The effects of teacher support, parental monitoring, motivation and self-efficacy on academic performance over time

Teacher support and its impact on ESL student engagement in blended learning: The mediating effects of L2 grit and intended effort

BACKGROUND

In the shifting paradigm of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction, blended learning has become increasingly prevalent, necessitating understanding factors that drive student engagement. The research delves into the intricate interaction between teacher support and student engagement, postulating that L2 grit and intended effort function as mediators within this dynamic.

METHODS

We employed a cross-sectional design involving a sample of 712 EFL students engaged in blended learning courses. Through quantitative analysis, we measured the constructs of teacher support, L2 grit, intended effort, and student engagement with validated scales. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to investigate the relationships between these variables and to test the hypothesized mediation effects.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that teacher support correlated with higher levels of student engagement. L2 grit and intended effort were identified as significant mediators in this relationship. L2 grit acted as a bridge between teacher support and student engagement, reflecting the essential role of perseverance and passion for long-term language learning objectives. Intended effort further mediated this relationship, indicating that supportive teacher behaviors foster greater student effort, enhancing overall engagement. The study also revealed a chain mediation effect, suggesting that teacher support sequentially enhances L2 grit, which in turn increases intended effort, cumulatively leading to improved student engagement.

CONCLUSION

The findings offer evidence of the central role of teacher support in bolstering student engagement through the development of L2 grit and the enhancement of intended effort. This paper underlines the necessity of a supportive learning environment in blended EFL settings and presents a novel sequential mediation framework that can guide educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers in creating more effective learning experiences.

Doctoral students' academic performance: The mediating role of academic motivation, academic buoyancy, and academic self-efficacy

Understanding influential factors for the academic performance of doctoral students is crucial for supporting their exploration of academic research opportunities and aiding their pursuit of careers in academic research. This study surveyed 659 doctoral students in China, utilizing scales to assess academic motivation, buoyancy, self-efficacy, self-concept, and performance. Based on a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis, a direct correlation between self-concept and performance was identified. Moreover, motivation, buoyancy, and self-efficacy were significant mediators in the relationship between self-concept and performance. To significantly enhance self-concept's impact on doctoral students' academic performance, educators should endeavor to enhance students' motivation, buoyancy, and self-efficacy. This endeavor will contribute to the discourse on academic performance and its underlying psychological mechanisms.

Artistic sports activities effectiveness for enhancing students' academic performance among left-behind children: mediating effects of loneliness

Introduction

Numerous studies within the school and academic contexts have underscored the profound impact of psychometric variables such as academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and loneliness on academic achievement among children. Although physical activities and dance practices are known to bolster academic self-efficacy and enhance academic outcomes, the effect of Artistic Sports Activities on these psychological determinants among left-behind children (LBC) in rural schools remains underexplored.

Method

This study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2022 among 405 LBCs aged 9 to 13 from six randomly selected primary schools in Hunan Province, China. Schools were chosen in collaboration with the Hunan Women and Children's Federation, ensuring informed consent through stakeholder informational sessions. The study employed rigorous sampling and data analysis methods, including the Shapiro-Wilk test for normal distribution and Cronbach's alpha for reliability, alongside Pearson correlation, independent and paired t-tests, and multiple linear regression analyses to investigate the effects of Artistic Sports Activities on psychometric variables and academic performance among LBCs. Data collection involved standardized questionnaires assessing academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and loneliness before and after intervention.

Results

Findings indicate that Artistic Sports Activities significantly improved academic self-efficacy and self-esteem and reduced loneliness, leading to enhanced academic performance. Notably, loneliness was identified as mediating the relationship between academic self-efficacy and self-esteem among LBCs.

Discussion

The findings highlight the critical role of integrating Artistic Sports Activities in educational frameworks to bolster psychological and academic outcomes for LBCs. The study reveals the intricate interplay between loneliness, self-esteem, and academic self-efficacy, underscoring the necessity for targeted educational interventions.

Psychological capital research in HEIs: Bibliometric analysis of current and future trends

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the literature on psychological capital (PsyCap) within higher education institutions (HEIs). Its main objective is to offer an encompassing perspective on this field's current state and potential developments. To achieve this, the study examines present research trends and predicts future directions using a bibliometric approach. A total of 412 journal articles were gathered from the Web of Science database. The analysis identifies influential publications, outlines the knowledge structure, and forecasts future trends through bibliographic coupling and co-word analyses. The bibliographic coupling revealed five distinct clusters, while the co-word analysis identified four clusters. Despite the growing significance of PsyCap research in HEIs, there remains a need for greater academic efforts to comprehend the research landscape fully. This paper provides valuable insights into the expanding area of PsyCap research within HEIs. In conclusion, the study sheds light on the extensive research conducted on PsyCap in the context of HEIs and offers insights into its potential for further growth.

Authenticity: Effective emotional labor strategies on teaching efficacy of university teachers in China

Based on the job demands-resources model, this study explored the relationships among emotional labor strategies, job demands of teaching, job resources, and teaching efficacy for university teachers. The results, based on a sample of 316 university teachers from China, showed that the teachers preferred to convey authenticity by expressing deep acting and naturally felt emotion. Furthermore, deep acting and naturally felt emotions were found to have a significant positive effect on teaching efficacy, whereas surface acting did not have any significant relationship with teaching efficacy. As organizational variables, job demands significantly positively affected surface acting, deep acting, and naturally felt emotion. In contrast, job resources positively affected surface and deep acting, but no significant relationship with naturally felt emotions was found. These results highlight that university teachers from China could benefit from adopting authentic emotional labor strategies, specifically deep acting and naturally felt emotions, as the most effective strategies in teaching. Based on the above findings, this paper concludes with recommendations for university administrators to alleviate the emotional labor of college faculty. For example, universities should pay more attention to teachers' emotional state, provide resources to support them, and give more space and support to college teachers in teaching.

Organizational support and task performance: a multiple mediation model

Objective

Organizational support has been identified as one of the causes for task performance, while previous studies have not adequately explored the underlying mechanisms. Thus, this study aims to reveal the potential mechanisms that linked organizational support to task performance.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was conducted among the 720 participants from 12 audit firms in Beijing in December 2020. Participants completed anonymous questionnaires assessing their organizational support, task performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS 26.0.

Results

(1) Organizational support was positively associated with task performance, (2) job satisfaction and organizational commitment both mediated the relationship between organizational support and task performance respectively, and (3) the relationship between organizational support and task performance was also serially mediated by job satisfaction and then organizational commitment.

Conclusion

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment played a serial multiple mediating role in the association between organizational support and task performance, which provides a potential path for improving task performance.

Initial adaptation among university student: The case of the social sciences

Students' academic and social adaptation is linked to factors such as their initial study motivations, the atmosphere of the academic environment and their perception of academic wellbeing. This paper analyses the initial adaptation of first-degree students in their first semester through a quantitative ex post facto study with a descriptive-exploratory approach, using a questionnaire as the information-gathering instrument. Findings shed light on the concept of initial adaptation itself (through the creation of an index) and validate the study of the construct through three factors: initial motivation, the academic environment and perception of academic wellbeing. Also, the influence on initial adaptation of the academic and social context of the degree course taken is demonstrated:, as the constitutive features of the degree contribute information predicting how students will integrate into the institution. Therefore, it is suggested that institutional means and actions should be designed and put in place in accordance with measurements that indicate how students function best in a specific context (the bachelor's degree), in order to boost motivation and the perception of academic wellbeing.

Teacher Support, Academic Self-Efficacy, Student Engagement, and Academic Achievement in Emergency Online Learning

With a sample of 651 university students experiencing emergency online learning during COVID-19, this study constructed a structural equation modelling to examine the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and student engagement. The results show that teacher support had significant total influences on university students' academic achievement. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy and student engagement, respectively, mediated the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement. In addition, academic self-efficacy and student engagement sequentially mediated the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement. Research implications are also discussed.

Enhancing Chinese students' academic engagement: the effect of teacher support and teacher-student rapport

Academic engagement plays an undeniable role in students' leaning outcome. Therefore, identifying the influential antecedents of promoting students' academic engagement is extremely crucial. Despite previous empirical studies have delved into the part played by several student-related and teacher-related factors in triggering Chinese students' academic engagement, the exploration on the roles of teacher support and teacher-student rapport is still scant. Thus, this study attempts to concentrate on the influence of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on undergraduate students' academic engagement in China. Three scales of the questionnaire-one each for teacher's support, student-teacher rapport, and the level of academic engagement-were completed by a total of 298 undergraduate students. Spearman Rho test was adopted to detect the correlations between the variables. Following that, multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the predictive power of the dependent variables. The result found that teacher support and teacher-student rapport exert a tremendous influence on boosting Chinese students' academic engagement. The leading implications and future directions are also presented.

The effect of overall parental satisfaction on Chinese students' learning engagement: Role of student anxiety and educational implications

Learning engagement is one of the important research contents of learning psychology. The level of learning engagement directly affects students' academic performance and future development. Based on the survey data of primary and secondary school parents and students collated at the beginning of 2019, control factors such as students' gender, school location, parents' education level, total annual family income, parental rearing methods, etc. The study found that parental overall satisfaction can significantly and positively predict students' learning engagement. Mediation effect analysis found that students' anxiety completely mediated the effect on parental overall satisfaction and students' learning engagement. Cultivate good parent-child relationships; Establish positive teacher-student relationships; Build a harmonious relationship with classmates. Families and schools should work together to create an atmosphere conducive to the healthy growth of students.

Confirmatory and validation studies on experimental self-efficacy scale with applications to multiple scientific disciplines

Laboratory education is essential for enhancing both the understanding of concepts and skills of students. A significant barrier to excelling in laboratory practices relates to a lack of self-efficacy. Being complementary to mainstream theoretical learning, the contribution of laboratory education to impart knowledge and hands-on proficiency is often under-represented. The aim of this research was to validate a novel experimental self-efficacy (ESE) scale and explore its relationship with laboratory outcomes, using gender and year of study as mediating variables. ESE refers to students' faith in their potential to carry out experiments and achieve desired outcomes in laboratory settings. When students possess strong ESE, they display more confidence in their abilities, accept tasks of greater difficulty levels, and have more tenacity to overcome obstacles. Data from 1,123 students were analyzed, focusing on the link between ESE constructs and laboratory experiments. Results indicated that ESE had a significant impact on laboratory performance in students of both genders and was related to factors such as laboratory hazards, conceptual understanding, the sufficiency of laboratory resources, and procedural complexities. The study affirms the validity and applicability of the ESE-scale to not only multiple disciplines such as chemistry, physics, and biology but also its relationship with students' academic outcomes in laboratories.

An Empirical Study on the Relationship among Mental Health, Learning Engagement, and Academic Self-Efficacy of Senior High School Students

This study examines the mediating role of the academic self-efficacy of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China on the relationship between their mental health and learning engagement, as well as their gender and grade-specific differences in mental health, learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy. The authors drew 600 valid samples in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China, built a measurement model and a structure model, established a structural equation model comprising the mental health scale, the learning engagement scale, and the academic self-efficacy scale, and conducted an independent sample t-tests and a one-way analysis of variance. The questionnaires took the form of the 5-point Likert scale. This research shows that the mental health of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China has a significant positive impact on their learning engagement and academic self-efficacy and that their academic self-efficacy has a significant positive impact on their learning engagement. Academic self-efficacy produces an overwhelming mediating effect on the ways mental health influences learning engagement. High school students, male and female, in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China show no marked gender-specific differences in mental health, learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy, while junior high school students show marked grade-specific differences in mental health, and senior high school students show marked grade-specific differences in learning engagement and academic self-efficacy. This article concludes that improving the academic self-efficacy of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China can boost their learning engagement.

A survey of college students' willingness to participate in social practice with perceived environmental support based on the applied mixed research method

Contemporary social reform promotes rapid social transformation, and social practice has a special educational function in higher education. However, research shows weak willingness to participate in social practice among college students. Using the mixed research method, 438 completed questionnaire surveys on perceived environmental support were collected from college students. The influence of perceived environmental support on Chinese college students' willingness to participate in social practice was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, and an empirical test was conducted. The findings are as follows: (1) Perceived environmental support significantly impacts students' participation attitude and perceived behavioral control. (2) Participation attitude and perceived behavioral control significantly influence participation intention, but behavioral norms have no significant influence. (3) Participation intention and perceived behavioral control significantly influence actual behavior. This study provides the theoretical basis of perceived environmental support for future research on social practice participation intention and offers some theoretical guidance for the implementation of social practice in China.

International medical students' perspectives on factors affecting their academic success in China: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The number of international students who choose China as their destination for quality medical education is rising, particularly those from developing countries, but little is known about their adaptation and educational experiences at Chinese universities. This study explored the factors that these students perceived to have influenced their academic success.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with international students (N = 40) from developing countries from September 2020 to January 2021. Participants were graduates or in their second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth academic year in two university medical schools. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

RESULTS

The participants chose China to study medicine based on cost, teaching resources, quality of medical education, recommendation, and safety factors. They considered an increase in medical knowledge, clinical skills and communication skills as an indicator of academic success. Positive factors affecting academic success were the support system (family, friends, seniors) and campus resources (library, laboratories, extra-curricular activities, scholarship). Negative factors were (i) issues affecting learning (English language barrier), adjusting to the medical education system in China, learning difficulties, failing exams, internship difficulties, problems with online learning during the pandemic, (ii) sociocultural issues (lacking knowledge of the Chinese language, challenges in daily life, perceived discrimination, interpersonal relationships), (iii) wellbeing issues (physical and mental health issues), and (iv) other challenges (climate, food, finance, scholarship). The influence of teachers, administrators and classmates was perceived as both positive and negative.

CONCLUSIONS

Factors affecting the academic success of international medical students at Chinese universities are multi-faceted. It is the collective responsibility of the host society, universities, teachers, administrators, classmates, families, and students themselves to address these factors in order to support and help students achieve academic success. Findings in our study support recommendations to improve teachers' English language skills and pedagogy and to invest in administrators' professional development. They also suggest that greater awareness of students' sociocultural and mental challenges and optimizing the positive influence of classmates could strengthen student support and better address student academic difficulties. The English proficiency and prior academic performance of international students should be considered during recruitment. Given the rapid growth in international MBBS programs in China, further research on the experiences of international students in China's medical programs is needed.

The influence of SES, cognitive, and non-cognitive abilities on grades: cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from two Swedish cohorts

It is well established that socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, and non-cognitive abilities such as self-efficacy are substantially associated with academic achievement. However, the specific relationships of these variables remain a relatively unexplored topic in regard to more recent and representative samples. The current study examined such relations by taking advantage of two cohorts (total N = 12,315) of Swedish students at the elementary (Grade 6) and lower-secondary school levels (Grade 8) in the compulsory school. The regression models showed that all three variables explained a substantial portion of grade variance, with cognitive ability having the strongest relationship, followed by non-cognitive abilities, and SES. Longitudinal associations, which accounted for previous academic achievement, showed that the three variables did still explain a substantial amount of grade variance.