Who Improves Most? The Differences in First-Year Students’ Learning Attitudes and Behaviors Measured by College Success Factor Index

Abstract

Utilizing a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design, this study investigated the impacts of participation in a First-Year Seminar (FYS) course on student learning attitudes and behaviors. Using the sample of 1,231 freshmen students in a large, public, research university in the Southeast, the study examined if FYS participation promoted students learning attitudes and behaviors in the following ten areas: responsibility, competition, task-planning, expectation, wellness, time-management, college involvement, family involvement, precision, and persistence. Additionally, the study tested for the differences in changes of students learning attitudes and behaviors among five student populations enrolled in the seminar: first-time in college, summer bridge, international, out-of-state, and teacher pre-professionals. Hotelling's T2 test revealed statistically significant differences in learning attitudes and behaviors between pre and posttests for each of the 10 measured factors, while a two-way mixed design MANOVA indicated that changes in students’ learning attitudes and behaviors were not significantly different for any of the factors depending on the subgroup. The lack of between-group differences demonstrated that the FYS course participation was equally beneficial for students from all populations examined in the study.

Exploration of factors affecting changes in student learning behavior: A systematic literature review

“…So, the learning process can be complex, and the information conveyed in learning must be multi-semantic. This is because what students think about school greatly impacts student learning and academic achievement [59].…”

Applying the time continuum model of motivation to explain how major factors affect mobile learning motivation: a comparison of SEM and fsQCA

“…Distinct from traditional learners, M-learners are mobile and individually (Klimova and Poulov a, 2016). Thus, positive emotional support from others is especially encouraging them to keep on learning (Wong, 2019), for example, teacher's encouragement (Gonçalves et al, 2018); families and their experiences (Krsmanovic et al, 2020) both effect positively on LM. However, there are a few conflicts.…”