Correlates of College Retention and GPA: Learning and Study Strategies, Testwiseness, Attitudes, and ACT

Abstract

GFA. Colleges and universities continue to face the issue of student retention. For some researchers (e.g., Braxton & Brier, 1989) and many college counselors and administrators, retention is viewed as a fundamental indicator of student success. Several factors have been shown to be related to college success, such as high school grade point average (GPA), minority status, and study skills (Bean & Metzner, 1985; Carroll, 1988; Guloyan, 1986; Miller, Finley, & Mckinley, 1990; Stoecker, Pascarella, & Wolfe, 1988;Terenzini & Pascarella 1980). Universities are faced with balancing the need to provide educational opportunities and to assure that students have adequate preparation for success in higher education. The study focuses specifically on attitudes, behaviors, and skill development that may enhance college performance and lead to student retention. Some suggestions for intervention are provided.Many factors affect success in college, apart from traditional predictors of academic "success" such as the American College Test (ACT). This suggests that a variety of students' skills, attitudes, and motivational factors need to be investigated (see Britton & Tesser, 1991 ; Schmeck & Grove, 1979). Consequently, a variety of areas were assessed: attitudes about school, learning and study behaviors, test taking ability, attributions about responsibility for school success and school faiIure, and prior academic achievement. GPA had the largest relation to attrition in Miller's (1 991) study. Age, high school performance, study skills, educational goals, minority status, and absenteeism all had significant effects on GPA. Tinto's (1 975, 1982) model of student attrition suggests four components to the process of student attrition: preentry characteristics, initial goals and commitments (motivation), external commitments, and academic and social experiences.Time management practices have been the subject of extensive popular literature (Bliss, 1976; Green 1969; Lakein, 1973). But few empirical studies have included time management; consequently, there is a need for the assessment of the relation between time management abilities and quantitative measures of achievement (Britton & Tesser, 1991). Macan, Shahani, Dipboye, h Phillips (1 990) reported a significant relationship between self-reported time management behaviors of students and their performance, as reflected in both self-reported GPA and quality of performance. They also found that those who practiced time management were clearer about their role and perceived that they performed better than those who did not report time management behaviors. Macan et al. (1 990) suggested education by means of a manual or seminar to help students develop skills to assist them in successful college matriculation. Learning centers, counseling centers, and orientation courses are other avenues that could provide students with this information.This study focused on the hypothesis that study skills and attitudes about achievement are more significantly correlated with academic pe...

Do First-Year College Students' Expectations Align with their First-Year Experiences?

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The interrelationship between student learning experience and study behaviour

“…These include strategies and techniques such as note taking, information processing, selecting main ideas, self-testing, concentration and time management (Proctor, Prevatt, Adams, Hurst, & Petscher, 2006). Numerous studies have demonstrated significant associations between specific study skills and academic success in university students, such as time management (Britton & Tesser, 1991), information processing and self-testing strategies (Kern, Fagley, & Miller, 1998). Researchers have also found that high-achieving students tend to apply study strategies more frequently than their lower achieving counterparts, with frequency of strategy use being positively associated with academic performance (Yip, 2007).…”

A latent profile analysis of university students’ self-regulated learning strategies

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