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campusreview.com.au
‘It all starts with the first test’
Predicting student achievement
at university.
By Wade Zaglas
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try
again. Then quit. No use being a damn
fool about it.”
– W C Fields
F
rom my own university experience,
I figured Fields’ quote made a lot of
sense: those who perform well in
university assessments from the outset
usually continue to receive high grades
throughout the duration of the course,
while others seem to flounder for a
semester or two until finally dropping out.
However, I never really considered the
reasons for their attrition. Was it about
intelligence? A lack of passion for the
subject? Or too many trips to the local
university pub?
But now new research from Deakin
University shows a student’s first
assessment can be a “defining” moment in
their university life, and retention is far more
nuanced than it would first seem.
According to the study, Success and
Failure in Higher Education on Uneven
Playing Fields, led by Associate Professor
Bernadette Walker-Gibbs from the
university’s School of Education, early
results – particularly impressive ones –
encouraged students to “feel they ‘belong’
in higher education”. On the other hand,
less impressive early assessment results
“can perpetuate feelings of not belonging,”
Walker-Gibbs said.
Funded by the National Centre for
Student Equity in Higher Education
(NCSEHE) at Curtin University, the study
also examined first-year retention rates and
suggested that retention would improve as
students learnt to “maintain perspective and
respond positively to feedback”.
For this to occur, support centres and
networks would have to become critical
parts of universities’ infrastructure.
Walker-Gibbs emphasised the
importance of preparing students mentally
for the transition to university in the first
year, especially when some students’
results do not equate with the effort they
feel they’ve put in, or meet their or their
family’s expectations.
“Students have very high expectations of
themselves. They often believe that effort
equals achievement, but at university levels
that is not always the case,” she said.
“How students interpret assessment
outcomes and respond to academic
feedback often depends on their
background and their experiences at
secondary school.”
The Deakin University study also
identified challenges in retaining students
from low-socioeconomic backgrounds,
who often hail from families where
university education is perceived as
something unfamiliar, out of reach and
more suited to privileged, high-scoring high
school students.
“We found this led to disproportionately
high levels of first-year dropouts among
low‑SES students, who questioned their
capacity to succeed in higher education
depending on their initial results,”
Walker‑Gibbs said.
While the support of family and friends
and peer support groups can play an
integral role in encouraging low-performing
students to remain at university, she also
highlighted the key role all academics must
play in fostering that sense of belonging
needed for success in its different degrees
for different students.
“We found that relationships with
academics is critical. Current student
support models often operate separately to
academics, which means we aren’t kept in
the loop when support is required and don’t
get an opportunity to provide the added
feedback the student may need to gain
perspective,” Walker-Gibbs said.
Grades such as credits were not often
celebrated because students don’t “have
anyone to talk to about that”. Essentially,
they have no barometer of the effort and
skill required to achieve such a grade or
what it means.
In addition to the importance of support
groups, networks and the support of
academics in retaining first-year students,
embedding “feedback literacy” into all early
assessment tasks and providing students
with clear assessment goals, standards
and criteria (through the use of graded
exemplars, for example) were also noted
in the study as practical ways to lower
attrition rates.
Professor Sue Trinidad, director of the
NCSEHE, said the first year of university
was often “defining” for all students, but
“particularly for those who may lack cultural
and social capital to draw upon”.
The idea of cultural capital was
introduced by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu
and describes how the ‘social assets’ of a
person (education, intellect, style of speech,
dress sense, access to cultural institutions
and early experiences with literature and
the arts) provides an inherited privilege
that creates an unlevel playing ground
with students from low-socioeconomic
backgrounds.
“We must understand that students are
entering university from vastly different
standpoints – with diverse educational
and social backgrounds – all of whom will
measure their relative success or failure in
different ways,” Trinidad said.
“Targeted intervention and support
strategies can help students move forward
constructively from their initial assessments
to realise their full potential, without being
discouraged at the first hurdle.” ■
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