What successful students do: Learning activities explain university students’ acquisition of knowledge beyond prior achievement, prior knowledge and motivation

Bosch, E¹, Seifried, E¹, Spinath, B^1
1Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Sinzendorfzaal, 26-09-2019, 15:30 - 17:00

Keywords

higher education, student learning, self-directed learning

Summary

In higher education, students learn under little external control and have to decide on their own when, where and how to study. We examined, which learning activities students actually used during one semester and if these learning activities predicted acquisition of knowledge beyond well-known predictors of achievement such as prior achievement and motivation. In an educational psychology lecture, we offered preservice teachers several evidence-based learning activities (e.g., participate in self-tests or submit essays and receive feedback). In a sample of N = 112 preservice teachers, we assessed school GPA, prior knowledge in educational psychology, motivational variables such as ability self-concept as well as intentions to use the offered learning activities at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, we asked students how much they had used several learning activities and assessed their ability self-concept as well as their knowledge regarding educational psychology in a mock exam. Regression analyses showed that how much students actually used learning activities explained their performance on the mock exam after controlling for prior achievement, prior knowledge and ability self-concept (ß = .21, p < .05). We will discuss the possibilities to assess and foster different learning activities in higher education.

 

Auteurs