This presentation is part of: A20-1 (1880) Teaching of Economics

Tracing Academic Learning and Studying Skills: A Statistical Survey

Eleni Kandilorou, Ph.D.1, Zoe Georganta, Ph.D.2, and Alexandra Livada, Ph.D.1. (1) Statistics, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patission St., Athens, 104 34, Greece, (2) Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia Economic and Social Sciences, Box 1591, Thessaloniki, 540 06, Greece

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine students’ aspirations and motivation to follow university studies, and second, to investigate their ways of dealing with acquisition of skills in academic learning/studying. Students are categorized in nine groups on the basis of their aspirations and motivation features. These groups are: Subject oriented pragmatists; Career oriented pragmatists; Intellect oriented pragmatists; Subject oriented challengers; Career oriented challengers; Intellect oriented challengers; Subject oriented experiencers; Career oriented experiencers; Intellect oriented experiencers. These groups are compared for variations in their socio-economic profile and their ways of dealing with acquisition of skills in academic learning/studying.

The databank, which has been constructed and utilised for the statistical analysis of this work, contains information on second year students’ attitude towards the university, their goals and motives to follow higher education, and their discoveries of acquisition of skills in academic learning/studying. The data come from two sources: authors’ statistical surveys and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire is structured as follows: Motivation and aspirations; Lectures; Retention of information from lectures in long-term memory; Books and Journals; Book-reading strategies; Retention in long-term memory of information from books and lectures combined; Written word; Oral word; Use of English; Comments and Opinions on educational and social issues.  Every section ends with an eight-scale stress question to find out about the degree of stress created by a sense of being deficient in relevant skills.

The sampling frame includes the second-year students, from all departments of the University of Macedonia Economic and Social Sciences and the Athens University of Economics and Business. A proportionate stratified random sample of 312 students, 166 females and 146 males, has been selected. The strata formation is based on two characteristics of the population units: department and gender.

Analysis of variance tests allow us to determine if any academic learning/studying skills has a significant effect on students’ behaviour across any of the nine groups under study. This analysis helps us to take a view of the present study-reality of future Greek economists and business scientists as they face the problem of designing the appropriate tools or skills to materialise their great expectations for life.

The results show that skills are developed and utilised differently according to the aspirations and motivation group to which students belong while the socioeconomic profile of each group is one of the factors that causes significant differentiation. The students that form the three groups of pragmatists seem to be oriented towards a deep approach to academic learn and study, while the rest of the students have shown characteristics of a surface attitude to academic learn/study. Our findings also show that Greek students of economics and business have acquisition of skills in academic learning/studying patterns similar to those of the various detailed case-studies at UK and Swedish universities. The common characteristic of the nine groups is the reality of aspirations and ambitions of students as they start their university-studies. For some of them these ambitions may be fulfilled, while they may remain only dreams for the majority.    


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