Ensayos de viabilidad usando diferentes métodos

In study 1, perceived competence was only marginally correlated with grades and was a weak predictor in regression. In study 2, perceived competence was more

7.1. Findings, implications, and agendas 167 strongly correlated and emerged as an important, statistically significant predictor in regression. Differences in the relationship between perceived competence and grades in study 1 and 2, and the strong gender effect in relation to coursework scores in study 1, are taken as indications that the course was not thought of as a valuable learning experience by some of the students. It has been argued that competence perceptions were reframed in pass/fail terms and that this was reflective of how many of the students approached the course: with the intention of obtaining just a pass. In support of this belief, the gender gap in achievement was widest for coursework scores in study 1. If Duckworth and Seligman (2005) are correct and males tend to be less self-disciplined than females, it seems to follow that when the course only demands that a minimum score be achieved, students lacking in self- discipline will only engage minimally with the course. In other words, the finding that males tended to complete far fewer coursework tasks than females in study 1 suggests the pass/fail structure of the course had its greatest impact on some of the male students because of their unwillingness, as a function of their lack of self- discipline, to complete these coursework tasks. How can the course be promoted as a worthwhile learning experience? Several possibilities are suggested.

Implications for practice

First, the means of reporting performance in the study 1 course could easily be changed. Instead of a pass or fail award being posted, specific grades (which are readily available) could be given, bringing it into line with the reporting of grades in the Foundation course examined in study 2. By reporting specific grades, inputs and outputs (i.e., the students’ efforts and their grades for those efforts) would be better aligned, bolstering the informational quality of the grades and nudging, it is hoped, students towards viewing the course as a less anomalous, more established part of their university experience. Whether this by itself would be sufficient to encourage students to treat it as a valuable learning experience is uncertain. However, there would appear to be few disadvantages to accurately reporting grades.

Second, credits towards the students’ college GPA could be awarded (at present, it is a non-credit course) commensurate with performance on the course. However,

7.1. Findings, implications, and agendas 168 this seems to replace one hoop (obtaining a pass) with an even larger one (obtaining a pass and gaining college GPA credits). In terms of SDT, reinforcing an extrinsic reward for learning does not make that reward any more need-satisfying; nor does it encourage deep engagement with the learning material (Vansteenkiste, Simons, Lens, Sheldon, & Deci, 2004).

Third, if the course lacks prima facie validity, its value might be raised by the introduction of authentic material from the students’ majors (i.e., some of the actual reading/writing/listening tasks that they will meet in their forthcoming courses). However, the fact that there are students from a large number of disparate majors (such as Engineering, Medicine, Business, Fine Arts) makes finding suitable material problematic given the current composition of the classes.

Lastly, greater emphasis could be placed on coursework and less on mid-term and final exams. At present, final exam accounts for 40 per cent of the semester grade. If the percentage of marks available were less heavily weighted towards such a high- stakes test and more heavily weighted towards smaller, less-high stakes coursework tasks, this might encourage students to engage more with the day-to-day work done in class. Arguably, however, apportioning grades differently would simply replace one or two large ’hoops’ (i.e., the mid-term and final exams) with many smaller ones. If many of the students still view the course as one that has to be endured and passed (with the minimum of engagement), then this change in how exams are weighted is unlikely to make a great deal of difference.

Instead, it is how students view the course that perhaps matters most. If the course is to be seen as a learning opportunity, it must also be perceived as having value. Here the literature of interventions that encourage students to connect their course and their learning to a broader purpose in life may offer a way forward. Specifically, results from Yeager et al., (2014) have suggested that intervening to encourage students to find a transcendental purpose for learning, one defined as a motive that brings benefits beyond the self, was associated with better high school GPAs, which were obtained, it was argued, through the transcendental purpose strengthening both the quality of the students’ personal goals and the degree of self-discipline that was exercised.

7.1. Findings, implications, and agendas 169 A research agenda

An intervention to develop or strengthen values that extended beyond the self would, it is suggested, be consistent with the value SDT places upon intrinsic goals, and might be expected to have, if Yeager et al.’s, (2014) results are a guide, an effect on grades. However, whether this potential grade-related performance benefit would arise from students coming to believe the course was a valuable learning experience or whether it would be a function of greater self-control (or a combination of both) is uncertain. As an instrument to measure the extent to which students valued grades over learning, Black and Deci’s (2000) grade orientation questionnaire (discussed in Section 3.2.3) could be usefully employed.

Finally, a gender gap in academic performance was found in both study 1 and 2. However, it was most apparent in study 1 coursework grades. Given one of the posited reasons was the greater self-discipline females showed compared to males in completing all the small tasks that compose the coursework grade, and given the relatively small amount of variance predicted in study 2, a measure of self-discipline as a predictor of grades in a future study might help illuminate more clearly some of the pathways to academic achievement.