Education: Learning styles and preferences of the students

Through the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and talents, education is essential in enabling individuals and society to actively participate in the growth process. The academic achievement of the kids is generally impacted by a variety of circumstances. Differences in gender, age, commute time to educational institutions, prior education, and home income are among the crucial variables. The debate of the factors linked to students' academic achievement has significantly increased the amount of scholarly interest. Thus, the study aims to highlight a few of the variables that can affect students' academic success. Some of the important factors include gender, age, and previous qualification, the city of residence, class participation, and level of parents’ education. Furthermore, the study intends on providing a description of some of the implications for improving academic performance and ensuring achievement of better GPA in school.

Education remains amongst the crucial factors that influence the development of both the society and country. Both the quantity and quality of instruction in the various institutions have been the subject of discussion in some nations. There are many indicators crucial for the determination of the academic achievement of students. The commonly applied measure is usually CGPA. There is the necessity for consideration of the performance of the various students regarding the CGPA.

Gender

The sex of the students further remains a significant factor that influences the performance of students. Some of the notable gender differences amongst the students are evident in their attitudes, personalities, expectations of the teachers and behaviors. Furthermore, the natural and differential course taking tends to contribute to the gender differences reflected in the academic performance of the students. The male students tend to perform better than girls as evident in some studies regarding the influence of gender on academic performance. A survey carried out by Kim and Julia (168) however, argues that there is no relationship between gender and academic performance. Another study conducted by Khan, et al (68) echoes the fact that gender differences do not influence the standardized science test scores of a particular set of students. However, the study conducted by Carey et al. (15) shows that male students tend to perform better than women in certain environments do while the women tend to perform better in other settings. Additional studies show that the male students tend to outperform the female students in the sciences.

However, in writing and reading the girls tends to outperform the male counterparts. There is the necessity for noting that the educational statistics tend to point out the fact that the girls often outperform the boys in every level of the education system and ensure attainment of higher qualifications. The study attributes the excellent performance of the female students than the male counterparts to the academic responsibility which provides their less likelihood of being absent from the lessons.

Nationality

Several studies point out the fact that the school performance of the students tends to differ significantly with the nationalities. The study conducted by Chumacero, et al. (217) suggests that the international students tend to outperform the local students in business studies. The study carried out by Fiagborlo, and Etornam (49) shows that the foreign students in Singapore experienced a significant amount of stress levels attributable to homesickness, culture shock, and perceptions of discrimination. Such stress levels tend to contribute significantly to the poor performance of the international students due to the shift in focus in studying. The various causes of stress tend to have an adverse influence on the participation of the international students in their involvement in the school activities that contribute to the important learning and personal development. One of the common coping mechanism adopted by the international students entail focusing on academic achievement. Furthermore, studies show that the non-Western students tend to perform poorly in comparison to the Western students.

Learning styles and preferences of the students

The learning styles adopted in the various learning institutions tend to play a crucial role in influencing the academic performance of the students. Despite the small nature of the effect of the learning styles of the students, it is accepted that the learning styles adopted in a particular learning institution tend to play a significant role in enhancing the education of the students hence encouraging self-directed learning. There is the necessity for both the students and learning institutions to understand the learning styles. Students tend to exhibit the preference for the approaches that ensure their learning or comprehension of subjects hence the need for tailoring the styles to suit their learning needs. Furthermore, understanding of the learning styles of the students tends to plays a crucial role in allowing for the necessary adjustments in the teaching approaches adopted by the teachers. Numerous studies have focused on using some of the standardized tools towards ensuring identification and comprehension of the preferences of the students regarding pedagogy. However, none of the tools has proven effective in associating the student’s learning styles with their academic performances.

Family background

The family history is a crucial factor considered in many studies to influence the academic achievements of the students. The studies suggest that the higher the level of education of the father the better the performance of the student. However, there is the necessity for noting that the correlation between the degree of education of the parent and the student is likely to arise from the fact that the father tends to exhibit awareness to the school system and some of the existing challenges. As such, the father tends to focus on the provision of the students with the moral strengths crucial for ensuring better academic achievements. Furthermore, the educated parents tend to exhibit the likelihood on the exemption of the students from doing some of the household chores if they perform poorly.

The performance of the students tends to show a correlation between the economic statuses of the father. As such, the students coming from some of the developing nations or communities tend to perform better than the students from affluent families due to their focus on escaping from poverty. The students coming from the low-income families tend to perform better because of their assumption of their roles in uplifting their families economically on their completion of studies. The socio-economic background of the parents of the students tends to play a significant role in determining the academic achievements of the students. The level of education of the father or parents plays a vital role in ensuring that the students obtain the appropriate moral support that is crucial for their attainment of higher grades. The parents in such cases tend to comprehend the significance of education hence their likelihood in assisting the children to gain from the school system appropriately.

Academic competency

The study conducted by Ariani (153) points out the fact that the school competence of the students tends to relate to the capacity of the students to ensure efficient management of their study load. The students with the better academic expertise tend to exhibit better performance in schools. However, there is the necessity for noting that the various behaviors, skills, and attitudes that contribute to the academic performance of the students fall into two broad categories. The two categories include academic expertise and the academic enablers. The academic skills include aspects such as critical thinking, mathematics, and language arts. On the other hand, the academic enablers comprise of aspects such as interpersonal skills, study skills, engagement, and motivation. Motivation tends to plays a crucial role in reflecting the approach of the student, their persistence, and level of interest regarding the academic subjects. On the other hand, engagement tends to take into account the behavior of the students, which plays a crucial role in facilitating processing of the new knowledge and taking of the various tests. Additionally, the interpersonal skills comprise of the cooperative learning behaviors that are important for boosting interactions amongst the students.

Attitudes of students

The majority of the scholars and cognitive theorists tend to associate poor performance amongst the students to the low self-esteem, self-perception, and negative attitudes towards study. The erroneous perceptions of the students towards the study tend to contribute significantly to their poor performance. Studies further associate attitudes of the students with their performances in the various test.

Engagement in learning

The numerous studies point out to the fact that the participation in the college or medical schools plays a crucial role in ensuring the promotion of the success of the student and learning. Numerous factors in the college environment tend to promote high levels of engagements. The student engagement entails the degree of intrinsic interest and participation that the students show in the college. Involvement in the universities involves some of the activities that include attention, effort, and persistence. Some of the attitudes associated with engagement include pride in success, motivation, interest, and positive learning values. The engaged students tend to focus on ensuring that they learn more, maximize their retention, and enjoy learning activities more than the students exhibiting the lack of engagement and hence ensuring their success in academic performance. The high levels of the student engagement serve as important predictors of scores on the school performance of the students. The more the students engage in learning, the greater their chances of exhibiting success in their academic achievements.

Class attendance

The class participation tends to present positive relation with the school performance of the students. The high levels of absenteeism from the class tend to pose an adverse effect on the academic grades of the students and further contribute to the decrease in both their examination grades and scores. The majority of the scholars recognize the fact that the class attendance remains a crucial aspect in ensuring the improvement of the academic performance of the students. The study conducted by Duggal and Pooja (197) shows that participation tends to present small but significant effect on the academic performance of the students. The students that often miss some classes tend to exhibit likelihood on responding incorrectly to some of the questions that relate to the materials covered on that day that the students who were present. The class attendance tends to play a crucial role in ensuring enhancement of the learning. Students that attend most of the classes usually perform better than those that miss classes despite the lack of points based on attendance of the classes. Furthermore, studies show the presence of the causal effect of absence on the performance of the students as missing the classes results in a bad performance. Contrarily, other studies conducted by scholars suggest that there is no relation between grades and class attendance.

Self-efficacy and motivation

Self-efficacy entails the way that people feel about themselves and the extent to which they like themselves, especially in both the social and academic aspects when it comes to the college students. Through the various pressure and daunting responsibilities that taint the lives of the students, individuals tend to learn and understand the significance of having high self-efficacy in college. Having academic achievement of a person plays a crucial role in ensuring success in meeting the expectations and desires of an individual that is essential to the self-efficacy of a majority of the college students. Studies thus suggest that high self-efficacy amongst the college students is of significance. Students that feel positive about themselves tend to succumb less to the pressure attributable to the conformity by peers and further exhibit persistence to the difficult tasks. Furthermore, these students tend to show happiness, sociability and their academic performance is usually excellent.

On the other hand, studies suggest that the students with the low self-efficacy tend to exhibit unhappiness less sociability and vulnerability to depression that on numerous instances correlate to the low academic achievements. The perceptions of the students regarding competence, the locus of control, motivation, and autonomy play a crucial role in influencing their academic achievements.

Changing academic performance

There are numerous approaches adopted in the contemporary society towards ensuring the improvement of the school performance of the students. Some of the factors mainly involve encouraging some of the seemingly underperforming students on changing their mindset regarding academic performance.

Helping the students on adopting positive mental attitude is a crucial approach to ensuring improvement in their academic performance. In some cases, the students tend to feel disappointed with themselves due to the poor academic performances that they exhibit. The fact that some of the students usually receive grades other than those that they hope for contributing to their negative attitudes that entail feelings of depression, defeat and the need to give up. However, ensuring positive mental orientation of these students is vital in improving their academic performances. Such is achievable through ensuring success in turning the negativity that clouds the judgments of these students. Assisting the students in their mind control is a crucial step towards changing the state of their academic performances.

Conclusion

Some factors tend to influence the academic achievements of students in the various learning institutions as evident in the discussion. Some of the notable factors that affect academic performance include sex, socioeconomic status, and level of education of the parents, amongst other factors. However, there is the necessity for acknowledging the fact that a significant contribution to the academic performance of the students arises from the factors that include nationality, involvement in ECA, intention on pursuing higher studies and the learning preferences. There is thus the necessity for the educators ensuring that they understand some of the factors attributable to the academic success of the students and hence planning better strategies and classroom activities crucial for improving the academic achievements of the students.







Works Cited

ARIANI, Dorothea Wahyu. "Why Do I Study? The Mediating Effect of Motivation and Self-Regulation on Student Performance." Business, Management & Education / Verslas, Vadyba Ir Studijos, vol. 14, no. 2, Dec. 2016, pp. 153-178. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3846/bme.2016.329.

Carey, Emma, et al. "Differentiating Anxiety Forms and Their Role in Academic Performance from Primary to Secondary School." Plos ONE, vol. 12, no. 3, 28 Mar. 2017, pp. 1-20. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0174418.

Chumacero, Romulo A., et al. "Competition Pressures and Academic Performance in Chile." ["Presiones competitivas y desempeño académico en Chile"]. Estudios De Economia, vol. 43, no. 2, Dec. 2016, pp. 217-232. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=119593656&site=ehost-live.

Duggal, Minakshi and Pooja Mehta. "Antecedents to Academic Performance of College Students." Paradigm (09718907), vol. 19, no. 2, Dec. 2015, pp. 197-211. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0971890715609992.

Fiagborlo, James Dickson and Etornam K. Kunu. "An Econometric Assessment of Factors That Predict Academic Performance of Tertiary Students in Ho, Ghana." Journal of Economics & Economic Education Research, vol. 17, no. 3, Sept. 2016, pp. 47-59. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=119844812&site=ehost-live.

Khan, Muhammad Arif, et al. "Association of Internet Supported Physical Activity with Academic Performance of Medical Students." Annals of King Edward Medical University, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan-Mar2017, pp. 67-72. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=122021527&site=ehost-live.

Kim, Jungnam and Julia Bryan. "A First Step to a Conceptual Framework of Parent Empowerment: Exploring Relationships between Parent Empowerment and Academic Performance in a National Sample." Journal of Counseling & Development, vol. 95, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 168-179. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/jcad.12129.