why do students fail? - welcome to the official website of … do students part iii... · ·...

2013 NCA HLC Annual Conference Hyatt Regency Chicago, Illinois. April 5‐9, 2013

Abour H. Cherif, Ph.D DeVry University Farah Movahedzadeh, Ph.D Harold Washington College Gerald E. Adams, Ph.D Columbia College Chicago Jeremy Dunning, Ph.D. Indiana University

Why Do Students Fail? Student’s Perspective

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Analysis and Discussion: The participants provided us with many reasons for why

some students may academically fail and drop out of college.

The feedback that we got from the face‐to‐face in‐depth discussion with the students helped us in our analysis of the results.

One group of students was from a

2‐year college.

In order to get a sense of the results and what they really meant to students, we went back to discuss our findings with two separate groups of

students.

One group of students was from a

4‐year college.

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Analysis and Discussion: Root Cause Analysis:

• In analyzing students’ responses to posed questions, we found that students mention multiple factors and see the issue of failing classes from multiple perspectives.

• In addition, when some students mentioned the same key words or phrases, such as motivation, study habits, or others in their answers, the explanations sometimes led to different root causes.

The following is one example of these tendencies. 3

Root Causes Analysis Failing is related to the fact that students are not motivated because ...

• Students think they are smarter than instructors and could easily pull grades up as in high school.

• Classes are not interesting, especially those which have nothing to do with their majors and planned careers.

• Students are not motivated because they are not interested in education.

• Instructors failed to make classes interesting to capture students’ attention.

Instructional Factor

Motivational Factor

Student’s Attitude Factor

Relevancy Factor

Analysis and Discussion: Using “Root‐Cause Analysis”, all the categories

can be tied into one or more of four areas (N=2684)

Category

Tied into Ability & Efforts of Students

Ability & Efforts but with Strong Influence from Outside Factors

Class Instruction, Instructors and Schools

Factors Outside Students’ Control

I Motivation √‐929

II Study Habits √‐465

III Instruction √‐275

IV Academic Preparedness

√‐314

V External Factors √‐299

VI Attitudes √‐283

VII Relevancy Issues

√‐119

Total 1991 119 275 299 6

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Modern Learners

Price, Christy (2013). Motivating Students: From Apathetic to Inspired.

Faculty Focus Video Seminar. Online Seminar • Thursday, March 28, 2013 • 1:00 pm Eastern

Motivating Students

Starting Right

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As Kelsey Metzger, from the Center for Learning Innovation at University of Minnesota Rochester demonstrated in her recent article, “Starting Right: ... at the Beginning of a Course”, (2013), how:

Metzger, Kelsey (2013). Starting Right. The American Biology Teacher, Vol75, No. 4, pp. 285‐289.

“Events that occur on the first day of class can leave a lasting impression on student and affect their motivation and performance”

(2013, p.285).

Doctor of Arts, Biology and Biology Education

Analysis and Discussion:

Lack of motivation and related matters is the category mentioned most frequently (929 times or 35 % of responses) as the reason why students fail classes.

Analysis and Discussion: Motivation

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• If the student doesn’t have the drive to succeed, or see the benefit from successfully finishing a given course, then he or she will not try and thus will likely not succeed.

• Realizing why he or she needs to succeed becomes the key to unlocking the door to success and planting realistic seeds for Self‐motivation.

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Total

• There is also a correlation between lack of self‐motivation and lack of perseverance. Students with strong self‐motivation apply their perseverance, mental capability, and energy to do everything in their power to gain the required knowledge and skills needed to succeed in new courses and programs no matter how hard the task is.

• When they realize that they need help, they don’t become timid

about getting appropriate assistance, but aggressively go for it.

• As one student said, “If you don’t understand it, memorize it; the bottom line is, you have to own it and deliver it when needed”.


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• Lack of interest in the subject discourages students from staying in the class and/or working hard to achieve a good grade and prevents students from being enthusiastic and taking the class seriously.

• Self‐esteem: If students have low self‐esteem, don't care how well they do, and/or don't care about their own education, then their classes are not going to be a priority for them.

• Laziness: When students are lazy, they do not exert that much effort in their classes and simply give up when they encounter the first obstacle.

• Lack of persistence: Students have the tendency to give up easily after falling behind. They find it very hard to catch up, and take the easy way out; they run away and give up the whole thing.


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• In conclusion, in order to succeed, students need good reasons for why they are taking a given course and why they are in school beyond just getting a college degree that enables them to get jobs.

• Students in this study realized that motivation is essential for their success, but they are crying loudly for help in becoming motivated and staying motivated during a given class and through their entire college career.

• They also believe that it is not only the student’s responsibility, but it is also the responsibility of instructors and college administrations to keep students motivated after admitting them to their colleges, programs, and courses.


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• Students with good study habits achieve better grades and are more successful in their classes than those who don’t.

• Poor study habits, time management, and study skills are among the obstacles that stand in the way of learning for many students (Tennen and Hagar 2011).

• In our study, “Study Habits” was mentioned 465 times (17% of responses) as factors contributing to student failing classes. It is the second root‐cause factor for student’s failing classes.

Analysis and Discussion: Study Habits

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The participants thought that many students don’t seem to know how to study, or just don’t study and do homework regularly due to the students’:

• Lack of concentration and/or not paying attention to school work.

• Lack of experience. • Outside distractions that compete for students’ attention.

• Not being accustomed to managing their time because they have no idea how much time and energy college work demands.


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• Many students become stressed when they discover that their college work requires much more time and effort than their high school work did, or when they realize that work that was acceptable in high school is not acceptable in college.

• They often over‐commit themselves by taking too many courses or by waiting to the last minute to do their work. As a result of poor time management, a number of students lose track of time and suffer from the procrastination syndrome.

• When they realize that they are behind, it is often too late for them to catch up (or they don’t know how to catch up). They end up feeling stressed out, produce substandard work and perform poorly on quizzes and exams.


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And how can we, as faculty, facilitate this? We “can help by taking a few minutes of class time to encourage students to improve their study skills and by giving them compelling reasons why it's worth their time and effort” (Tennen and Hagar 2011, ¶. 4).

We can testify that this strategy works because some of us have done this in their classes.


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In conclusion: Study habits and time management are connected to self‐motivation because it is the student’s motivation that keeps him or her from giving up when faced with difficulties.

We all know that one of the major differences between college and high school academic work is that college work requires all types of thinking (critical, analytical, creative) and in‐depth readings, rather than just rote memorization and shallow reading.

It is also a well‐known fact that faculty every day enter classes full of students with a wide range of learning needs, levels of preparedness, levels of interest and self‐motivation, and social and cultural backgrounds.

This range of capabilities in the classroom is not only a frustrating phenomenon that drives faculty to feel overwhelmed, but also a condition that often drives some students to feel lost in the traditional classroom environment.

Analysis and Discussion: Academic Preparedness

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• Lack of academic preparedness doesn’t always mean that students are not intelligent, bright, and/or hard workers.

• Often, students are not prepared academically because they lack the language, communication, and writing skills that are needed in order for them to comprehend what they learn and to communicate what they understand to others.

• However, the participants in this study mentioned academic challenges as the third most contributing factor for students’ failure at the college level. It was repeated a total of 314 times (12% of responses).

• The overall message is that a number of students fail simply because they are not ready cognitively or not prepared academically for college work.


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Cognitive Abilities

Academic Content

Communication Skills

Academic Preparedness

Academically Prepared Student

• Thus, we could all agree that the success or failure of students at college is directly related to their cognitive level, and their ability to read, write, speak, and listen effectively and with comprehension.

• Many college instructors believe that it is not their job to teach language and communication skills in their courses. Even though students should learn these skills in their pre‐college years, many students come to college without mastering such skills to the standard that enables them to succeed at the college level.

• Instructors should consider whether or not it is also their responsibility to help such students become academically prepared for college while also teaching them the prescribed course content.


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Furthermore, while colleges and universities are putting a lot of effort in dealing with the students’ academic preparedness for college work, the gap between students’ preparedness and the requirement to succeed in academic programs is widening. Colleges and universities might want to look at their own efforts in dealing with this matter to see why the gap is widening rather than narrowing.

• Are we paying attention to the characteristics of the modern learners and how they learn in our efforts in helping them become academically ready for college work?

• Are we teaching content and skills that people don’t use any more in the workplace?


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• External factors included outside influences, such as the need to work while going to school and the cost of education, which are outside of the control of students.

• This category was mentioned the fourth most frequently as a factor contributing to students failing courses at the college level. It was mentioned a total of 299 times (11 % of responses).

• The participants reported that unforeseen circumstances including illnesses and family tragedies are outside influences that affect students’ performance, and they have no power over them.

• But they also reported factors such as drugs and alcohol which are factors that are (at least partly) under their own control.

Analysis and Discussion: External Factors

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The cost of education has risen sharply in the last ten years in the United States, and recently, many states have cut budgets for education significantly.

Analysis and Discussion: External Factors

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Total

• These facts force those students who desire a higher education and cannot afford it to go to college and work at the same time (like most of us did!). However, today’s students may require multiple jobs just to make ends meet.

• Some students told us that because of the cost of education, they maximize the number of courses they take each term to save money.

Analysis and Discussion: Student Attitudes

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Student attitudes were the fifth most mentioned as a contributing factor in student’s failure in an academic setting and was mentioned 283 times (11% responses).

Motivation 35%

Study habits 17%

Instruction 10%

Academic Preparation

12%

External Factors 11%

Attitudes 11%

Relevancy 4%

• There is correlation between student’s positive state of mind, which we call a positive attitude, and academic achievement (Russell and Hollander 1975).

• Thus, a student’s attitude is an extremely important factor in learning because it directs students’ aspirations and ambitions (Black & Hanley 1995).

Student attitudes can take various forms including: • Excessive pride to the point that one is unwilling to ask for

help when needed. This can also result from being shy or from fear of being perceived as ignorant.

• Developing a negative attitude toward school and school work (which prevents them from easily engaging in the school work) could happen as a result of a negative learning experience, or a faulty communication or misunderstanding with an instructor, staff member, administrator, or even fellow students.


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The ways we teach and engage students in learning, coupled with the drastic cultural changes that students undergo as they transition from high school to college, affect students’ attitudes toward and performance in college‐level courses.


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• For example, students who are not willing to ask questions and/or are not ready to say that they need help, have a greater tendency to fail than those who do ask for help.

• By asking questions and for seeking help when they need it, students maximize their rate of success.

Success leads to developing

positive attitude.

Leads to success

Having basic skills of how to learn

Failure leads to developing

negative attitude

Leads to failure

Lack of having

basic skills of how to learn

Basic skills of how to learn include how to manage time, ask questions, look for help when needed, and take notes in classrooms and organize information!

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Desirable Motivation Undesirable Motivation

Analysis and Discussion: Instruction, Instructors, and Instructional Materials

As Christy Price, a psychologist at Dalton State College, described, “Modern learners have a different mind‐set about education, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn. They just go about it differently.” (Thursday, March 28, 2013)

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Factors contributing to student failure related to instruction, instructors, and instructional materials are mentioned 275 times (10% of responses) which makes it the sixth most mentioned factor.

Under this sub‐category, reasons included that classes are boring and/or students are not challenged, so they don’t make any effort and thus end up failing. These are motivational factors too, but in this context were judged to be primarily instructor‐related.

Some participants attributed failure to:

• Insensitive instructors or faculty who don’t engage students in active learning by moving too quickly through the materials and with no periodic reviews.

• Some students perception that they don’t relate well with an instructor, which can result in failure.

• Instructors who are not clear enough in presenting information cause students to have a misunderstanding sometimes resulting in failure.

• Some students developed the belief that the instructor would pass them regardless of their level of work, just by attending the classes, and thus end up doing little work, resulting in their failing the class.


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Some other participants attributed failure to: • Some students feel that the content of the final exams of some

instructors are purposely more rigorous and did not line up with the course content they had been taught. In other words, instructors purposely include questions that were not covered in the course just to show them who is in charge.

But the question still remains, as one of the students puts it: If the majority of students were able to successfully complete the exam, why is it that certain students could not? • Is the student complaining because he or she couldn’t pass the

exam and using the content as an excuse for the failure?

• Or did the exam really not cover what the students learned in the class, or what they were supposed to learn?


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Analysis and Discussion: Relevancy Issues

The least repeatedly mentioned root cause for students’ failing classes at the college level was the feeling of disconnection with the course work or that the subject being taught doesn't apply to their fields or major. It was mentioned 119 times (4% of responses).

As one student summarized it, many students coming out of high school are not able to see the value in doing well in college if they cannot see the relevancy of the learning materials to their lives or intended careers.

When students do see the relevancy of the learned topics to their major, career, and daily life, they are motivated to become involved in the learning activities rather than to be passive receivers of information.

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Analysis and Discussion: Relevancy Issues

While students mentioned the Relevancy Factor a total of 119 times (4 % of responses), those who we talked with face‐to‐face stated that for them, the students, relevancy and motivation are two different faces for the same coin. Relevancy & Motivation are tightly connected and affect each other. You cannot influence one without the other. The same can be said also for motivation and attitude!

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