Grouping learning approaches and emotional factors to predict students’ academic progress

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates students’ profiles taking into account of learning approaches and emotional variables along with the pace of study. The sample consists of 406 social science students (34.1% first-year, 27.6% second-year, 16.7% third-year and 21.6% are fourth-year students). They completed: (a) the Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory (ALSI) (b) the Student Experience of Emotions Inventory (c) the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (d) the Need for Cognition-short form and (e) the Sense of Coherence Scale. The pace of study was assessed by the courses they failed. The statistical analysis used CFA, Cluster Analysis, MANOVA, Discriminant analysis and the Decision tree model. The study suggests the contribution of Sense of Coherence and Need for Cognition to students learning and supports recent suggestions about the crucial role of trait characteristics and mental health in learning. The findings reveal four students’ profiles: (a) surface-unorganized students (b) deep organized students (c) high dissonant students with a low sense of coherence and (d) moderate dissonant students with low need for cognition. In addition, first-year students are most likely to report increased level of failures. The findings are discussed in relation to recent literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Approaches to learning
• academic emotions
• emotion regulation
• need for cognition
• sense of coherence
• pace of study
• cluster analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The study was partially supported by the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece (IKY), under the Erasmus+ Role Models Program (peer counselling in higher education) funded by the European Commission.

Notes on contributors

Evangelia Karagiannopoulou

Evangelia Karagiannopoulou is Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Ioannina. Her current research interests concern learning and understanding, students’ experiences of teaching and learning, stress, mental health, emotions and emotion regulation in higher education. Department of Psychology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece (e-mail: [email protected])

Fotios S. Milienos

Fotios S. Milienos is Assistant Professor in Statistics at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. His current research interests includes, among others, event history modeling and generally, statistical methods with applications in social sciences. Department of Sociology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 136 Syngrou Avenue, 17671, Athens, Greece (e-mail: [email protected])

Christos Rentzios

Christos Rentzios is a PhD candidate/researcher in Educational Psychology at the University of Ioannina. His current research interests concern emotion regulation, defense mechanisms, academic emotions and approaches to learning in higher education. Department of Psychology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece (e-mail: [email protected])