Predicting academic success in higher education: what’s more important than being smart?

Abstract

This study investigated the combined predictive validity of intelligence and personality factors on multiple measures of academic achievement. Students in a college of higher education in the Netherlands (N0137) completed a survey that measured intelligence, the Big Five personality traits, motivation, and four specific personality traits. Student performance was measured with grade point average (GPA) and time to graduation, as well as with five specific performance measures: regular exams, skills training, team projects, internships, and a written thesis. Results show that 33% of the variance in GPA and 30% of the variance in time to graduation can be explained by combining intelligence, personality, and motivational predictors. Conscientiousness is the best predictor across a broad spectrum of academic achievement measures and explains five times as much variance in GPA as does intelligence. The practical implications are that institutes of higher education should collect personality data on students at the outset and then help students accordingly. Highly conscientious students who are organized and internally motivated might potentially be offered more challenging honours programs with corresponding special commendations on their diplomas, whereas students who score low on conscientious would receive more structure through student study groups, frequent deadlines, shorter assignments, group assignments, clearly defined learning goals, and less second chances for passing examinations.Keywords Academic success . Higher education . Intelligence . Motivation . Personality traits . Predictive validity Harris (1940) andCattell (1965) long ago noted the importance of personality factors for predicting academic achievement. Harris (1940) discussed the importance of persistence, in the guise of effort, and concluded that the essential factors for scholastic achievement were: Eur J Psychol Educ (2012) (a) ability, otherwise known as intelligence or scholastic aptitude, (b) effort, also known as drive or degree of motivation, and (c) personal, economic, social, and academic circumstances. Years later, Cattell (1965) suggested that, for university students who had already been selected on intelligence, personality and motivation would be just as important for predicting academic achievement. Recent research has shown that personality accounts for variance in academic achievement over and above intelligence (Bratko et al. 2006;Gilles and Bailleux 2001;Noftle and Robins 2007;Poropat 2009), and that personality may have even more predictive power than intelligence at the post-secondary levels of education (Conard 2006;Di Fabio and Busoni 2007;Furnham and Chamorro-Premuzic 2004;Furnham et al. 2003;Petrides et al. 2005).O 'Conner and Paunonen (2007) recently reviewed the studies concerning how well intelligence and personality factors predicted academic achievement at the post-secondary level and reiterated the earlier recommendations of Harris and Cattell. They offered a template for subsequent research and ca...

Inteligencia y Pensamiento Científico-Creativo: su convergencia en la explicación del rendimiento académico de los alumnos

“…Si en la infancia sólo la inteligencia parece ser suficiente para explicar satisfactoriamente el rendimiento escolar de los alumnos, a partir de la adolescencia otras variables no cognitivas son asumidas como igualmente relevantes en esa explicación (Bratko, ChamorroPremuzic, & Saks, 2006;Conard, 2006;Farsides & Woodfield, 2003;Furnham & ChamorroPremuzic, 2004;Gilles & Bailleux, 2001;Kappe & van der Flier, 2012;Noftle & Robins, 2007;O'Conner & Paunonen, 2007;Poropat, 2009). Según estos autores, las dimensiones de motivación y de personalidad adquieren relevancia explicativa del rendimiento escolar a medida que se avanza en edad y en los niveles escolares, siendo igualmente interesante no confinar las habilidades cognitivas al pensamiento lógico o convergente.…”

Career success of preschool teachers in Germany – the significance of the Big Five personality traits, locus of control, and occupational self-efficacy

“…Moreover, beginning during training, according to Kappe and van der Flier (2012), targeted services could be provided to prospective preschool teachers in order to help them deal with training-related problems. In particular, similar to conclusions that have been drawn for school teachers (Abele, 2011), it seems to be critical to provide targeted support for occupational self-efficacy already during training.…”

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