CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
7.2 Discussion of results
7.2.4 Emotional and psychological experiences caused by identification and notification of
‘at-risk’ status
It emerged from the study that notification of change in students’ academic progress to ‘at-risk’
status caused a flurry of emotional and psychological reactions from students. These emotional and psychological reactions ranged from shock, disbelief, demotivation and anger. Students have several points at which they know their academic status, including accessing their academic profile through the student central database, formal notification by letters sent to them and their academic record presented at the time of subsequent registration. In addition, students do have an inkling of how they may have performed in their examination through their experience of writing their examination as well as their knowledge of their performance within the semester through the continuous assessment process of the modules that they take for that semester. Reaction towards labelling as presented in the literature within the field of emotional psychology in Attribution theory (Weiner, 1986), is a common response, however, within the support programmes, this labelling follows a pattern of alarm (at disclosure), imagined concealment, forced compliance and finally acceptance.
Firstly a student’s surprise is brought about by the seriousness and impact of their failure regarding degree completion when they are informed and advised to attend the intervention programme. They enter the withdrawal stage which moves from being embarrassed to thoughts of quitting their studies. From the point when they are told about compulsory meetings they then comply; this finally leads to realization that the intervention support is there to assist them. Once
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they benefit from the support programme they then accept, comply and can admit to an increase in performance after receiving help. This suggests that as much as students have an idea of how they are progressing during the course of the year, the realization of its significance becomes apparent when they receive notification from the university. Currently, notification takes place after the students have failed the semester, therefore timeous notification soon after the student fails the first assessment should be considered to improve throughput rate.
7.2.4.1 Psychological stages through which the students experience when identified as ‘at- risk’
In conceptualising a stage development model that shows the psychological stages through which students go in student intervention programmes, this study provides, through abstraction, theoretical constructs that form the elements (stages) of the conceptualised model. These elements include alarm (at disclosure), imagined concealment, forced compliance and acceptance. The next in the conceptualisation of this model is how these elements build on from each other, and the sequence of experience. This conceptualisation then forms the stages indicated in the development model that students go through before acceptance and realisation of the benefits of academic intervention. “Managing emotion vector” in Chickering’s Identity theory proposes that emotions be recognized, faced, acknowledged, expressed appropriately and accommodated in such a way that they are not allowed to impinge on the student’s emotional wellbeing (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). This study shows that since students go through a concealment stage they struggle to face the truth of being identified as students ‘at risk’. This means that the acceptance process is delayed by the concealment stage which becomes a concern.
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Figure: 3 Illustration of psychological stages through which the students experience when identified as ‘at- risk’
Alarmed surprise/shock stage
The first psychological stage students go through is the alarmed/shock stage. When students are notified about their ‘at- risk’ status it makes them feel categorised as failures and as students who will not ‘make it’. All participants in this study felt surprised by the status. After the surprise/shock, students experienced different negative emotions; some were angry, some hurt, some were in denial and some felt guilt. Weiner’s model in Attribution Theory suggests that this negative reaction is common and the next process will be the causal search (search for the perceived causes of the outcome). Because of cognitive limitations, this search is not undertaken following every event, but is very likely when the outcome is negative, unexpected and/or important (Schunk, 2008; Weiner, 1985; 2000). In this case the causal search of emotional
Alarmed (at disclosure)
Imagined reaction and concealment
Forced compliance
Acceptance
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reaction is elicited by exam results which are negative. The result of the causal search is influenced by many sources, including personal and environmental factors. In the next process, a cause is selected, for example lack of ability, lack of effort or lack of luck (Weiner, 2000). In attribution theory, the motivational drive of attributions branches from their classification along causal dimensions, which have implications for the individuals’ expectancies, emotions and motivated behaviour (Schunk, 2008); for example, participants who feel anger because they do not expect failure (psychological consequence) or they think the module was easy. They then attribute their failure to ignorance which could ultimately lead them to become angry with themselves. The feeling of hurt and denial could emanate from unexpected results considering their effort and hard work. In this case students attribute failure to an external factor such as the examination being difficult (McClure, Meyer, Garisch, Fischer, Weir & Walkey, 2011). The feeling of guilt could emanate from less effort and a lazy attitude. Guiltiness could imply that they realize they should have done better if they had taken their work seriously. Upon realisation that they have performed poorly they don’t want to reveal their status.
Imagined concealment stage
The second psychological stage is imagined concealment, the hiding and withdrawal stage which could lead to dropping out because they do not feel capable enough of succeeding at the university. This is a stage whereby students do not want other people to know their academic status (concealment), thinking that by not sharing this information, others will not know (imagined). Reasons for such actions are largely related to their imagination of how others may react to this information (the ‘at- risk’ status), as well as what they imagine will happen if they conceal this information from others. They assume that they will be stigmatised by their lecturers and they suppose that they are not going to succeed (imagine) resulting in them shying away from support (concealment). This stage, the imagined concealment stage, is a critical period as it may results in some students quitting their studies, which is a concern. Weiner’s model in Attribution Theory suggests that psychological processes lead to behavioural consequences such as feelings about quitting studies. Students who believe that failure is due to uncontrollable causes such as lack of ability are more likely to experience shame (Weiner 1986). This critical stage implies a point where the student is at the cross roads about his/her academic future. At the
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time when asked to come and consult with the Academic Monitoring and Support office, students feel forced to participate in the intervention support programme.
Forced compliance stage
The third psychological stage is forced compliance; this happens when students are sent messages through emails, phones and in their academic records to consult with the Academic Monitoring and Support office, the Dean and Academic Leader regarding their academic performance. Some feel they don’t need support and don’t want to participate in intervention support. “When I was told I was the part of the programme I didn’t like it because I thought I was working hard enough to be able to pass my modules without the help of the programme.
(Musa and Nozizwe). As much as they are identified as ‘at-risk’ because of their poor performance, they deny that they need support. With implications for not attending to their “at- risk” status, student now feel compelled to consult the identified persons and structures and to participate in the academic support programme. This compulsion is what can be referred to as forced compliance. Throughout this study it was found that students who did comply after coercion, felt encouraged, and engaged with the process, suggesting that this forced compliance stage is a crucial stage in the academic support process.
Acceptance stage
The last stage is when students begin to accept support “When I was told to attend the meeting of the support programme ,I didn’t know what it was about so I was confused at first, then when you’re in there you realize that you’re not alone in this situation and feel better” Focus group.
The realisation that they are not alone results in change of attitude. Seeing other students being part of the support programme motivates them to attend. Students begin to accept consequences of their performance and consequently see benefits of attending intervention support programmes. This indicates that after going through phases of surprise, withdrawal, forced compliance and, finally, acceptance, students begin to realise that it’s not only about shifting the blame to the external environment but accepting that a positive attitude and behaviour contributes to academic performance.
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