Self-management refers to the act of taking responsibility for their learning, dealing with setbacks and being aware of their own capabilities. Inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, Citation2013) was then conducted on the data transcripts.įirstly, intrinsic factors comprise self-management, motivation and personal skills. These included 5 males and 11 females aged between 19 and 53 years of age (Mean age: 29 years mode: 19 years) with an average grade of 2:1 in their assessments. A voluntary sample of 16 Psychology undergraduate students took part in one of three focus groups lasting 1–1.5 h each. Ethical approval was obtained through the School of Human and Social Sciences’ ethics committee at the University of West London.Ī qualitative design was adopted, with focus groups as the method of data collection, utilising a semi-structured interview guide to stimulate discussion. The research questions were: How do university students define academic success? What factors do students perceive as facilitators of their academic success? This study aimed at informing higher education practitioners when planning teaching and learning activities, ensuring that a student-centred approach promoting engagement is implemented. This therefore leads to the understanding that students are more likely to engage in the learning process if they can relate the set assignments to their employment ambitions. Students perceive assessments as beneficial to their learning if they are explicitly aware of how they build on their current skill set and their relevance to their future career (Lynam & Cachia, Citation2017). Practical tasks with clearly communicated usefulness are more effective in preparing students for employment, rather than traditional assessment methods, such as examinations (Keppell & Carless, Citation2006). Hence, responsibility is placed on the educators to instruct and instil development of these abilities, through purposely included aspects of the curriculum.Īssessments are a compulsory component of university programmes, having both a formative and summative function. Naude, Nel, van der Watt, and Tadi ( Citation2016) highlight the need for higher education practitioners to enhance a growth mindset in students and an internal locus of control, making sure that university settings encourage the development of intrinsic motivation. However, the teaching provision also plays an important role. Moreover, Busato, Prins, Elshout, and Hamaker ( Citation2000) assert that the students’ learning style and achievement motivation relate to their academic success, showing that individual characteristics play an important role. Participants’ test scores on assertiveness, conscientiousness and emotionality correlated significantly with their grades, establishing that students’ interpretation of their learning experience can lead to different academic results. Through the application of personality testing, this author concludes that there are significant differences in personality between students with high attainment and those with low attainment. Mihaela ( Citation2015) considers psychological factors, beyond intellectual ability, to have an impact on academic achievement. The discussion of these results at the conference led to the conclusion that achieving academic success and minimising skill gaps for employability post qualification requires the intrinsic elements to be addressed as an integral part of the compulsory programme rather than presented as optional add-ons.Īcademic success has been attributed to student factors as well as teaching factors in the literature. Thematic analysis of the collected data resulted in two themes: intrinsic factors, including motivation, self-directed learning and personal skills and extrinsic factors, including teaching content and the student support structure. Participants defined academic success as: the accomplishment of the learning process gaining subject knowledge and developing employability skills. Sixteen undergraduate Psychology students at a modern university in London, United Kingdom took part in one of three focus groups. The presented study aimed to identify students’ views of its definition and the factors they perceive as crucial in attaining it. This assumption is questioned here by considering the students’ understanding of academic success. Researchers examining academic success often quantify it in terms of assessment grades.
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