Department of Curriculum Studies

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Browsing Department of Curriculum Studies by Subject "Academic achievement -- South Africa -- Western Cape"

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    Factors influencing the academic success of first-year students in chemistry at an agricultural training institution
    (2016-03) Ross, Kachné; Bitzer, E. M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Department of Curriculum Studies
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Learning is a multi-layered concept which depends on many different role-players, complex factors and different historical and contextual factors. In view of the many factors that may influence the learning environment, a need was identified to investigate the aspects of learning that are related to chemistry education. In basic chemistry, a variety of factors influence learning and academic performance as well as the strategies to learn chemistry in order to minimise the factors that have a negative influence on students’ learning and their academic performance. Several authors have highlighted possible factors that may influence the academic performance of students. Only a limited number of studies have investigated teaching and learning in chemistry education and in agricultural training in particular. Factors that were found to potentially influence students’ academic performance were incorporated in Astin’s inputenvironment- output model that was used as a framework to interpret the data generated for the study. Such knowledge may provide valuable information to first-year students, lecturers and the planners of foundation programmes at the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute and similar agricultural training institutes. In this study, the aim was to investigate the possible academic factors that influence the success of the BAgric students who study Chemistry (PAS) 111 in their first year. Three data sources were used: PAS 111 curriculum documents, the opinions of 2013 BAgric first-year students and the opinions of lecturers involved in the first-year courses and in PAS 111 in particular. These data sources contributed to determining to what degree, if at all, academic factors influence learning in Chemistry (PAS) 111 and how these factors are perceived by the main constituents. The main question addressed in this study was thus: Why do students at Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute not perform well in Chemistry (PAS) 111? In conducting the study, a pragmatic stance was taken and a mixed-methods research design was used. The findings of this study indicate that language, admission requirements, student interest, and student support had a considerable influence on student academic performance for the 2013 PAS 111 student group. Implications flowing from the study for the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute as well as possibilities for future research are pointed out.