed the database Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) and the search engine Google Scholar. Based on relevant search phrases and keywords, over 500 publications were found. After a second search, 55 fitting publications from 2009 onwards were identified. The review reveals a lack of research on the characteristics of online information, how these characteristics affect student learning in higher education, and how student learning can be fostered by improving students' information-related strategies. Research integrating these different perspectives is even scarcer.

Estimating Academic Success in Higher Education Using Big Five Personality Traits, a Machine Learning Approach

Estimating Academic Success in Higher Education Using Big Five Personality Traits, a Machine Learning Approach

Una proposta didattica basata sul translanguaging per l’inclusione e il supporto a studenti universitari plurilingui

This paper presents some results of an experimental research aimed at observing the impact of translanguaging for university students of immigrant background. A sample of students, paired according to shared language, carried out collaborative reading and writing tasks in academic Italian, in two different sessions. In the first, they were allowed to only use Italian, whereas in the second, they were encouraged to make use of their whole linguistic repertoire, in line with the principles of a translanguaging pedagogy. Such an approach has garnered positive attention among scholars and educators as a way to capitalize on students’ plurilingualism, no longer considered a detriment, on the contrary, an asset for learning, both language and academic content. Through the analysis of students’ interactions, task resolution and perceptions, elements pointing towards a positive effect of translanguaging were identified. These, combined with well-established guidelines, resources and strategies of a translanguaging pedagogy, contributed to the design of a translanguaging unit hereby presented, which has the goal to support plurilingual students’ inclusion and academic success in higher education.

Different Academic Coping Strategies Facing Online Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic Among the Students In Counselling Department

The challenge for academic success in higher education is getting tougher with the implementation of study from home (SFH) in the covid-19 pandemic. One aspect that supports the success of online learning is the ability of students to survive in difficult conditions or referred to as coping skills. Coping skills consist of several strategies, divided into positive and negative coping strategies. The objectives of this study: 1) are there any differences in student coping strategies in dealing with online learning during the covid-19 pandemic; 2) are there differences in student approach strategies in dealing with online learning during the covid-19 pandemic; 3) Are there differences in student avoidance strategies in dealing with online learning during the covid-19 pandemic; and 4) Are there differences in student social support strategies in dealing with online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. This type of research is a type of descriptive research. The sample in this study were students of the guidance and counseling study program enrolled in the 2020/2021 academic year. The research sample is 210 consisting of 100 male students and 110 female students who were selected randomly. The instrument of this study used an Academic coping strategies questionnaire from Sullivan (Sullivan, 2010) adapted. The results of the adaptation of the ACSC questionnaire through the CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) test showed the Cronbach alpha value = 0.081; RMSEA = 0.072; CFI= 0.98; GFI= 0.882; CMIN/DF = 2548.63/1540; and TLI = 0.891. The results of data analysis using the ANOVA test shows the approach factor is the type of coping strategy that is most widely used by students during online learning. The coping approach strategy is most often used by students in the category of academic achievement of the five best in class.

Promoção da autonomia e da autorregulação em estudantes do ensino superior

Introduction: In the context of participation in an ERASMUS + project “Interdisciplinary Collaborative Approaches to Learning and Teaching - INCOLLAB”, we propose to assay its innovative character in the field of pedagogy in higher education, highlighting the dimension of integrated learning of a foreign language and a content (Content and Language Integrated Learning)- CLIL) and collaboration between higher education teachers in planning learning modules and teaching materials based on a interdisciplinary design and intervention. Objective: Asses the learning of a foreign language through the project methodology. Methods: The methodology followed was that of an action-research, supported by a community of learning and practice. This modality allowed the professors of the universities involved in the project, from the areas of foreign language and different content areas (Psychology, Economics, Management ...), to share knowledge, skills and pedagogical perspectives, projecting this experience in the design and implementation of multidisciplinary modules in learning processes. Results: As an example of the work developed, we present the module “Autonomy Support: Through collaboration towards self-regulated learning strategies” which, based on the conceptual model of Deci & Ryan (1985, 2004), aims to constitute itself as an educational resource available, on an online platform, to professionals who can adapt it to other educational context. Having been conceived and applied experimentally to students of the 1st year of graduation, in the context of the Psychology of Development course unit, it can be adapted to any training area, mobilizing skills in the English language at level B1. Conclusion: The option for the theme of the module is based on the conception that the autonomy and self-regulation skills are transversal to academic success in higher education and future professional performance.

Student factors affecting academic success among undergraduate students at two South African higher education institutions

This study explored student factors affecting academic success among undergraduate students at a historically Black and a historically White South African public higher education institution. Qualitative methodology was used. Data were collected through five focus group discussions from 31 undergraduate students. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The following student factors affected participants’ academic success: academic self-efficacy, peer relationships, parental engagement and support, motivation, time management, adjustment, emotional wellbeing, lack of information, socio-economic status, and language proficiency. This study showed that structural, racialised inequalities in South Africa underpin many apparent student factors that influence academic success in higher education.

The effects of attendance and high school GPA on student performance in first-year undergraduate courses

Research has established that class attendance and High School Grade Point Average (HSGPA) play a significant role in student academic success in higher education. The study uses census data and re...

TAKING A STAND: STANCE STRATEGIES IN L1 SERBIAN ENGLISH LEARNERS’ EXPOSITORY ESSAYS

An important part of undergraduate essay writing is the argumentative/persuasive essay genre, which has been described as one of the keys to academic success in higher education (Chandrasegaran and Kong, 2006). It requires not only grammatical fluency and appropriate cohesion, but also that the author be able to take a stand on a particular issue. In an attempt to understand what strategies Serbian L1 English learners at the tertiary level use to take a stand, we analyzed a corpus of their expository (argumentative and opinion) essays. The essays were analyzed and coded for various linguistic structures used to convey taking a stand. These include nouns which are preceded by a sentence initial deictic This as a structure which encapsulates previous propositions, reported speech used to assign a stance to and take a stand on the reported speaker and the event, the passive voice, demonstrative pronouns, and the like. The quantitative analysis of this material was carried out with the aim of presenting our findings in the light of possible implications for teaching expository/persuasive writing at the tertiary level to NNS of English, in an attempt to bridge the intercultural gap that any NNS faces when forced to express their opinions in a language other than their own.