Academic achievement and individual differences in the learning processes of basic skills students in the university

Abstract

This study analyzed the relationship between the academic achievement and information-processing habits of basic skills students in the university. Academic achievement was measured by grade-point average (GPA) and American College Testing Program Assessment (ACT) scores. Information-processing habits were determined by the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP). There was no significant difference in the ILP profiles of high- and low-achieving basic skills students, whether they were grouped by ACT or GPA. Study Methods was the only scale that showed a significant correlation with academic achievement-namely, a negative correlation with ACT. A path analysis indicated that the effect of Study Methods on GPA is indirect, as mediated by ACT. Since ACT assesses prior achievement (i.e., high-school performance), it appears that learning style has an effect prior to college entrance. Basic skills students with low ACT scores tend to substitute conventional study methods for deep elaborative processing, but these students are low achievers in college, as indicated by their GPA. A multivariate analysis of variance showed no significant sex or ethnic differences in information-processing habits. Evidently, a low achiever is a low achiever regardless of sex or ethnicity.