CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
5.4 Exploring factors as reported by students that has led them to be identified as ‘at risk’
5.4.2 CONTRIBUTING FACTORS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS WHICH COMPROMISE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENT’S ‘AT RISK’
5.4.2.3 Academic challenges faced at university level
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financial need. This suggests that students were not exposed to handling finances at home (see Focus-group statement above) and as a result the first exposure to money in their accounts meant excitement and freedom in decision making which compromised their studies and this means such skills should be taught. The freedom of having money results in student focusing on other things and gets distracted from studying.
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Some of the students who experienced non-stimulating and not interactive teaching method indicated the following:
“The experience of university was daunting for me; teaching is not the same like high school, lecturers don’t make learning interesting, monotonous lecturing, and boring lecturers. I know that you should have your own initiative but going to lectures doesn’t interest me.” Nevan
“What is a problem here at the University is the way they teach which is very different and I am not used to be taught in English; my teachers were teaching in IsiZulu. They will try and translate and explain in IsiZulu. To prepare for exams we used and practised previous question papers with teachers but here lecturers don’t show you how to prepare for exam.” Khethiwe
From the focus group discussion, one student remarked: “At school the culture of teaching was that the teacher will teach you and revise with students, here at university no one will do that you study on your own.” Focus group
From this data set, it seems that two factors related to methods of teaching in university contributed to students’ low performance. The first relates to the context of non-stimulating lectures. In this case, students attribute their failure to boring and uninteresting lectures and a monotonous teaching style which lacks differentiation to meet individual needs.
Some participants claimed that unstimulating lectures demotivated them so they missed classes.
Secondly, they attributed failure to lack of support during the revision and pre-exam period. At secondary schools teachers assisted students until they finished exams but at university, participants felt that they were unsupported during exams. Students tended to attribute their failures to external factors like task difficulty and boring lectures and teaching methods (McClure, Meyer, Garisch, Fischer, Weir & Walkey, 2011). When students explain the cause for their exam failure, they often look for external factors that may have contributed to low performance and exonerate themselves from blame and responsibility for their studies. The participants who experienced this were from diverse education backgrounds and some were
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fluent English speakers while others spoke more fluently in their mother tongue. This diversity suggests that students from all walks of life find it difficult to adjust to the way of teaching at university level.
Poor academic literacy
Within this category of data presentation and analysis, the participants referred to poor academic literacy as a challenging academic issue in higher education. Participants claim that they experienced difficulty in writing assignments; lecturers expected students to be ready to engage with academic tasks. In line with this, (Paxton 2007) confirms that a large number of first-year students arrive at university not having grasped the new discourse that they are expected to have acquired from high school.
Some of the students who experienced poor academic literacy indicated the following:
“The school did not prepare me for university at all because I struggled to write an assignment when I came to university.” Busisiwe
Another participant stated:
“Even in my assignment they tell me to improve my English and academic writing but lecturers don’t explain how.” Zodumo
“My problem is application of knowledge because I contribute in class and help other people but when it comes to test I fail especially Physics.” Nozizwe
From this data, three factors are seen to be contributing to students’ low performance. One relates to the difficulty in writing assignments. In this case, Nozizwe attribute her failure to secondary school teachers who did not prepare them to engage with academic writing was now struggling to write assignments at university. The second one is related to lack of knowledge on how to improve their academic writing. In this case, some students attributed their failure to lecturers who did not explain how they needed to improve when they failed assessment tasks.
The third one is related to failure to apply knowledge during tests. In this case one student
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claimed that she helped other people in class and participates during lectures but failed to apply knowledge during assessment.
Lack of support from lecturers
Within this category of data presentation and analysis, the participants referred to lack of support from lecturers as a contributing factor to their poor performance in higher education. Students are used to having teachers verbally remind them about school processes and procedures. Higher institutions use different procedures and processes which become a challenge to students who are in transition from high school to university.
Some of the students who experienced lack of support from lecturers indicated it in these words:
“I registered late to study here and didn’t ask about dates for assignments because I thought the lecturer will tell me that you have missed the assignment and this is what you need to do. No one is guiding you about expectations.” Focus group
“I felt embarrassed carrying the monitoring chart from the support programme; the lecturers will pass negative comment about my progress before even looking at this chart.” Focus group
“I tried to speak to one of the lecturers and she totally wrote me off about me passing this module and was not helpful at all. I also feel that they over marked my work like in ALE, she never gave me a chance as a result I didn’t want to attend these two lectures that my performance dropped. In Maths last year, a new lecturer came I think he was racist but I can’t say that because I can’t prove it. She said to me “here at university it’s your responsibility and don’t make it my problem”, that is the attitude you get from lecturers with arrogance; they are not supportive like teachers at school.” Nevan
It seems that two factors related to lack of support from lecturers. These contributed to students’
poor performance. The first relates to the lack of assistance by lecturers. In this case, students who registered late and missed some of the lectures attributed their failure to lecturers who did not tell them about key information for their modules; they were accustomed to this kind of support at secondary school. The second relates to negative attitudes from lecturers. In this case, the students felt embarrassed talking about their academic progress because the lecturer would
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pass negative comments before assisting the student. It became clear from the responses above that lecturers contributed to students’ failure by making students feel humiliated and helpless;
this discouraged students from consulting them when they were faced with difficulties. Students attributed their failure to lecturers who they described as arrogant, not helpful and with an uncaring attitude, who failed to give them any hope of passing a module when spoken to (see Nevan’s statement above). Students had expectations of the institution and of their lecturers.
They expected the institution and the lecturers to remind them about their responsibilities and university rules; for an example, if a student missed a task, they did not explain what the consequences are and what procedures could be followed.