Thrivers and divers: Using non-academic measures to predict college success and failure

Beattie, Graham; Laliberté, Jean-William P.; Oreopoulos, Philip

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.09.008

Cited by 60 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Overall, the findings suggest that students who have higher levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and have an internal locus of control have a propensity to have higher levels of grit. It is noted that conscientiousness as a personality trait is a vital contributing facet of grit [9,10,17,26,29] and academic performance among higher education students [10,25,33]. In addition, the findings remain informative in understanding that locus of control, the capacity for initiative and motivation, and persistent performance [34], remains an essential facet of grit [17,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Factors That Impact Measures of Grit among Nursing Students: A Journey Emblematic of the Koi Fish

Terry

Peck

2020

EJIHPE

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Grit is the capacity to persevere, to have passion, and be committed to achieve goals long-term regardless of adversity or challenge. Grit provides an insight into why some nursing students succeed academically or clinically, while others do not. This quantitative cross-sectional correlational study measured levels of grit among nursing students undertaking a three-year bachelor’s degree program. All students (n = 2349) within the program were invited to complete a questionnaire which included the short grit scale (Grit-S) which measured each student’s level of perseverance and passion. Overall, it was highlighted that increased levels of grit correlated with an increase in the student’s year of study, greater perceived clinical and academic performance, not using television as a motivator for entry to nursing, being lower on the socio-economic spectrum, and being older in age. Grit was found to develop exponentially as students entered second and third years, suggesting that a balance of constant academic and clinical challenge was an impetus for many to achieve in the face of adversity, and is reminiscent of the journey of the koi fish. This paper culminates in a call for educators to consider the inclusion of creative grit forming challenges that focus on developing a student’s sense of open-mindedness within first year of undergraduate nursing programs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Factors That Impact Measures of Grit among Nursing Students: A Journey Emblematic of the Koi Fish

Terry

Peck

2020

EJIHPE

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“…In a previous paper (Beattie, Laliberté and Oreopoulos, 2016), we explored what variables best predict unexpected poor or stellar grade performance in first year, after conditioning on high school grade. 1 To do so, we took advantage of a unique dataset combining a survey of all first year economics students across all three campuses of the University of Toronto (about 6,000 students) and administrative data containing application and performance information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For more details about the methodology and the results from the initial survey, we refer readers toBeattie, Laliberté and Oreopoulos (2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

What sets college thrivers and divers apart? A contrast in study habits, attitudes, and mental health

et al. 2019

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Students from 4-year colleges often arrive having already done very well in high school, but by the end of first term, a wide dispersion of performance emerges, with an especially large lower tail. Students that do well in first year (we call the top 10 percent Thrivers) tend to continue to do well throughout the rest of their time in university. Students that do poorly (we call the bottom 10 percent Divers) greatly struggle and are at risk of not completing their degree. In this paper we use a mandatory survey with open ended questions asking students about their first-year experience. This allows us to explore more closely what sets Thrivers and Divers apart, in terms of study habits, attitudes, and personal experiences. We find that poor time management and lack of study hours are most associated with poor academic performance, and that those who struggle recognize these weaknesses. Divers also report feeling more depressed and unhappy with their lives. We posit an 'academic trap', whereby initial poor performance is related to poor time management which in turn lowers expectations, which in turn leads to lower study time, and so on. Thrivers, in contrast, study significantly more and meet with course instructors.

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“…We also show that assigning students to upper-year undergraduate coaches can lead to potentially large academic improvements without the need for professionally trained coaches, as in the Bettinger and Baker (2014) study. Instead, a consistent characteristic across a variety of effective coaching studies appears to be proactive coaches or mentors who regularly contact students to provide support (Cook et al, 2014;Beattie et al (2016)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Coaching: How Far Can Technology Go?

Oreopoulos

Petronijevic

2016

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Recent studies show that programs offering structured, one-on-one coaching and tutoring tend to have large effects on the academic outcomes of both high school and college students. These programs are often costly to implement and difficult to scale, however, calling into question whether making them available to large student populations is feasible. In contrast, interventions that rely on technology to maintain low-touch contact with students can be implemented at large scale and minimal cost but with the risk of not being as effective as one-on-one, in-person assistance. In this paper, we test whether the effects of coaching programs can be replicated at scale by using technology to reach a larger population of students. We work with a sample of over four thousand undergraduate students from a large Canadian university, randomly assigning students into one of the following three interventions: (i) a one-time online exercise designed to affirm students' values and goals; (ii) a text messaging campaign that provides students with academic advice, information, and motivation; and (iii) a personal coaching service, in which students are matched with upper-year undergraduate coaches. We find large positive effects from the coaching program, as coached students realize a 0.3 standard deviation increase in average grades and a 0.35 standard deviation increase in GPA. In contrast, we find no effects from either the online exercise or the text messaging campaign on any academic outcome, both in the general student population and across several student subgroups. A comparison of the key features of the text messaging campaign and the coaching service suggests that proactively and regularly initiating conversations with students and working to establish trust are important design features to incorporate in future interventions that use technology to reach large populations of students.

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Thrivers and divers: Using non-academic measures to predict college success and failure

Cited by 60 publications

References 36 publications

Factors That Impact Measures of Grit among Nursing Students: A Journey Emblematic of the Koi Fish

Factors That Impact Measures of Grit among Nursing Students: A Journey Emblematic of the Koi Fish

What sets college thrivers and divers apart? A contrast in study habits, attitudes, and mental health

Student Coaching: How Far Can Technology Go?

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