First-year College Research Articles

A Survey on Learning Motivation of First-year University Students

A Survey on Learning Motivation of First-year University Students

An Integrated Learning System for First-Year University Studen

An Integrated Learning System for First-Year University Studen

Risk-taking behaviors of the Tehran city; Iranian college students in 2018

Background and aims: High-risk behaviors among different strata are one of the most severe health threats in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of high-risk behaviors among college students in Iran. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study with 144 new students in Tehran City, Iran, performed in 2018 using random sampling. The data collection tools included questions on demographic variables and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) questionnaire. Students completed the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24 and descriptive tests. Results: In this study, all students were in their first year of university. The results showed that 66% of students were girls and 34% were boys. 6.9% and 9% of students did not wear helmets when riding motorcycles or sitting in the driver’s seat, respectively. Also, threatened and beaten once with a weapon such as a knife or a stick and physically assaulted or beaten once were seen in 9% and 3.6% of students, respectively.9.7% had taken money from their parents or others once without permission. Conclusion: Based on the findings, many participants engage in high-risk behaviors that endanger their health; Therefore, designing and improving health programs and strategies is essential to reduce the risks and factors that cause high-risk behaviors.

Effect of augmented reality-based virtual educational robotics on programming students’ enjoyment of learning, computational thinking skills, and academic achievement

The use of educational robotics for programming education has been shown to be effective in fostering students’ computational thinking (CT) skills. However, physical educational robots are expensive, which may limit their wide use in the classroom. This study used augmented reality technology to develop a virtual educational robotic system (AR Bot for short), which offers 3D visual learning feedback to strengthen spatial ability, as well as delayed feedback and auto-scoring feedback to promote students’ deeper CT processes. To examine the impact of AR Bot on programming learning, this study used a quasi-experimental design to compare an experimental group of 41 first-year university students who used AR Bot and a control group of 34 first-year university students who used Scratch. We assessed the impact of the two CT tools on students’ internal learning processes (enjoyment of learning), CT skills (problem decomposition, algorithm design, and algorithm efficiency skills), and academic achievement. The results showed that students who used AR Bot had higher enjoyment of learning, algorithm design skills, and algorithm efficiency skills but not higher problem decomposition skills and academic achievement than students who used Scratch. Enjoyment of learning led to higher problem decomposition, algorithm design, and algorithm efficiency skills but not academic achievement. Problem decomposition and algorithm design skills, but not algorithm efficiency skills, led to academic achievement. The theoretical and practical implications of the proposed tool and other CT tools in programming education are discussed.

Righteous, Reveler, Achiever, Bored: A Latent Class Analysis of First-Year Student Involvement.

Using the Wabash National Study on Liberal Arts Education and a latent class analysis of 28 outside-the-classroom activities and behaviors, we developed a typology of outside-the-classroom student engagement during the first year of college. We find ten classes of student involvement: academic artist, party athlete, serious athlete, conventional non-worker, disengaged, maximizer, moderate worker, detached partier, involved partier, and religious. Next, we examine the relationship between latent classes and students' characteristics through a multinomial logistic regression analysis. Students reporting as first-generation or racially minoritized are overrepresented in the disengaged and involved partier classes. We found an overrepresentation of White students across all party classes. Students reporting as female were likelier to be members of the religious, moderate worker, and disengaged classes and not to be members of the party classes. Federal grant recipients were likelier to be in the academic artist and moderate worker classes. We discuss other sociocultural, economic, and academic relationships in the paper. Next, we explore the relationship of latent class to academic and developmental outcomes. We find academic artists as the only class with a significant positive relationship across the seven dependent measures. Involved partier, moderate worker, and religious classeshave positive relationships with at least five dependent measures. The detached partier and party athlete classes have the lowest first-year GPAs of all latent classes. Finally, we discuss the relationships of latent classes, related institutional policy implications, and directions for future research.

Facilitating first-year student adjustment: towards a model for intentional peer mentoring.

Attrition of first-year university students remains a global problem, and is also of great concern in South African higher education. In an effort to address this challenge, many higher education institutions offer peer mentoring programs to assist first-year students with their adjustment to university life, in order to improve their retention. However, evidence of the effectiveness of such peer mentoring programs is still limited. This article intends making a contribution in this regard.
 Stellenbosch University introduced its BeWell Peer Mentoring Program in 2013. In addition to providing psycho-social support, mentors offer developmental initiatives on holistic wellness to assist first-year students with their adjustment. After an institution-wide roll-out of the program, the question arose whether the BeWell Peer Mentoring Program actually assisted first-year students in adjusting to campus life. In order to answer this question a research study with a sequential mixed-method design was employed.
 Our study found that adjustment outcomes were influenced by the intensity of peer mentoring participating students received. Mentor attributes, time invested in mentoring, reasons for mentoring and the wellness component of the program all influenced the peer mentoring received. The findings underscored the importance of selecting intentional mentors, and effective program implementation and monitoring. A model for intentional peer mentoring is proposed, to optimise the program outcomes. Other institutions with similar programs could also benefit from the proposed model.

Synthesis of Azo Dyes and Generation of Dot Matrix Using Thin-Layer Chromatography

Thin-layer chromatography, which involves the movement of dyes along a silica-coated plate, is used to observe the progress of chemical reactions and to separate mixtures. We took advantage of this phenomenon to devise a method for generating patterns in the shape of numbers with dots (dot matrix). We prepared the azo dyes necessary for generating the dot matrix and successfully generated dot matrix images of numbers 0 to 9 using three azo dyes synthesized from two types of aromatic amines and three types of phenols. All plates were developed in a hexane:acetone = 5:1 solvent. The advantage of this study is that all azo dyes necessary for drawing can be synthesized from common raw materials. Both the dye synthesis and dot matrix generation can be carried out as part of practical work intended for first-year university students. Alternatively, the experiments could be conducted using the dyes prepared in advance by the instructor, and high school students could be encouraged to consider which dye solution to spot on each lane to draw their desired number by dot matrix.

A Socio-Cultural Study of Face and Politeness Conceptions in the Kazakh Context

This study investigates the issues related to some aspects of the Kazakh concept of face and politeness, the perceptions of politeness, and politeness and impoliteness strategies. The principal means and mechanism guide and predetermines the social conduct that guarantees the harmony of the relationships between people. Kazakh politeness, as part of people’s communicative behavior, is a component of national culture and is governed by national customs and traditions based on deep historical roots. Historically nomadic, the Kazakhs had to develop a pattern of interaction rules within the community and outside that helped them to adapt successfully to the harsh conditions of the steppe. The only guarantee to successfully survive in the vast steppe, arid nature, and nomadic way of life was to maintain benevolent relations between people and, at any expense, prevent conflict and aggressive situations. An online survey was conducted in which 100 first-year al-Farabi university students participated. The survey data obtained provided valuable insight into the young people’s beliefs about politeness and impoliteness and how the concept of politeness affects their moral values and shapes their ethnocultural behavior in modern times. The respondents’ answers showed a surprising uniformity in defining the politeness principles in the Kazakh context. With Kazakh young people, politeness is nestled in respecting others, especially older adults, appropriate behavior, maintaining smooth and harmonious interpersonal relations, good manners, and adhering to societal rules and norms.

Motivational mediation between coping and post-traumatic growth in previously bullied college students.

Research has consistently shown that experiences of peer victimization may have long lasting negative consequences on health and academic achievement. Less attention has been paid to the association between past bullying and post-traumatic growth in college students. This cross-sectional study aims to examine the role of different motivational orientations (The Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Systems (BIS/BAS) and regulatory focus) as potential mediators between cognitive strategies (rumination and resilient coping) and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Using a large sample of 1,134 college students, 85 were selected who were in their first year of college and had reported having previously experienced bullying. After classifying the participants acording to their the 33rd and 66th percentile scores on post-traumatic growth, a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant differences between the low and high groups, with those highest in PTG showing the highest scores on drive approach, focus on promotion, and resilient coping. Conditional process analysis with these significant variables revealed that regulatory focus on promotion mediates between resilient coping and post-traumatic growth, whereas drive moderates the link between both variables. The findings shed light on the motivational mechanisms underlying PTG, which may be useful to guide interventions to prevent the consequences of bullying.

A future orientation intervention delivered through a smartphone application and virtual reality: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundShort-term mindsets are associated with self-defeating behaviors, such as delinquency and alcohol use. In contrast, people who consider the longer-term consequences of their decisions tend to report positive outcomes, like feeling more competent and enhanced goal achievement. We evaluate an intervention, FutureU, that aims to stimulate future-oriented thinking, increase goal achievement, and reduce self-defeating behavior, by strengthening people’s identification with their future self. The intervention will be delivered through a smartphone application (app) or immersive Virtual Reality (VR). We test the effectiveness of FutureU for both delivery methods, examine working mechanisms, and identify potential moderators of intervention effects.MethodsIn this Randomized Controlled Trial, a total of 240 first-year university students (n = 80 per condition) will be randomized into one of three conditions: (1) a smartphone condition, (2) a VR condition, and (3) an active control condition. We will assess proximal (i.e., future self-identification) and distal intervention outcomes (e.g., future orientation, self-defeating behaviors, goal achievement), user engagement, and examine usage data and goal content. Assessments will take place at baseline, during the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and at 3- and 6-months follow-up.DiscussionThis study will provide information on the effectiveness of the intervention and allows for comparisons between delivery methods using novel technologies, a smartphone app versus immersive VR. Knowledge gained through this study can be used for further intervention development as well as theory building.Trial registration This trial is registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05578755) on 13 October 2022.

The Interaction Effect of Personality Traits and Gender Differences on Risky Behaviours among First-Year University Students in South Africa

This article investigates the effect of personality traits and gender differences on risky behaviours among first-year students of a South African university. A sample of three hundred and twelve (312) first-year students comprising 59.6 per cent females was selected as participants. Data were collected with a questionnaire to measure risky behaviours, personality traits, and demographic information. Collected data were subjected to statistical analysis using the statistical package for social sciences v23. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted. Results showed that the use of alcohol to the extent of being drunk, staying out late at night without parents’ knowledge, taking chances while doing hobbies, reckless driving, and unsafe sexual practices are prominent among the students. Agreeableness (F (1, 308) = 9.863, p <.005), and conscientiousness (F (1, 307) = 20.445, p <.001) personality traits significantly influenced risky behaviours, while there was a significant gender difference (t (310) = 6.13, p <.01) in the rate of risky behaviours among the participants. It is concluded that personality traits significantly contribute to risky behaviours. In addition, males are generally more inclined to engage in risky behaviours than females. Intervention-based research and activities to address the issue of risky behaviours among students are recommended. This study contributes to the study of risky behaviour among young persons with a reference to the context of university life in South Africa by considering gender as an important factor that contributes to risky behaviours among first-year university students.

Predictors of procrastination in first-year university students: role of achievement goals and learning strategies

Predictors of procrastination in first-year university students: role of achievement goals and learning strategies

The relation between stress and impulsivity during the first year of college.

Previous research has established that short-term and persistent stress negatively impact mental health, with one proposed consequence being increased impulsivity. The present study tests the short-term and persistent associations between stress and three facets of global self-reports of impulsivity: negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance, among young adults across 6 months of their first year of college. College freshmen (n=362) completed self-report questionnaires assessing stress, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance three times over a 6-month period. Pre-registered analyses were conducted using multilevel growth curve models. Confirmatory analyses suggested that persistent stress was associated with higher levels of negative urgency and trajectories of worsening lack of perseverance over time, while short-term stress was associated with higher negative urgency. Lack of premeditation was not robustly associated with stress. While both persistent and short-term exposure to stress may be associated with some facets of global self-reports of impulsivity, the relations vary across facets of impulsivity. Overall, negative urgency was the most robustly associated with stress on both time scales, which suggests that this facet of impulsivity may be the most impacted in the context of stress in the first year of college.

English Language Acquisition in Indonesian University Students: The Effect of Learning Styles

The study aims to ascertain whether various forms of learning impact tertiary students' ability to learn the English language. The VARK questionnaire has been chosen as the model for this research (VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic sensory models used for information acquisition). 100 first-year university students were selected as the respondent in this study. They were required to complete the VARK questionnaire at the start of the study, and the data were analyzed using SPSS. Furthermore, to determine whether the various learning styles correlate with the student's grades throughout the entire course session, the study examined the final results of the students' English examination results. According to the data, students who preferred reading and writing learning styles performed better than those who chose the other. In conclusion, the data gathered are helpful for tertiary educators in the future.

African American Student Success and First-Year Seminars:

The purpose of this study was to examine the retention and academic performance of African American students who participate in a first-year seminar course and persist past the first year of college compared to those who do not participate in the course. Higher education scholars point to first-year seminars as means of increasing retention or persistence from first to second year (Jaijairam, 2016). It is also salient to note the body of literature conveys that African American students are retained at a lower rate than their White counterparts (Johnson, 2013). These factors present a unique opportunity to explore approaches to retention past the first year of college that may positively affect African American students. This quantitative study sought to uncover the impact of a first-year seminar course on the retention of African American students past their first year at one urban university in the Northeast region of the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on mental health care use among Norwegian students in higher education: a nation-wide register-based pre-post cohort study.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated social distancing measures, gave profound changes to the everyday and academic life of students in higher education. The current study is the first to use nation-wide data to evaluate the long-term effect of the pandemic and its countermeasures on university students' mental health care use. Using nation-wide individual-level data, we studied mental health consultations in primary care (data available from January 2017 to February 2022) and dispensed prescription drugs used to treat anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances (data available from October 2018 to February 2021) for first-year undergraduate university students. We compared changes over time in mental health care use in a pandemic cohort (12,501 first-year students enrolled in 2019) to the same change in a pre-pandemic cohort (25,990 first-year students enrolled in 2017 and 2018). Event study and difference-in-difference models allowed us to separate the impact of the pandemic, experienced by the pandemic cohort only, from secular and seasonal changes experienced by all cohorts. The percentage of students with a mental health consultation temporarily decreased during the first period of strict social distancing measures in March 2020. At the end of the second round with strict measures in April 2021, the level of mental health consultations increased by 73% (95% CI 40-106.3). There was also a 42% (95% CI 5.7-79.5) increase in mental health consultations in November 2021. No similar increases were observed for dispensed prescription drugs between March 2020 and February 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increases in mental health consultations in primary care among students, especially during/after longer periods of strict social distancing measures. The benefits of social distancing measures in future pandemic preparedness should be weighed against the cost of potentially worsening mental health in vulnerable groups.

Verifying the equation for centripetal force: an augmented reality approach

Classroom experiments related to investigating the centripetal force are often underrepresented in the physics teaching practice. This is largely due to the fact that schools lack the proper equipment and teachers lack the time to perform the rather tedious data collection procedures which are characteristic for some of the traditional experimental setups. A possible solution to this problem is to develop and utilize alternative experimental setups within the digital environment. In fact, earlier research has shown that new generations of students are highly motivated to learn physics in digital environments and that these environments often provide at least as efficient learning of concepts as traditional environments. In this article, we present an augmented reality Android application named CEntripetalForceAR (CEFAR) that allows students to experimentally investigate how centripetal force depends on the period of orbital motion and the orbital radius. A possible pedagogical approach to using CEFAR is also described, including suggestions on how CEFAR can be used to overcome some of the most common misconceptions related to circular motion. A user experience survey which included 163 first-year university students showed that CEFAR can be awarded an excellent usability rating. Most students stated that the application helped them to improve their understanding about centripetal force either by visualization or by the possibility to explore cause and effect relationships.

Examining the Indirect Effect of Online Gaming on Depression via Sleep Inequality and Anxiety-A Serial and Parallel Mediation Analysis.

Stress-related disorders are highly prevalent among first-year college students. Gaming disorder (GD) is an emerging disorder linked to physical and psychological consequences. We aimed to investigate the mechanism linking GD with anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders among first-year undergraduate students. Four hundred fifty-seven participants were recruited, and the survey included the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Our results showed that female students scored significantly higher than males in anxiety and depression. Furthermore, we found that depression is positively and strongly correlated to anxiety, and both are moderately associated with sleep quality. Gaming is positively related to depression, anxiety, and sleep quality. Interestingly, the health sciences tracks showed lower sleep quality than undergraduates from other tracks. There was a 64% variance in depression explained by many predictors, including anxiety, sleep quality, gaming, painkiller use, and gender. In addition, the mediation models showed that the association between gaming and depression is mediated indirectly by sleep quality, and sleep quality may be mediated directly by anxiety. The first year in college occurs at a critical developmental and professional stage, and our results highlight the need to establish support programs and conduct mental health educational workshops.

Adaptability, social support, and psychological wellbeing among university students: A 1-year follow-up study

The transition to university is a time of great change. A recent literature has shown that adaptability (a personal resource) and social support (a conditional, situational resource) are associated with psychological wellbeing and distress among university students. However, the precise nature of these relations are unclear and there is a paucity of work investigating whether adaptability and social support are predictive of psychological wellbeing and distress over longer periods of time. In the present study, first-year university students (N = 411), were surveyed for their adaptability, social support, and psychological distress, and were then re-assessed for their psychological wellbeing and distress 1 year later. A series of moderated regression analyses, revealed that adaptability and social support were independent predictors of psychological distress concurrently, and psychological wellbeing 1 year later. Adaptability, but not social support, was also found to predict psychological distress 1 year later. No interaction effects were observed. The findings demonstrate the importance of adaptability (and social support to a lesser extent) in predicting psychological wellbeing and distress among university students both at course commencement, but also over the course of their studies 1 year later.

Exploring the Development of Procedural Knowledge and Related Competencies Through Study of Biology in Middle and High Schools in Romania

"The current educational paradigm implemented worldwide is the development of competence comprising knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This research aims to investigate the acquisition of procedural knowledge and competencies targeting this type of knowledge through the study of Biology in middle and high schools in Romania. The paper first provides a brief overview of the history and existent usage of the concepts of competence and procedural knowledge. Moreover, it describes the Romanian educational system from a diachronic perspective. Following this, a careful analysis of middle and high school Biology syllabi is conducted. Particularly, development of procedural knowledge and competencies targeting procedural knowledge in these documents is examined critically. The results of this analysis indicate that, even though syllabi mention competence and procedural knowledge, they need more concrete activity guidance and assessment to train them. Finally, an online survey targeting high school ninth-graders and first-year university students is applied and analyzed. The survey assesses the implementation of instruction based on procedural knowledge. The results reveal the need for more logistics (laboratories and instruments) provision in schools and for carrying out practical activities. A need for reconsidering Biology syllabi, educational investment, and teacher preparation is necessary to succeed in developing procedural knowledge and competencies associated with this, through the study of Biology. Keywords: procedural knowledge, competencies, curriculum, Biology syllabus, practical activity, competency-based education, middle school, high school. "