Measuring self-differentiation and academic commitment in University students: A case study of education and engineering students

Abstract

More than half of university students in South Africa leave university before they complete their studies. Factors associated with student drop out include poor schooling, lack of fluency in the language of instruction, poor financial support, and inadequate student support services. In the present study, we focus on the way meaningful commitment influences self-regulation, and we draw on the investment model of commitment to examine the hypothesis that commitment will be related to satisfaction, quality of alternatives, and investment size, and that self-differentiation will provide additional predictive power to commitment. Results indicate that satisfaction and self-differentiation only are significant predictors of level of academic commitment. Meaningful commitment is predicted by satisfaction, quality of alternatives, investment, and self-differentiation to a lesser extent. Investment size was associated significantly with self-regulatory behaviours such as setting learning goals, managing studies effectively, and spending more time on studies. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on commitment, self-differentiation, and academic achievement in higher education.

Academic commitment and self-efficacy as predictors of academic achievement in additional materials science

“…The respondents completed a questionnaire that included biographical variables, the Academic Commitment Scale (Human-Vogel & Rabe, 2015), and Materials Science Selfefficacy Scale adapted from the Chemistry Science Self-efficacy Scale (Dalgety & Coll, 2006). The questionnaire was administered during an Additional Materials Science lecture in the seventh week of the fourth semester.…”

“…The Academic Commitment Scale (Human-Vogel & Rabe, 2015) was adapted from the Investment Model Scale (Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998) to suit the academic context. The scale measures level of commitment, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size, and meaningful (identity-relevant) commitment.…”

“…Although very little research on the second year attrition and beyond has been done, factors related to staff, quality of teaching and university policies seem to play a more prominent role (Wilcoxson et al, 2011). In addition to institutional and academic factors, authors also acknowledge that psychological factors such as the ability to self-regulate one's learning (Bjork, Dunlosky, & Kornell, 2013), self-efficacy (Zajacova, Lynch, & Espenshade, 2005), persistence (Wright, Jenkins-Guarnieri, & Murdock, 2013) and more recently, academic commitment (Human-Vogel & Rabe, 2015) are relevant to academic performance. Self-regulation refers to the ability to engage independently and proactively in monitoring one's learning, to sustain motivation, and engage in behaviours that lead to goal attainment (Zimmerman, 2000).…”

“…Recently, some authors have suggested academic commitment as a construct relevant to understanding attrition and retention at higher education institutions (Human-Vogel & Rabe, 2015). Using an investment model of commitment, Human-Vogel and Rabe (2015) measured students' satisfaction with their studies, longterm persistence with their studies (level of commitment), the size of the investments students make (investment), competing alternatives (quality of alternatives), and the perceived personal significance of their commitment to their studies (meaningfulness).…”

“…Conversely, evidence that one's labour bears the fruit of achievement, and helps one to achieve one's goals, reinforces one's sense of self-efficacy, so that identity-level commitments are maintained. Within this hierarchy, identity-level commitments reflect meaningful commitments that provide coherence and predictability to people's actions, and impose internal constraints on behaviour towards identity-relevant goals (Human-Vogel & Rabe, 2015). The internal constraints that identity-level commitments impose can possibly be viewed as moral behaviour, so that commitment is, essentially, also a moral construct.…”