Session Information
Paper Session
Contribution
Academic success of university and college students – often defined in terms of Grade Point Average (GPA) and study satisfaction (Trapmann, Hell, Hirn, & Schuler, 2007) – is particularly valued in countries, where a high share of the gross domestic product is directed towards education, and young people stay for a fairly long time in the educational system (Poropat, 2009). Theoretical frameworks on teacher professionalization suggest that there is a relationship between academic success and professional competence (e.g., pedagogical knowledge, beliefs), which themselves are thought to be associated with teaching activities and later career success (Kunter, Kleickmann, Klusmann, & Richter, 2013). Against this background, research focuses on identifying predictors that help to explain individual differences in academic success to advance education and to improve academic success. In this regard, besides factors such as school-leaving grades, cognitive ability measures, and socio-demographics, one set of predictors represents the Big Five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness (McCrae & Costa, 1996). There are clear hints for the predictive importance of the Big Five for GPA and for study satisfaction (see Logue, Lounsbury, Gupka, & Leong, 2007; O’Connor & Paunonen, 2007, for details). With regard to GPA the Big Five may manifest themselves in “characteristic adaptations” (McCrae & Costa, 1996, p. 69) such as certain behaviours that may affect academic success. Additionally, with regard to study satisfaction, the Big Five may influence how a person views study-related issues. Previous research generally supports the supposed relationships. Regarding conscientiousness, meta-analyses consistently showed that higher conscientiousness corresponded with better GPA (e.g., McAbee & Oswald, 2013; O’Connor & Paunonen, 2007). Additionally, research also indicates a positive effect of conscientiousness on study satisfaction (e.g., Künsting & Lipowsky, 2011; Logue et al., 2007). Furthermore, most of the studies found that neuroticism had a negative influence on study satisfaction (e.g., Logue et al., 2007; Künsting & Lipowsky, 2011). However, regarding effects of agreeableness, extraversion, and openness on GPA and study satisfaction, and of neuroticism on GPA, previous findings are ambiguous and do not provide consistent empirical evidence. Taken together previous research supports links between the Big Five and academic success in terms of GPA as well as study satisfaction of students in multiple majors. However, there is a research gap regarding studies that have examined the Big Five as predictors of GPA und study satisfaction of students in early childhood education. Therefore, the study aims to reduce this gap by focusing on two groups of students who have been trained for the field of early childhood education in Germany: (1) College students, who attended tertiary-level non-academic colleges of social pedagogy. (2) University students, who received their training in the field of childhood and early childhood education in tertiary-level academic courses of study. Although both groups have been qualified for early childhood education, these trainings represent distinct educational tracks. Consequently, these two groups will be investigated separately. Considering previous research, the following hypotheses each point to relations that should hold even when controlling for other predictor variables such as several socio-demographic variables and school grades. It is hypothesized that more conscientious college students (H1a) and university students (H1b) will have better GPAs. In addition, it is postulated that conscientiousness will be positively related to study satisfaction for both college (H2a) and university students (H2b). Regarding neuroticism, it is hypothesized that neuroticism will be negatively related to study satisfaction for both college (H3a) and university students (H3b). Regarding effects of agreeableness, extraversion, and openness on GPA and study satisfaction, and of neuroticism on GPA, previous findings are ambiguous. Therefore, the investigation of these relationships is exploratory.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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