Background: Increasingly, high dropout rates in science courses at colleges and universities have led to discussions of causes and potential support measures of students. Students' prior knowledge is repeatedly mentioned as the best predictor of academic achievement. Theory describes four hierarchically ordered types of prior knowledge, from declarative knowledge of facts to procedural application of knowledge. This study explores the relevance of these four prior knowledge types to academic achievement in the introductory phase of the two science subjects, biology and physics. Results: We assessed the knowledge types at the beginning and student achievement (measured by course completion) at the end of the first study year. We applied logistic regression models to evaluate the relationship between the knowledge types and academic achievement. First, we controlled for a well-established predictor of academic achievement (high school grade point average). Second, we added the knowledge types as predictors. For biology, we found that only knowledge about principles and concepts was a significant predictor in the first year. For physics, knowledge about concepts and principles as well as the ability to apply knowledge to problems was related to academic achievement. Conclusion: Our results concerning the knowledge types, which are of special relevance in biology and physics studies, could lead to effective measures, e.g. for identifying at-risk students and course guidance. Furthermore, the results provide a profound starting point for controlled intervention studies that systematically foster the identified relevant knowledge types in each subject and aim at a theory-and empirical-based optimization of pre-and introductory courses.

This study investigates the knowledge acquisition of biology and physics freshmen students with special regard to differences between high school (HS) high performing and low performing students. Our study is based on a prior knowledge model, which describes explicit knowledge as a composite of four knowledge types: knowledge of facts, knowledge of meaning, integration of knowledge, and application of knowledge. As a first outcome-oriented approach, we operationalize knowledge acquisition via the changes in these knowledge types between the beginning and the end of the first year. To investigate the knowledge acquisition, a test set was constructed that covers these knowledge types. It was administered to 162 biology and 101 physics students at university. We used an Item Response Theory approach to scale the data. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze the acquisition of the knowledge types. We separated HS low, medium, and high achievers by high school grade point average (HS GPA). The knowledge acquisition of the HS low achievers did not differ from other groups. However, the HS low achievers did not only start with less prior knowledge but also were not able to reach the prior knowledge of the HS high achievers within the first year. Our findings concerning knowledge acquisition may be used to support and improve students’ knowledge acquisition in a targeted way by focusing on selected knowledge types.

ZusammenfassungBesonders in den naturwissenschaftlichen Studiengängen brechen viele Studierende ihr Studium ab. Bislang war ein Studium der Biologie davon eher weniger betroffen. In den letzten Jahren zeichnet sich für Deutschland auch im Bachelorstudium Biologie der Trend einer steigenden Studienabbruchsquote ab. Empirisch begründete Studienberatungen und fundierte Unterstützungsangebote könnten hier geeignete Maßnahmen sein. Die individuellen Voraussetzungen wie Noten, soziodemographische und motivationale Faktoren, Fachwissen, sowie die Lebens- und Studienbedingungen und das Studier- und Lernverhalten (z. B. Lernstrategien und -motivation) sind relevante Faktoren für den Studienerfolg. Bislang fehlen für das Biologiestudium in Deutschland allerdings weitgehend Untersuchungen hierzu. Daher prüft diese Studie schulisches und universitäres Wissen sowie Lernstrategien als Erfolgsprädiktoren für den Studienerfolg im biologiebezogenen Anfangsstudium, da diese geeignet erscheinen in der kritischen Phase des Studienbeginns mögliche Präventionsmaßnahmen abzuleiten. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass auch über den üblicherweise starken Prädiktor der Abiturnote hinaus universitäres Fachwissen, Zeitmanagement und Anstrengung den Studienerfolg in Biologie vorhersagen. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse lassen sich universitäre Maßnahmen ableiten, die potenziell zu einer Reduzierung des Studienabbruchs beitragen könnten.

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