Academic buoyancy in higher education

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a new instrument toward assessing English as foreign language students’ academic buoyancy and to investigate the association between academic buoyancy and three demographic variables of GPA, gender and educational level using the newly-designed questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach To do so, a new questionnaire consisting of 27 items was designed which measures four aspects of L2 buoyancy, namely, sustainability, regularity adaptation, positive personal eligibility and positive acceptance of academic life. The scale was then translated into Persian and its validity (computed via confirmatory factor analysis estimates) and reliability (computed via Cronbach’s α) were substantiated. Findings All the items were found to have accepted factor loading. The results regarding the association between academic buoyancy and demographic variables along with the relevant discussion are presented. Originality/value Though over the years, researchers have used a variety of methods and scales to measure buoyancy, all of the instruments have been consisted of few items (usually four) which do not include the many aspects related to student buoyancy as one of the tenets of individual differences in positive psychology. Moreover, the same materials were used for distinctive settings of school and workplace in which the individuals adapt different goal orientations and perspectives. Consequently, the need for designing a comprehensive and specific instrument which includes all the aspects of academic buoyancy focusing on EFL students in higher education is manifested.

EFL/ESL Teacher’s Resilience, Academic Buoyancy, Care, and Their Impact on Students’ Engagement: A Theoretical Review

“…In academic contexts which are full of adversities, buoyancy refers to an individual's ability to navigate and cope with the difficulties that occur (Martin and Marsh, 2019). It is a psychological construct which mirrors the routine academic setbacks in a positive context (Jahedizadeh et al, 2019). In L2 education, buoyancy beckons to the ability to negotiate and overcome the ups and downs of language learning and teaching (Yun et al, 2018).…”

“…While both concepts have a similar theoretical ground, resilience has limited applicability in academia as it does not clarify the adversities that routinely happen in one's academic life (Phan and Ngu, 2014). Moreover, resilience has definitional, sampling and population, operational, and methodological distinctions with academic buoyancy (Jahedizadeh et al, 2019). Furthermore, it can be argued that resilience focuses on the adversities of a small and extreme group of cases, while buoyancy considers "many and healthy" individuals' typically arisen experiences of challenge in academia (Martin and Marsh, 2019).…”

Academic self-efficacy and test anxiety in high school students: A conditional process model of academic buoyancy and peer support

“…Academic buoyancy refers to the ability of students to successfully cope with common academic setbacks and challenges faced in daily school life, including poor test scores, pressure from frequent examinations, and difficult homework (Martin & Marsh, 2008). Researchers have found a strong relation between academic buoyancy and test anxiety (Abdali et al, 2018;Datu & Yuen, 2018;Jahedizadeh et al, 2019). Academic buoyancy is associated with higher levels of academic performance and could buffer school pressure and contribute to students' school-related satisfaction and wellbeing (Datu & Yang, 2019;Hoferichter et al, 2021;Putwain et al, 2020).…”

A Causal Model of Parents' Personality Traits and Academic Performance with the Mediating Role of Academic Buoyancy

“…In Iran, Cronbach's alpha coefficients obtained by deleting item 8 were equal to 0.80 and the retest coefficient was equal to 0.73. Also, the correlation range of items with the total score is 0.51 to 0.68 (Jahedizadeh, Ghonsooly, & Ghanizadeh, 2019). In the present study, the reliability of this questionnaire was determined by calculating Cronbach's alpha, the value of which was 0.87 for the whole scale.…”