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Student Related Variables as Predictors of Academic Performance among Undergraduate

Student Related Variables as Predictors of Academic Performance among Undergraduate Psychology Students in Barbados. Paper presented during the PLAT Conference, Edinburgh Napier University, UK. 30 June - 2 July 2010. Grace A. Fayombo(Dr), The University of the West Indies

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Student Related Variables as Predictors of Academic Performance among Undergraduate

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  1. Student Related Variables as Predictors of Academic Performance among Undergraduate Psychology Students in Barbados Paper presented during the PLAT Conference, Edinburgh Napier University, UK. 30 June - 2 July 2010 Grace A. Fayombo(Dr), The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, School of Education, Barbados

  2. Rationale • This research was conducted to find out if there were relationships among some student related variables: • Psychological Resilience • Study habit • Interest in Higher • Education

  3. Rationale cont. • And Academic Performance • if these variables will predict significantly the academic performance • of the students in Introduction to Developmental Psychology class in UWI Academic Performance

  4. Rationale cont. • Deals with changes that occur in human organisms from conception till death and the effect of such changes on human development. • Developmental Psychology http://www.niamoves.com/nia5stages.html

  5. Rationale cont. • Introduction to Developmental Psychology is a year one course • Prerequisite for: Developmental Psychology ll and Psychology of Ageing • Therefore it is very important. • Like the foundation of a house which must be solid

  6. Rationale cont. • It has been observed that some students perform poorly in the course which may be due to so many reasons (theories, biological terms) • Indicating that they may not do well in other Developmental Psychology courses • Hence the conduct of this research to find out some of the variables associated with academic achievement with the view of beefing them up in the students so that they can achieve better

  7. Psychological Resilience • Literature suggests that resilient individuals possess ability to cope with adverse circumstances (Theron, 2004, Barton, 2005) • Capacity to withstand stressors and not manifest psychological dysfunction such as persistent negative mood (Neill 2006) • Adolescents with learning difficulties lack inherent resilient skills to adapt successfully (Bauer, Keefe & Shea, 2001) thus becoming more vulnerable to failure (Donald, Lazarus & Lolwana, 2002)

  8. Study Habits • These are strategies that students adopt to monitor and manage their time for studying and success in course work reinforces continued use of these strategies (Risko, Alvarez and Fairbanks 1991). • Evidence suggests that no single time management works for all students or even the same student in all learning situations, (Boll, Connell & Nunnery 1995). • Suggesting that how a student manages time is personal and idiosyncratic (Meyer, Cliff & Dunne, 1994).

  9. Interest in Higher Education • There are reports that interest in learning: • is highly correlated (.70) with college students’ grades in specific courses (Lavin 1965 Renninger, Hidi ; Krapp, 1992). • predicted academic self efficacy among the fresh secondary school students (Adeyemo 2005) • however has low correlations with academic achievement generally suggesting that interest is moderately useful as a predictor of academic achievement (Trost 1975)

  10. Present Study • Literature revealed that psychological resilience, study habit, interest in higher education are essential for academic achievement, yet there had been no previous co-occurrence studies of these indices of academic achievement among the UWI university students. • Hence the conduct of this study to find out if significant relationships exist among these student related variables and whether they will predict academic performance among the year one undergraduate developmental psychology students in UWI.

  11. 1)Will significant relationships exist among the psychological resilience, study habit, interest in higher education and students’ academic performance? • 2) Will psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education significantly predict the students academic performance in Developmental Psychology? Research Questions 4 research Questions were addressed

  12. 3)What are the relative contributions of psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education as predictors of students academic performance? • 4)Are there significant differences between male and female students’ • a)academic performance • b)psychological resilience, • c)study habit and • d) interest in higher education? Research Questions Cont.

  13. Methods Research Design • This study adopted an expost-facto research design • existing status of the variables were only determined during data collection. • researcher did not manipulate any variable. • Independent variables: psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education • the dependent variable is the students’ academic performance

  14. Participants • 131 first year BA/BSc UWI undergraduate students in Developmental Psychology class in the 2009/2010 session (Semester 1) . • Ages ranged from 17 to 40 years (M = 28.17, SD =1.61). • There were 60 males and 71 females.

  15. Measures • Four instruments for data collection were: • Psychological Resilience Scale (PRS) When I am in a difficult situation, I usually find my way out of it. I have enough energy to do what I want to do. • Study Habit Scale (SHS) I study regularly at a regular time I review daily for each class • Interest in Higher Education Scale (IHES) Coming to the university is exciting I enjoy listening to my lecturers in the class.

  16. Measures cont. • Academic Achievement Scale. (AAS) 3 sections: multiple choice, true/false and fill in the gaps items on some topics in Introduction to Developmental Psychology • The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability co-efficient of 0.79, 0.77, 0.73 and 0.71 were obtained for PRS, SHS, IHES and AAS respectively.

  17. Data Analysis • Frequency counts, means and standard deviation as descriptive statistics • Pearson Product Moment Correlation to answer research question 1 • Multiple Regression Analysis to answer research questions 2 and 3. • Independent t-test to answer research question 4.

  18. Results • Research Question 1: • Will significant relationships exist among psychological resilience, study habit, interest in higher education and the students’ academic performance? Psychological Resilience Study Habit Academic Performance Interest in Higher Education

  19. Result Cont. Table 1: Correlation Matrix of Psychological Resilience, Study Habit, Interest in Higher Education and Academic Performance __________________________________ Academic Psychological Study Interest in Higher Performance Resilience Habit Education____ Academic Performance _ Psychological Resilience .243** _ Study Habit .504** .354** _ Interest in Higher Education .598** .332** .549** _ **Correlation is significant at the 0.01level (2 tailed)

  20. Result Cont. Figure 1: Correlations among student related variables and Academic performance

  21. Result Cont. • The results on Table 1 reveal significant positive relationships between: psychological resilience and academic performance (r=0.243, p<0.01); study habits and academic performance (r=0.504.p<0.01); interest in higher education and academic performance (r=0.598, p<0.01). • These are also illustrated on figure 1 • These imply that a student who is psychologically resilient, who has developed good study habit and who is interested in higher education is likely to achieve academically.

  22. Result Cont. • Table one also showcases significant positive relationships among the student related variables; interest in higher education correlates with study habit (r =.549, p<0.01) and psychological resilience (r =.332, p<0.01). psychological resilience also correlates with study habit (r=.354, p<0.01). These are illustrated in figure 2. • These indicate that a student with high interest in higher education is likely to have positive study habits and also likely to demonstrate the innate tendency necessary to cope with academic stress for good academic performance.

  23. Result Cont. Figure 2: Correlations among student related variables r=.332 !nt in H/E & Psy Res r=.549 Int. in H/E & Study Habit r= .354 Psy Res & Study Habit

  24. Result Cont. • Research Question 2: • Will psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education significantly predict the students academic performance in Developmental Psychology? • The results on Table 2 reveal that psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education jointly accounted for 40.2% (R Square = 0.402)of the total variance of students’ performance and the result was significant (F(3, 127) =28.46, P< 0.01).

  25. Result Cont. Table 2: Interest in Higher Education, Study Habit and Psychological Resilience as Predictors of Academic Performance ______________________________________________________________ R = 0.634 R Square = 0.402 Adjusted R Square = 0.388 Standard Error = 2.935 ______________________________________________________________ Analysis of Variance ____________________________________________________________ Sum of Squares df Mean F Sig Regression 733.267 3 245.089 28.46 .000 * Residual 1993.878 127 8.613 Total 1829.145 130 ______________________________________________________________  * Significant (p<0.05)

  26. Result Cont. • Research Question 3 • What are the relative contributions of psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education in predicting the students’ academic performance?

  27. Result Cont. Table 3: Relative Contributions of the Predictor Variables to Academic Performance ________________________________________________________________ Unstandardised Standardised Coefficients Coefficients Model B Std Error Beta t Sig. Interest in H/School .315 .057 .460 5.520 .000* Study Habit .196 .066 .250 2.977 .003* Psycho. Resilience .697 .043 .002 0.020 .984NS ______________________________________________________________ *Note Significant (p<0.05), NS (p>0.05)

  28. Result Cont. • In terms of the relative effects of the variables, Table 3 shows the decreasing order of the contributions or the effects of the variables thus: interest in higher education > study habit > psychological resilience. Notably, it is only the relative effect of psychological resilience that is not significant. • These indicate that interest in higher education and study habit are crucial in improving the students’ performance in Developmental Psychology.

  29. Result Cont. • Research Question 4 • Are there significant differences between male and female students’ • psychological resilience, • study habit • interest in higher education and • academic performance?

  30. Result Cont. Table 4: Comparison of Students’ Academic Performance, Psychological Resilience, Study Habits and Interest in Higher Education based on Gender Not Significant P>0.01 for all

  31. Result Cont. • Table 4 shows that there is no significant difference between male and female students’ • Academic performance (t= 1.30, p>0.05) • Psychological resilience, (t= 0.03, p>0.05) • Study Habit (t= 1.74, p>0.05) • Interest in Higher Education (t= 1.76, p>0.05)

  32. Result Cont. • Thus, the issue of gender may not be all that important when considering students’ • academic performance, • psychological resilience, • study habit and • Interest in Higher Education in Developmental Psychology in UWI, Barbados.

  33. Discussion • The major findings of this study are that: • There are significant positive relationships: between psychological resilience and academic performance, study habit and academic performance, interest in higher education and academic performance. • The student related variables jointly accounted for 40.2% of the total variance in the students’ academic performance in Developmental Psychology and this was found to be statistically significant (F(3, 127) =28.46, P< 0.01)

  34. Discussion Cont. • In terms of relative effects or contributions, study habit and interest in higher education individually contributed significantly to academic performance with interest in higher education contributing more than study habit while psychological resilience did not contribute significantly. • There is no significant difference between male and female students’ academic performance, psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education. Thus male and female students do not differ significantly in these variables.

  35. Discussion Cont. • The positive relationships between the students’ related variables and academic performance may not be surprising because these have earlier on been indicated by some researchers that: • resilient individuals possess ability to cope with adverse circumstances (Theron, 2004, Barton, 2005) • strategies that students adopt to monitor and manage their time for studying and success in course work reinforces continued use of these strategies (Risko, Alvarez and Fairbanks 1991) • Interest in school is highly correlated (.70) with college students’ grades in specific courses (Lavin 1965 Renninger, Hidi ; Krapp, 1992).

  36. Discussion Cont. • Suffice to say therefore that a student who is interested in higher education, will have the inherent ability to cope with school work which will engender good study habits cumulating into good academic performance. • This study also established the high contributions of interest in higher education and study habits to academic performance which indicate that for a student to achieve academically he must be interested in his work and study well.

  37. Discussion cont • The non significant outcome of the difference between male and female students’ academic performance, psychological resilience, study habit and interest in higher education is at variance with the earlier findings that : • Gender has an important influence on resilience (Smith 1982) • males are less committed to working hard than females, (Warrington, Younger, & Williams 2000) and • Females spend more time doing homework and were less likely to come to class without completed homework (Xu, 2006).

  38. Conclusion and implications for psychology learning and teaching • To sum up, this study underscored the need to: • beef up students’ psychological resilience , • develop good study habits and • motivate them to be more interested in higher education by varying methods of teaching (digressing from the traditional lecture method) • Thus ensuring effective teaching and learning which will engender good academic performance in developmental psychology.

  39. For listening

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