Factors affecting student academic perfomance Essays

Factors affecting student academic perfomance Essays Factors affecting student academic perfomance Essay Factors affecting student academic perfomance Essay Essay Introduction In most Universities the universe over today. the academic public presentation of pupils has late come under examination for a figure of grounds. For case. a figure of surveies have been carried out to place causal factors of hapless academic public presentation in a figure of establishments worldwide. Interestingly. most of these surveies focused on the three elements that intervene. Such included. parents ( household causal factors ) . instructors ( academic causal factors ) . and pupils ( personal causal factors ) ( Diaz. 2003 ) . However. this survey investigated the chief factors that affect students’ academic public presentation at The University of Zambia chief campus. Broadly talking. factors act uponing academic public presentation of pupils vary from one academic environment to another. from one set of pupils to the following. and so from one cultural puting to another. It nevertheless appears that pupils have worked hard but their input has non been positively correlated to their end product. Indeed. this has been revealed in a study from UWI’s Office of Planning and Development ( 2011 ) . where 20 % of all undergraduate classs offered at UWI. St. Augustine recorded high failure rates. This increases the cost of developing alumnuss every bit good as cut downing admittance chances for high school pupils seeking a University instruction. Furthermore. the low base on balls rates impose a immense cost to the communities in footings of the low figure of pupils graduating and the decreased consumption of possible pupils due to shortage of infinites caused by low throughput. Therefore. in order to guarantee that a larger proportion of the labour force is extremely trained. most Universities including The University of Zambia must set in topographic point steps that will guarantee high completion rates. In the instance of The University of Zambia chief campus. the failure and dropout rates are higher in such schools like School of Law. School of Engineering and School of Veterinary Medicine. among others. However. in instances where there are low dropout or exclude rates. at least there should be hapless public presentation doing pupils to simply clear in order to continue as opposed to acquiring first-class consequences. Much of the scratch that reduces completion rates has been attributed to low academic public presentation in early pre-requisite undergraduate classs ( Scott and Graal. 2007 ) . This job although may be lightly taken has a profound influence on the communities. Not merely that. it besides contravenes the slogan of the University. Service and Excellency’ in that there is no excellence when people are ill executing and neglecting. In position of the above. the survey investigated the chief factors that affect students’ academic public presentation at The University of Zambia chief Campus so that appropriate administrative steps can be put in topographic point in order to assist the community at big. 2. 0 LITERATURE REVIEW The literature reappraisal of this survey is divided into two constituents viz. . theoretical reappraisal which simply reviews theories that relate to the subject under probe and empirical reappraisal which will be composed of surveies conducted by other research workers on the same subject. Theoretical Review There are a figure of theories that have been assumed to explicate the factors that affect students’ academic public presentation but for the intents of this survey. merely two will be discussed. These include. The Triarchic Theory of Intellectual Abilities’ and the Theory of Mental Self-Government’ . 2. 2 The Triarchic Theory of Intellectual Abilities Harmonizing to the Theory of Intellectual Abilities ( Sternberg. 1985 ; 1986:23 ) . three sorts of rational abilities exist. viz. analytical. originative and practical abilities. Measures of abilities tend to concentrate chiefly on analytical abilities. whereas all three types of abilities need to be regarded as every bit of import. Research done by Sternberg ( 1997b:24 ) showed that: The more we teach and assess pupils based on a broader set of abilities. the more racially. ethnically. and socioeconomically diverse our winners will be. 2. 3 The Theory of Mental Self-Government Furthermore. research by Sternberg accents that students’ larning and believing manners 1 / 34 ( Sternberg. 1997a ) ( which are normally ignored ) . together with their ability degrees. play an of import function in pupil public presentation ( Sternberg. 1992:134 ; 1994:36-40 ; Sternberg and Grigorenko. 1997:295 ) . The Theory of Mental Self-Government refers to an stock list of different thought manners that gives an indicant of people’s penchant of believing forms. Where the Triarchic Theory focuses on the ability itself. the theory of Mental Self-Government refers to different thought manners which constitutes penchant in the usage of abilities ( Sternberg. 1990:366-371 ) . As articulated in the above theories. this survey adopt the theory of mental self-Government as the most appropriate one in heightening pupils academic public presentation at The University of Zambia chief campus. The ground is that. the acquisition and thought manners of pupils at campus can either be reinforced taking to first-class academic public presentation or hindered taking to hapless academic public presentation. This is to a great extent contingent upon the handiness and proviso of a figure of indispensable installations such as good survey stuffs. adjustment. contributing acquisition environment ( lecture theaters ) . good H2O and sanitation installations among others. These being available and in proviso. students’ possible abilities of being analytical. originative and practical as described in triarchic theory will besides go strengthened. 2. 4 Empirical Review A batch of surveies have been engaged in to place and analyse the legion factors impacting academic public presentation of pupils in assorted centres of larning. Their findings place students’ attempts. old schooling ( Siegfried and Fels. 1979 ; Anderson and Benjamin. 1994 ) . parents’ instruction. household income ( Devadoss and Foltz. 1996 ) . self-motivation. age of pupil. larning penchants ( Aripin. Mahmood. Rohaizad. Yeop and Anuar. 2008 ) . category attending ( Romer. 1993 ) . and entry making as factors that have a important consequence on the students’ academic public presentation in assorted scenes. However. the public-service corporation of these surveies lies on the demand to set about disciplinary steps that improve the academic public presentation of pupils. particularly in public funded establishments. Despite the considerable argument about the determiners of academic public presentation among pedagogues. policymakers. faculty members. and other stakeholders. it is by and large agreed that the impact of these determiners vary ( in footings of extent and way ) with context. for illustration. civilization. establishment. class of survey among others. Therefore. since non all factors are relevant for a peculiar context. it is imperative that formal surveies be carried out to place the context-specific determiners for sound determination devising. Another survey that reviewed some of the factors that influence students’ academic public presentation stressed out that. students’ larning penchants has a deeper influence on their academic public presentation. Harb and El-Shaarawi ( 2006 ) further stated that. a good lucifer between students’ acquisition penchants and instructor’s instruction manner has been demonstrated to hold positive consequence on student’s public presentation. Reid ( 1995 ) defines larning penchant as a person’s natural. accustomed and preferable way of absorbing new information. This implies that persons differ in respect to what manner of direction or survey is most effectual for them. Scholars. who promote the acquisition penchants approach to larning. hold that effectual direction can merely be undertaken if the learner’s acquisition penchants are diagnosed and the direction is tailored consequently ( Pashler. McDaniel. Rohrer and Bjork. 2008 ) . I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. ( Confucius 551-479 BC ) – a quotation mark that provides grounds that. even in early times. there was a acknowledgment of the being of different learning penchants among people. Indeed. Omrod ( 2008 ) studies that some pupils seem to larn better when information is presented through words ( verbal scholars ) . whereas others seem to larn better when it is presented in the signifier of images ( ocular scholars ) . However. it is obvious that in a category where merely one instructional method is employed. there is a strong possibility that a figure of pupils will happen the acquisition environment less optimum and this could impact their academic public presentation. Felder ( 1993 ) established that alliance between students’ acquisition penchants and an instructor’s instruction manner leads to break callback and 2 / 34 apprehension. The acquisition penchants attack has gained important milage despite the deficiency of experimental grounds to back up the public-service corporation of this attack. To back up the above statement. other surveies have established a figure of methods used to measure the acquisition penchant or manners of pupils but they all typically ask pupils to measure the sort of information presentation they are most at easiness with. One of these attacks being used widely is the Visual/Aural/Read and Write/Kinesthetic ( VARKR ) questionnaire. pioneered by Neil Fleming in 1987. which categorizes scholars into at least four major larning penchant categories. Neil Fleming ( 2001- 2011 ) described these four major larning penchants as follows: To get down with is a category of ocular scholars: This consists of pupils who prefer information to be presented on the whiteboard. somersault charts. walls. artworks. images. colour. Probably originative and may utilize different colourss and diagrams in their notebooks. Failure to make this. their academic public presentation would be ill affected. A category of Aural ( or unwritten ) or audile scholars comes as a 2nd 1: these pupils prefer to sit back and listen. They do non do a batch of notes. More frequently than non. they find it utile to enter talks for subsequently playbacks and mention. This helps them better their academic public presentation. The 3rd penchant is a category of Read/write scholars: these pupils prefer to read the information for them and take a batch of notes. However. these scholars benefit from given entree to extra relevant information through press releases and guided readings from their instructors or lectors. Failure to avail to them such installations may retrograde their school public presentation. Last. but non the least is the category of Kinesthetic ( or tactile ) scholars: these scholars can non sit still for long and like to shirk with things. Prefer to be actively involved in their acquisition and therefore would profit from active larning schemes in category. Therefore. we can see that. all the different penchants may non be to the full met by pupils and as such they may hold a profound influence on their academic public presentation. Undeniably. Romer ( 1993 ) is one of the first few writers to research the relationship between pupil attending and scrutiny public presentation. In his widely cited paper. a figure of factors have contributed to worsening category attendings around the universe in the last 15 old ages. The major grounds given by pupils for non-attendance include assessment force per unit areas. hapless bringing of talks by lectors. timing of talks. and work committednesss ( Newman-Ford. Lloyd and Thomas. 2009 ) . Furthermore. in recent times. pupils have found a demand to seek employment while analyzing on a part- clip footing due to fiscal restraints. The Numberss of parttime and mature pupils has besides risen aggressively. The usage of information engineering besides means that information that used to be obtained from sitting through talks can be obtained from the cyberspace. However. given all these developments that either makes it impossible or unneeded for pupils to go to categories. the inquiry that needs to be asked is whether absenteeism affects students’ academic public presentation or non. Interestingly. a figure of old researches on this capable affair seem to supply a consensus that pupils who miss categories perform ill compared to those who attend categories ( Devadoss and Foltz 1996. Durden and Ellis 1995. Romer 1993. Park and Kerr 1990. Schmidt 1993 ) . Based on these findings a figure of stakeholders have called for compulsory category attending. Although the bing grounds points to a strong correlativity between attending and academic public presentation. none of the surveies cited attending from a myriad of confusing pupils features. ( for case. degrees of motive. intelligence. anterior acquisition. and time-management accomplishment ) is a major restricting factor to the public-service corporation of these findings and this has been proven besides by Rodgers and Rodgers ( 2003 ) hence demoing a failing in these surveies which this survey will take into history. Durden and Ellis ( 1995 ) further controlled for pupil differences in background. ability and motive and reported a nonlinear consequence of attending on larning. that is. a few absences do non take to hapless classs but inordinate absenteeism does. Further. other surveies conducted by Pashler and Bjork ( 2008 ) have shown that. anterior cognition. class requirements and class combinations determine students’ academic public presentation in 3 / 34 Universities and Colleges. Surveies conducted from a figure of establishments indicate that. students’ anterior cognition. class requirements and class combinations had a profound influence on their academic public presentation. For case. 70 % of those with suited pre-requisite classs performed better than those with classs that were non fiting. This was justified by the fact that. acquisition is a cumulative procedure. therefore a pupil admitted with fiting classs to the calling of their pick will be good prepared for the class stuff compared to a pupil with a mismatch of class combinations. It is of import for calling pedagogues to hold an thought of how good the classs correspond to each pupil in order to complement acquisition. Therefore. this survey seeks to research whether the plan of survey has possible inauspicious effects on students’ academic public presentation. Such an analysis would be helpful in the guidance and counsel procedure of pupils. Henceforth. the influence of age and gender on academic public presentation has been investigated in a figure of surveies with widely differing decisions. Most of the differences in reported findings are due to changing contexts such as topic of survey. age and gender interactions. Previous research has shown that work forces perform better than adult females in certain puting while adult females outperform work forces in other scenes ( Haist. Wilson. Elam. Blue and Fosson. 2000 ) . Harmonizing to Borde ( 1998 ) there is no grounds of academic public presentation being influenced by gender. However. based on an analysis of near to two million graduating pupils. Woodfied and Earl-Novell ( 2006 ) found that female pupils outperformed male pupils and attributed this partially to female pupils being more painstaking and therefore less likely to lose talks. With respect to the issue of students’ age. surveies have shown that. recent alterations in educational policies around the universe have led to an addition in the figure of mature-age admittances in educational establishments. But a big proportion of undergraduate pupils were still 19-year olds. the ages of pupils in categories were so more variable than 10 to 15 old ages ago. Therefore. the definition of a mature pupil varies by state with 21. 22 and 25 twelvemonth old pupils being classified as mature pupils in the United Kingdom. United States of America and Australia. severally ( Trueman A ; amp ; Hartley. 1996 ) . In this survey reappraisal. mature pupils are defined as those pupils whose age was greater than 21 old ages on their first twenty-four hours at the University. Students who are 21 old ages of age and younger are classified as young’ pupils. Mature pupils thought to miss basic accomplishments required for effectual survey or to be impaired by age-related rational shortages. Mature pupils tend to be admitted into their programmes with clearly lower educational attainment than the immature pupils ( Newman-Ford. Lloyd A ; amp ; Thomas. 2009 ) . However. when compared to the immature pupils. the academic public presentation of mature pupils was as good. if non better ( Richardson. 1994 ) . It should. nevertheless be pointed out that this comparing depends on the capable affair and types of appraisal used. Richardson ( 1994:5 ) concludes his survey by doing the observation that Mature pupils are instead more likely than younger pupils to follow a deep attack or a pregnant orientation towards their academic work. and were conversely less likely than younger pupils to follow a surface attack or a reproducing orientation. Furthermore. other surveies found that self-motivation. household income. and parents’ degree of instruction contribute to hapless public presentation of some pupils. While a positive relationship between self- motive and academic public presentation has been established ( Zimmerman. Bandura. and Martinez-Pons. 1992 ) . the consequence of household income and parents’ degree of instruction on academic public presentation is far from being unraveled without evasion. Socioeconomic position of pupils and their households show moderate to strong relationship with academic public presentation but these relationships are contingent upon a figure of factors such that it is about impossible to foretell academic public presentation utilizing socioeconomic position ( Sirin. 2005 ) . The survey conducted by Wooten. ( 1998 ) whose major aim was to happen out the chief factors that affect students’ academic public presentation discovered two cardinal factors that had a profound influence on students’ public presentation viz. ; ( I ) the student’s aptitude and ( two ) . The sum of attempt the pupil put away in the class. He farther discovered that. the sum of attempt put by a pupil depends on the student’s grade history. motive. extracurricular activities. work duties and household 4 / 34 duties. In his findings. aptitude and attempt were both important variables in act uponing public presentation of the traditional pupils. For the traditional pupils. grade history. motive and household duties all influenced the sum of attempts the pupils put Forth. However. neither extracurricular activities nor work duties influenced students’ attempts. Furthermore. motive was significantly influenced by the students’ self-expectations and their perceptual experiences of the acquisition environment. Hence. motive was the lone variable that significantly influenced effects. He farther discovered that for both traditional and non-traditional pupils. it was hard to explicate why extra-curricular activities and the work activities variables did non hold a important consequence on the attempt. Therefore. this survey has a failing in that. it does non reflect the sample size used in the survey for traditional and non-traditional pupils and there is no cogent evidence whether or non other indispensable variables were controlled in the survey. Hence. this survey took into history such failings so that accurate consequences could be obtained. Conversely. a survey conducted by Mohamedbhai ( 2008 ) at the University of Nairobi. the chief JomoKenyetta memorial library. whose chief aim was to happen out the impact of over registrations of pupils on academic public presentation discovered that. the big figure of pupils than the University could suit had a profound influence on students’ academic public presentation. The capacity for the University library could non prolong the big pupil population such that. the University which was designed to suit 1. 500 pupils had to get by with 8. 000 pupils a twenty-four hours. A similar survey conducted by Bloom ( 2005 ) at the University of Eduardo Mondlane showed that. due to over registration of pupils. their academic public presentation was to a great extent affected such that. the dropout rate of pupil in 2006 for the whole University was estimated to be within the scope of 15-28 % . the larger per centum being for the earlier old ages. In 2006. merely approximately 6 % of the pupils completed their grades in the normal class continuance compared to 17 % in 2001. Besides. in 2006. 41 % of the pupil took one or more extra old ages to finish their programmes. whereas the corresponding figure in 2001 was 28 % . However. from this. there has been impairment in the students’ academic public presentation over the past five old ages at the University of EdourdoMondlane. However. although the surveies needed alteration in the sample frame and survey design used to garner such findings. they were really helpful in supplying us with a dais in which the job of over registration of pupils at The University of Zambia and the effects it has on their academic public presentation can be clearly understood. The survey conducted by Principle ( 2005 ) at the Puerto Rico University was to happen out the factors impacting students’ academic public presentation in the first accounting class between public and private Universities in Puerto Rico and besides to analyse the students’ perceptual experiences on internal and external schoolroom factors that might act upon their academic public presentation in their first accounting class. A descriptive co-relational research design was used in this probe. The population was the pupils in the first accounting class at public and private Universities in Puerto Rico. The sample size used was 1. 721 topics which included 13 campuses from 3 different Universities out of a sum of 65 campuses in Puerto Rico. The campuses were non indiscriminately selected. The research worker selected campuses stand foring different demographic countries in Puerto Rico. A Chi-square analysis reflected that. public Universities had a higher figure of pupil failures compared to private Universities. In this instance. the grade distribution studies from private Universities demonstrated that. 40-50 % of pupils did non complete or failed in the first accounting class. The findings of the survey besides demonstrated that. internal schoolroom factors positively influenced students’ academic public presentation in the first accounting class in Puerto Rican public and private Universities. However. the effects of combined external schoolroom factors were non statistically important for Puerto Rican Universities. Therefore. although other of import variables in the survey have non been highlighted. this survey is rather clear and is assumed to hold achieved its intent. Therefore. this survey sought to construct on such already bing finds to associate to the University of Zambia. but at the same clip taking into history the rectification of errors made by old research workers in the same country of survey. 5 / 34 Hence. this survey been conducted at UNZA chief campus such failings will be taken into consideration to heighten truth of consequences. On the other manus. the School of Humanities Booklet ( 2008 ) states that. the University of Zambia has a long term statutory authorization of it being the highest learning establishment in Zambia. For this ground. this survey seeks to look into how good the establishment has been fairing in run intoing its long term aims as follows: Promoting Excellence in Teaching. Research and Community Service. Our Vision: To be a Provider of World Class Services in Higher Education and Knowledge Generation. Our Mission: To Supply Relevant Higher Education through Teaching. Research and Community Service. Our Core Valuess: Academic freedom. Green Environment. Equity. Integrity. Accountability. Innovativeness and Excellency. Our Management Doctrine: The University will encompass a participatory Management Style that will actuate employees. supply a work environment that is contributing to high productiveness. teamwork in which leading is by illustration. Provide effectual communicating and counsel. which will be accessible to all. and promote single growing. All these aims will be closely looked at in order to guarantee that the purpose of this survey is achieved which is to look into why there has been hapless academic public presentation at the University of Zambia among pupils despite its nucleus aims as stated above. 3. 0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM A figure of excludes and high failure rates at the University of Zambia chief campus twelvemonth in twelvemonth out has been so rampant. The academic public presentation of a figure of pupils has non been to their outlooks. They have been ill executing. What else has non yet been done to work out the job? Emphasis on tutorial engagement. clinics. and survey groups has been stressed by some lectors to better the public presentation of pupils but to no help. Furthermore. others have conducted talk attending axial rotation calls as an option for battling the dismaying hapless academic public presentation of pupils but less positive returns have been achieved. However. the APA systems like in the instance of the school of instruction and humanistic disciplines have been introduced together with the usage of projectors in the bringing of talks to assist the intolerant and decelerate acquisition pupils catch up easy but the expected returns have non helped much to better the general academic public presentation of pupils. Furthermore. an cyberspace coffeehouse in the University chief Library has being in operation to assist pupils make their research efficaciously but as if their attempts were in vain. the public presentation keeps deteriorating. Further. new sections ( section of population surveies among others ) have been created where possible. More extraordinary. extra-curricular activities have been encouraged and the door to the guidance Centre has been broad unfastened but still the job of hapless academic public presentation at the University of Zambia still persists. It is for these grounds henceforth that this survey seeks to look into the chief factors that affect students’ academic public presentation at the University of Zambia so that a permanent solution can be provided to better the quality of instruction in our state Zambia as a whole. Chapter TWO 4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES General Objectives To look into the factors that affect academic public presentation of pupils at The University of Zambia. Specific Aims To happen out the chief factors that affects the academic public presentation of pupils at The University Zambia. To happen out which sex is extremely vulnerable to the factors that affect academic public presentation of pupil at the University Zambia. To happen out what the University direction has done to turn to the factors that affect the 6 / 34 academic public presentation of pupils at the University Zambia. RESEARCH RATIONALE A batch of states that have developed today placed more accent on the importance of the educational system in spearheading technological invention that resulted in productiveness. A good illustration in inquiry is the United States of America. Japan and China who formulated sound trajectory policies that increased registrations rates in Universities and Colleges with an apprehension that. promotion in engineering is dependent on holding good trained pupils in Universities and Colleges. Equivalently. Singapore which besides took the measure to put in scientific discipline and engineering in colleges and Universities has become one of the industrialised economic systems in the universe. Therefore. promotion in scientific discipline and engineering is dependent on how good a peculiar state trains its pupils. However. to hold good nurtured pupils that can believe and contrive new things to develop the state. at that place has to be good informed policies at institutional degree that creates a good conducive environment for larning. Apparently. such sound policies can non be created if students’ challenges that may impede good public presentation have non been identified and addressed. Therefore. in order for Zambia to develop. it has to emulate states like Singapore which paid attending to the educational system by making a good acquisition ambiance for University pupils. However. the survey investigated the factors that affect students’ academic public presentation at the University of Zambia and it sought to lend to the organic structure of cognition on the factors that affect students’ academic Excellency at UNZA in peculiar and other such authorities establishments in general. It has been observed that. literature on the factors that influence academic public presentation of pupils is rather scarce and when it is available. people have to seek it through the cyberspace. Therefore the findings of this survey would be put at the disposal of every pupil in the library so that information is readily accessed. It is besides hoped that the consequences of this research would lend to the preparation of sound administrative policies that would control the factors that contribute to the hapless academic public presentation of pupils at the University of Zambia so that failure and dropouts rates can be minimized to keep the slogan of the University Service and Excellency’ . As articulated above nevertheless. the principle behind the transporting out of this survey was premised on four basic rules viz. ; the survey aimed to lend to knowledge. policy. theory. pattern and as a partial fulfilment for the award of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Development Studies. Therefore. sing its part to knowledge. the findings of this survey will convey to the general consciousness of the factors that affect students’ academic public presentation. Second. it will further pass on the attempts by the University direction to turn to factors impacting students’ academic public presentation and what direction has done to heighten students’analytical. originative and practical abilities harmonizing to the Triarchic Theory of Intellectual Abilities ( Sternberg 1985 ; 1986:23 ) . Likewise. higher acquisition establishments are besides donees of the cognition this survey will bring forth in that the findings will assist them to plan schemes to increase students’ academic public presentation and alleviate abrasion rates. At policy degree nevertheless. this survey will foremost place the chief causes of the factors that affect students’ academic public presentation runing from parents- household causal factors ; teachers- academic causal factors and pupils -personal causal factors. ( Diaz. 2003 ) . After placing these. it will assist the authorities policy shapers to redesign their strategic direction for the establishment towards explicating policies that address factors impacting pupils and in bend cut down their abrasion rates. This will besides put a platform for the attainment of the University of Zambia’s long term strategic ends. ( School of Humanities Handbook. 2008 ) . Refering to theory and pattern nevertheless. the findings of this survey will assist in proving the practicableness of the adoptive theory of mental self-Government as the most appropriate one in heightening pupils academic public presentation at the University of Zambia. The principle behind this theory is that. acquisition and thought manners of pupils at campus can either be reinforced taking to first-class academic public presentation or hindered taking to hapless academic public presentation and this is to a great extent contingent upon the handiness and proviso of indispensable installations such as good survey 7 / 34 stuffs. adjustment. contributing acquisition environment ( lecture theaters ) . good H2O and sanitation installations among others and hence this is hoped to take to offering p