Student’s academic success or failure is mainly related to school context and it is measured by school grades. It is a complex phenomenon as in addition to absolute failure (when the student has more negative grades) it also comprises underachievement (when the student’s achievements are lower than expected). Therefore the definition of success/failure depends on the perspective of each individual. Learning and knowledge are influenced by various factors, from psychological to social ones, and every individual is influenced in a different way.
In my thesis I researched student’s conceptions of academic success and failure in secondary and high school, how they feel about their own (in)efficiency in relation to their factual efficiency, what they consider to be the cause of their failure and which factors have the strongest influence on their success and failure. The data was acquired with a questionnaire filled in by 130 respondents, 60 students in secondary school and 70 students in high school.
The results show that the respondents understand that school success and failure are relative but at the same time their conceptions are very stereotypical. The conceptions of their own success and failure are in compliance with their actual achievement, i.e. grades at school. However, there are significant differences among the respondents. Girls on average get higher grades than boys and students in secondary schools get higher grades than high school students. Moreover, students of gymnasium programmes achieve higher grades than students in technical programmes who get better grades than vocational programme students.
The respondents claimed that the quality of learning and knowledge mostly depends on good teaching, and much less on the offer of various extra-curricular activities. According to the majority of respondents the factor that has the greatest impact on school success is good teaching, while poor teaching is the contributing factor that has the greatest impact on learning inefficiency. There are statistically important differences between sexes, in factors which contribute to students’ success and failure, whereas such differences do not exist between secondary and high school students and between students in different high school programmes. Results also show there are no statistically important differences between the respondents who find themselves efficient and those who think they are not efficient regarding the reasons for their academic failure.
|