Supporting Students' College Success The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies (2017) / Chapter Skim
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2 Competencies for College Success
2 Competencies for College Success
Pages 33-76
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prosocial goals and values, and 8. positive future self.
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It is well documented that individual differences in general cognitive ability, as well as in many specific intellectual skills, such as critical thinking, writing ability, and computational expertise, are associated with individual differences in academic success. Simply put, students with a stronger and wider range of cognitive skills tend to do better in college.
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report characterizes today's overall culture of STEM and STEM college education as tending to emphasize inherent, or "natural," cognitive ability as necessary for success. But 1 As discussed in Chapter 1, the committee's definition of "underrepresented groups" encompasses low-income and first-generation college students; women in certain STEM disciplines; and black, Hispanic, and American Indian student populations.
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. For example, one early search included N the terms "interpersonal competence," "teamwork," "communication," "intrapersonal skills," "motivation," "self-regulation," "metacognition," and "college persistence." Although all four searches included various terms for interpersonal competencies, they yielded no rigorous research suggesting that these competencies are related to persistence and success in undergraduate education.
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In contrast, interventions designed to develop competencies aimed at college persistence are more academic by nature, sometimes implemented directly within courses. Through this process, the committee arrived at the list of eight intrapersonal competencies presented above.
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included clearly defined treatment and control groups comprising college students or individuals who were about to matriculate in a college, (3) was based on at least 10 subjects per group (most samples were much larger)
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. Many impacts are limited to sample subgroups, such as first-generation college students, underrepresented minority groups, and women.
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Utility Goals and Personal goals Promising Five of six studies show Values and values that a effects on final course student perceives as grade (effect size directly linked to range = 0.06-0.55 SD)
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Effects Intrinsic Goals and Personal goals Modest Two of two studies Interest and values that a show effects on student experiences academic outcomes as rewarding or (written test of meaningful in and of comprehension) themselves, linked to (effect size strong interest range = 0.39-1.25 SD)
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At the same time that these wide differences in situational contexts and individual characteristics influence college success, many college students face certain challenges in common, and in roughly the same order. Even before they take their first class, for example, students bring with them a set of competencies that reflect, in part, prior experiences in education and in life.
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BROAD DISPOSITIONS: WHAT ARE MY STRENGTHS? Before prospective college students ever set foot on campus or enroll in their first class, they bring with them a unique life history and profile of general competencies.
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Indeed, the correlational literature suggests that conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of college persistence and success among all intra- and interpersonal competencies. Conscientiousness and Related Behaviors Conscientiousness refers to a spectrum of dispositional tendencies that describe individual differences in the propensity to be self-controlled, responsible to others, hardworking, orderly, and rule-abiding (Roberts et al., 2014)
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examined the strategies, goals, and academic behaviors of nearly 350 college students over two semesters. They found that the link between high conscientiousness and high grades was explained by students with high conscientiousness engaging in such concrete behaviors as completing homework assignments
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Among women, however, conscientiousness was statistically significantly related to college completion regardless of socioeconomic status. For both men and women, openness to experience was significantly correlated with college completion for those from families of low socioeconomic status, but not for those from advantaged families.
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These constructs and processes are perhaps not technically part of conscientiousness itself, but may work to support it and/or work with it to produce positive life outcomes related to academic success. Moving beyond correlational research designs, the committee identified seven random-assignment evaluations of interventions that, as suggested by Magidson and colleagues (2014)
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intervention showed positive effects on the 12-month college persistence rate of 5.3 percent, and the goal-setting intervention (Morisano et al., 2010) showed significant improvement in students' college semester GPA (effect size = 0.65 SD.
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Students from homogeneous communities may be experiencing racial and socioeconomic diversity for the first time in dorms and classrooms. Academically and socially, many new college students may feel as if they are now strangers in a strange land.
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When it comes to beliefs about college, then, the research literature suggests that at least three intrapersonal competencies may be involved in determining how well students do in college: a sense of belonging, academic self-efficacy, and a growth mindset. Sense of Belonging A student's sense of belonging is an intrapersonal competency that is influenced by interpersonal/social relationships as well as academic/ professional concerns.
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. The research literature using correlational methods suggests that feeling a sense of belonging, bonding, or solidarity with others in college tends to be positively associated with college retention (Robbins et al., 2009)
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, which can make it even more challenging to develop or maintain a strong sense of belonging. The committee identified 10 intervention studies addressing students' uncertainty about "belonging" in college settings.
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targeting first-year, first-generation college students provides further support for the efficacy of interventions targeting sense of belonging. The intervention consisted of students in both treatment and control conditions attending a panel discussion.
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Among the eight intrapersonal competencies identified in this report, interventions targeting this competency showed the most consistent impacts on college performance. Six of seven studies testing the relationships between these interventions and GPA showed significant positive effects (effect size range = 0.25-1.10 SD)
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to which they assign importance or value. A considerable body of research has shown that high levels of academic self-efficacy are positively associated with college students' academic performance and college retention (e.g., Chemers et al., 2001; Matten and Shaw, 2010)
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Fitch and colleagues (2012) , for example, designed a "solution focused, goal-setting, group work" intervention for college students that resulted in statistically significantly higher scores on measures of academic self-efficacy for the experimental relative to the control group.
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From the standpoint of identity, the growth mindset indicates that "I am the kind of person who can learn from mistakes and improve over time; I can get smarter and accomplish more through hard work." This understanding of the self may motivate the person to work harder, which may ultimately result in deeper learning and greater success. A recent meta-analysis shows that growth mindset tends to be associated with greater self-control and with positive expectations in the pursuit of goals (Burnette et al., 2013; see also Robins and Pals, 2002)
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. In this case, AR participants also performed better on a postintervention class exam and earned significantly higher course grades relative to the no-AR group (effect sizes were in the moderate range for low- and average-performing students compared with controls)
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report on an intervention study that took place after students had been admitted to college but before they had arrived on campus. The participants were primarily African American and first-generation college students, and their achievement outcomes were measured during their college years.
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Utility Goals and Values According to expectancy-value theories of human motivation (Eccles, 2009; Eccles et al., 1983; see also Wigfield and Cambria, 2010) , students will work hard to succeed when they (1)
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Harackiewicz and colleagues (2014) conducted a values affirmation intervention intended to close the achievement gap for first-generation college students studying STEM.
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conducted a values affirmation intervention study focused on both achievement and competency outcomes, but here the sample consisted of 183 first- and second-year Latino and white college students. As with the Harackiewicz et al.
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Those in the relevance condition wrote about how the math activity could relate to their life or to the lives of college students in general. Control participants wrote about a topic unrelated to the math activity.
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Five of six studies show effects on final course grade (effect size range = 0.06-0.55 SD) and two of two studies show effects on college GPA (effect size range = 0.33-0.52 SD)
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In early phases of interest development, students may need to discover the utility or relevance of the content for their own lives. Research on college students shows that infusing goals with intrinsic value is associated with more successful pursuit of those goals.
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provides possible insights into the process through which intrinsic motivation is developed and influences academic performance. In this study, 200 Belgian college students studying to become preschool teachers were randomly assigned to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation conditions before participating in a target activity.
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Many college teachers and counselors contend that nurturing prosocial goals and values, including values linked to citizenship and cultural awareness, promotes a civically engaged and enlightened identity among college students. To date, research suggesting that the cultivation of prosocial goals and values predicts college success is sparse.
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The results show that a transcendent purpose intervention can promote deeper learning behavior: students in the transcendent purpose condition spent twice as much time on each question compared with the control group, a difference that represents a moderate effect size. Yeager and colleagues (2014)
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First-generation and underrepresented minority students, for example, may find strong motivation in a desire to give back to their communities of origin. If colleges could capitalize on this desire by explicitly connecting coursework and college activities to these kinds of prosocial goals and values, underrepresented student groups might achieve higher levels of college success.
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designed and tested several interventions intended to encourage students to think of their academic life as a "journey." They argue that the identity metaphor of life as a journey enabled the students to think more clearly and productively about how their current activities might lead to the realization of positive future selves. The committee identified five intervention studies meeting its criteria that address the competency of positive future self.
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. Although the intervention results suggest that promoting positive future self may be able to improve students' academic engagement and at least their short-run test performance, long-term effects on college persistence are not known.
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Conclusion: Only limited research has been conducted to date on the potential relationships between various intra- and interpersonal competencies and students' college success. There are major gaps in the research evidence: • Little research is available on the possible relationship between interpersonal competencies and students' college success.
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However, the committee judged the strength of the evidence related to each competency based exclusively on research that has developed and tested them through interventions using random assignment. Conclusion: The limited intervention studies conducted to date have generated promising evidence that the competencies of sense of be longing, growth mindset, and utility goals and values are related to college success and are malleable in response to interventions.
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8. Positive future self -- a positive image or personal narrative con structed by a student to represent what kind of person he or she will be in the future.
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Underrepresented minority students, for example, may bring to college such competencies as a strong racial or cultural identity that may help them navigate potentially unwelcoming academic or social environments. More research also is needed to examine how particular educational and cultural contexts currently influence the development of motivation, intrinsic goals and interest, and other intra- and interpersonal competencies among underrepresented groups (minority students, first-generation college students, students from low-income families, and women in certain STEM disciplines)
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76 SUPPORTING STUDENTS' COLLEGE SUCCESS is an important factor for success among underrepresented student groups, members of these groups may find it difficult to develop this competency if they experience campus environments that are discrimi natory, negative, or unwelcoming. RECOMMENDATION 4: To help reduce disparities in college success among student groups, institutions of higher education should evalu ate and improve their social and learning environments to support the development of the eight identified competencies, especially among underrepresented student groups.
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