Matching student characteristics to learning environments
Students Need Help!
It's a very difficult time for students entering college. About 40% drop out or transfer in their first year, and overall, less than 60% graduate within 6 years. Even after 8 years, about 40% never graduate at all.
Colleges and universities have been spending millions of dollars (raising costs at the same time) on technology, administrative officer, and dedicated departments, and more to try and improve student retention and graduation rates. Spending on student services has almost tripled over 25 years, and spending on instruction has increased by about 140%.
Although a few individual schools have seen success, nationally, the average retention rate has improved only about 5% and graduation rate only 4%. Furthermore, expenditures on instruction only show a modest correlation with student success, and those on student services show little to no relationship with student success. Worse even, a rigorous and in-depth study of the California State University system in 2019 found that student services expenditures were negatively correlated!
It's not just about higher education, though. Primary and secondary schools have a host of struggles, too, including:
Despite grade inflation, performance on assessments has been declining for decades.
Teacher preparation programs often
lag behind current research, and
fail to train teachers how to effectively evaluate research quality and validity.
Researchers are slow to investigate the most pressing issues that teachers are facing,
particularly relating to teaching diverse learners.
Primary school curricula are not always aligned well with secondary curricula (similar to secondary schools and colleges), and
The transition from primary to secondary has become increasingly challenging
Changes in the substance and frequency of parental involvement in schools and their children's learning
Systemic downstream issues resulting from funding cuts over time, including larger classrooms, low staff/faculty morale, difficulty attracting quality leadership candidates, etc.
Students are engaging adult roles later in life and their higher order cognitive skills may be developing later as well, but quality evidence of the neurological and environmental components, processes, and outcomes are nascent.
It's easy to chalk a lot of this up to consequences of parenting, Covid, political interference, generational differences, or any number of other singular (and often biased) explanations. But these aren't new problems. Student performance on assessments has been declining for nearly 2 decades, and colleges have complained for decades that a significant proportion of students weren't able to do the math and reading required of incoming students. Ironically, employers have also been complaining that college graduates aren't able to do everything they need entry-level professionals to be able to do as well.
The truth is that the problem is not just one problem, but many, and they are systemic and complex. So, it's difficult to discern and articulate the big picture enough to enable teachers, administrators, researchers to act.
Nonetheless, students deserve better. They need better ways to explore their identity and interests, and they need the knowledge and skills to identify and select colleges where they can thrive. Our educational systems are clearly struggling to provide it, and the current environment of flawed rankings, seductive college marketing, and romanticized notion of the college experience are counter-productive.
Cogi aims to help engage in this gap by providing students and their families better, data-driven methods and tools to better prepare for college and effectively and rationally evaluate the quality and performance of colleges and understand how their personal characteristics match with the educational environments associated with different school types.
One key component of this effort is to help students identify their approach to intellectual activity and academic behaviors (Academic Mindset) and their emotional regulation and ability to resolve problems and achieve their goals (Individual Agency). The bulk of the college experience, and the contexts in which students struggle the most, involve both - frequent engagement in intellectual activity and responding to adversity and resolving problems.
Academic Mindset
Aspects of students' academic mindset, such as academic self-efficacy/self-image, need for cognition, growth mindset, metacognition, motivation, conscientiousness, etc.) are associated with and widely believed to facilitate greater motivation, academic achievement, retention, and overall student success.
One key mechanism involves the influence from these factors upon students' academic engagement, where the more engaged students are in academic activities, the greater their academic achievement.
The degree to which these characteristics in combination influence student success is still being determined, but a few studies have examined interactions and suggest they largely mediate and amplify positive effects on academic achievement and overall student success.
Similarly, research on specific mindset interventions and evidence of unambiguous causality are unclear, yet varied and multiple interventions over time appear promising. One exception is metacognitive interventions, which appear to directly and positively improve academic performance.
The scientific uncertainty is due to research design flaws, substantial differences in populations sampled, and differences in the way research is reported that makes replication difficult or impossible. Another complication is that across studies the learning environments (e.g. engaged, active, etc. v. lecture, passive, etc.) were also inconsistent, and there is growing evidence that the learning environment strongly influences student learning behaviors. Course content, teacher behavior, and learning activities impact aspects of students' academic mindset, including motivation, metacognition, and more, which in turn impact academic achievement and overall student success.
Individual Agency
Individual agency, involves a number of interrelated aspects, including
socio-emotional skills, such as emotional regulation, help-seeking, response to stress, etc.
self-regulation skills, including problem solving, goal-setting, time-management, and self-control, and
self-efficacy related factors, including motivation, grit and resilience, locus-of control, and sense of competence.
These play a crucial role in determining college student success by helping to manage stress and day to day needs, maintain motivation and engagement to achieve goals, resolve problems and overcome adversities, and access support resources when needed. This has both direct and indirect effects on academic success, retention, persistence, and overall student success.
The interrelatedness of factors makes research and clear attribution of effects difficult. However, self-efficacy (including academic self-efficacy), self-regulation (including motivation), and the mindset aspect of conscientiousness seem to be pervasively involved, as either direct influences or mediating elements. Problem solving and emotional regulation are also prominently involved.
Individual Characteristics and Learning Environments
Unfortunately, too often research efforts assume that student success factors are mostly the same across different learning environments and types of colleges. For that reason, research has yet to clearly identify how learning environments across online, community colleges, large public universities, and small private colleges differ. Student characteristics that differ have been researched slightly more, but comprehensive and definitive research is still missing.
This means that conclusive research on learning environment differences and differences in student success characteristics at private and public schools is sparse. Synthesizing the research that does exist and over 25 years of experience in higher education, teaching and learning in both private and public schools, Cogi concludes:
There are qualitative differences in student characteristics between private and public universities
Class size and engaging, student centered, conceptual-change focused teaching strategies are known to influence academic engagement, motivation, interest, sense of belonging, and academic achievement
Private college learning environments tend to feature smaller class sizes and different teaching strategies than those at large public colleges
Differences in faculty's approaches to teaching foster different approaches to learning in learners
The frequency and quality of faculty interaction influences students' academic integration and academic performance
There are significant challenges to teaching and assessing for deeper learning (deeper understanding, analysis, and synthesis, etc.) in large classes due to time demands associated with active learning activities (e.g. deep discussions, active projects, problem-based learning, etc.) and assessment (e.g. time-to-grade multiple choice test vs. essays or presentations, etc.
Thus, it stands to reason that some individual student characteristics tend to be more advantageous in some learning environments than others.
Online colleges- Successful students at online schools -
Tend to be highly independent and likely prefer individual work
Self-regulate their learning and motivation extremely well
Likely prefer strategic learning over surface learning, and possibly dislikes deeper learning
Thus, their appreciation for intellectual activity may be moderate to high
Are quite successful at setting and achieving goals
Exceptionally able to maintain motivation and academic engagement
Likely have well developed coping skills and effective support systems
Large Public - Successful students at large public schools -
Can effectively engage with others, both academically and socially
Successfully develop positive relationships, support networks, and sense of belonging
Likely have well developed coping and problem solving skills
comfortable seeking help/support and engaging institutional resources when needed
Maintain motivation and academic engagement
Likely have a moderate to high appreciation for intellectual activity
Community College - Successful students at Community Colleges -
Are very comfortable seeking help/support and engaging institutional resources to help resolve problems
Maintain motivation and academic engagement
Vary in terms of approach to learning, but may have a lower appreciation for intellectual activity
Are successful at resolving problems and setting and achieving goals
Are able to self-regulate their learning and evaluate/adapt learning strategies
Regional Public - Surprisingly there is little to no research that teases out or investigates particular student characteristics that influence student success on regional campuses.
It is reasonable to start with a blend from both large publics and small privates
Successful students at regional public colleges -
Maintain motivation and academic engagement
Are able to self-regulate their learning
Successfully develop positive relationships, support networks, and sense of belonging
Likely have a moderate appreciation for intellectual activity
Private Colleges - Successful students at Private Colleges
Maintain motivation and academic engagement
Value or expect increased faculty interaction
Likely have a higher appreciation for intellectual activity
Often have lesser skills in one or more of the following - self-regulation, coping, self-efficacy, and/or social and academic integration
But they must possess the ability and willingness to develop them more
NOTE: Likely that the MORE of these a student lacks in, the less likely they will succeed
Tend to be undecided in major
Students with low Academic mindset and low Individual Agency
Students who report low scores on both may not be ready for college just yet, particularly those who score very low on both.
They may benefit from taking a year or two to work and engage more adult roles to develop coping and problem solving skills, self-regulation skills, etc.
Students who report Low, but towards the high end of low, might benefit from Community College or exploring Trade options for their career. Community Colleges can help in that regard as well.
Summary
In essence, a college student success, both in and outside the classroom, depends on the student's ability to:
integrate socially and academically, navigating academic and social environments effectively
engage, and evaluate the effectiveness of, learning strategies
maintain a high level of engagement in academic activities
maintain commitment to goals and objectives
respond to adversities, manage stressors, and problem solve effectively
Different learning environments across the different types of colleges and universities interact with individual student characteristics, and this interaction significantly influences student success.
All students at any type of school need to be able to maintain motivation and academic engagement
Students who enjoy intellectual activity yet may need a little extra support in a few areas tend to succeed at small private schools.
Students who have a moderate appreciation for intellectual activity and have decent to strong coping and problem solving skills, tend to succeed in regional public schools and large public universities.
Students who have very strong self-regulation and coping/problem solving skills tend to do well in online environments.
Students who have strong social skills and help-seeking skills, decent self-regulation and coping/problem solving skills, and at least enjoy a moderate amount of intellectual activity can do well at large public schools.
Cogi engages students in evaluating and assessing these aspects of themselves and helps them identify the types of college environments that tend to be better suited to them. You can take the Student Assessment - here.
Additionally, since it's likely that (a) students' self-perceptions are not entirely accurate, and (b) there's no perfect match between a college's environment and a given student's needs, we help students and their families develop and utilize a student success plan to help compensate and help the student know in advance what they need to do in order to succeed in and outside the classroom.