Chapter 5. A Qualitative Representation (and Explanation) of Exceptional Academic Achievement Achievement
5.4 Sindi (College of Law and Management Studies)
5.4.2 Epistemic access: Goal setting, planning, and environmental structuring
Sindi’s focus on her health was positioned in her path of academic achievement, graduation, employment, and eventual success in life. It serves as something that she can control, as well as a force that orientated her towards her future. It was something that she had identified as a
potential barrier to her eventual success. She went on to highlight that –
I have worked before, and I have seen like (.) I have enjoyed getting paid, driving cars, so I want to have that, and I don’t want anything standing in between me and that. So, maybe anything that maybe is a threat I want to just eliminate on my way.
So, maybe I just want to make sure that I … I don’t know. (Sindi, PEI 2, 524)
In addition to her experience of working before, Sindi also reflected on her educational and family background, and the role that this played in her vision for the future.
Also, it has to do with my background. Also in my family, my mum she is a single parent and she used to tell us we have to be in the top 10 and we have to work very hard to get there. So, it’s what we grew up with. Until I went to DUT (.) I also think I graduated well there, because I got a few distinctions. But the problem there was I used NSFAS and I was not staying very close to the university. And I had to work to get food. So it was a bit of a challenge there as well. So, but now, I also (.) when I got NSFAS last year, I worked hard to make sure I get a bursary and luckily I did, so with that as well I also had my own personal goals. It’s not just that I get that 60%. I also have my own personal goals of graduating cum laude or summa cum laude.
(Sindi, FGD 1, 438)
to achieve for these different forms of assessments. After each assessment, Sindi then placed the results on the year planner, and then evaluated –
‘How did I get this and how could I get that? How could I move up or make up the gap?’ And then also I check which modules I am stronger or weaker on so that I can aim to get that 75%. (Sindi, FGD 1, 504)
Sindi’s strategy of using a year-planner to track, monitor and self-evaluate her academic performance throughout a semester could also be identified as a planning strategy and motivational device. The year-planner, and the actions within and around this, reinforced the ways in which Sindi monitored her own levels of levels of academic success. Later in the data production process, Sindi described a similar (but far more detailed) tracking, monitoring, and self-evaluation strategy in relation to one of her first semester modules.
… before the exams they posted out DPs, and I wanted a certificate of merit for Economics, so I didn’t get it. Prior to the exam I was number two in the class and then I knew that I was maybe going to drop because when I write my exam (.) I will write Accounting, skip one day, write Economics. So it was always a challenge for me to get a certificate because I always have a problem with studying because I have to focus on Accounting, and I have to focus on Economics. So, after the exams, when I got my results I got 83% and I didn’t get a certificate. And then I was like, “Maybe it was because of the first question?” In question 1 there was maybe like 70 marks for one part, and 30 marks [for the other part]. And I thought that was impossible to get that 70 marks. So when I came back and I went to view my script, then the lady gave it to me, and I checked I actually got 60 out of 70 on that one, and 25 out of 30 on that question, so I had 85%. And for the question that I knew I was happy with it (.) I had (.) I think I got 58% which was like, “What!” And then for the MCQs [multiple- choice questionnaires], I got 81%. And then I was so unhappy they didn’t mark me well for that question because I knew for sure (.) The question I doubted was the other one. And then when I saw my marks I was like “Where was the problem?”
(Sindi, PEI 2, 874)
The excerpt above is illustrative of the meticulous and detailed metacognitive processes that Sindi engaged in as part of her academic planning, goal-setting, and monitoring. She was a student who was acutely aware of her ranking in class, aiming for a certificate of merit, the impact that the examination timetable may have had on her academic performance, different sections of an examination, and her self-assessment of how she should have performed in these
sections. Sindi was also clearly a student who checked her examination scripts, even after scoring 83% for a module.
Towards the end of the photo-elicitation interview, Sindi selected Photograph 5-9 for discussion.
Photograph 5-9 reflects Sindi’s study desk, highlighting the way in which she set up and
structured her immediate study environment. When explaining the photograph, Sindi pointed out various items, identifying a stress ball (on the right hand side of the laptop), past examination papers (on the screen of the laptop), some snacks and water, an energy supplement, stationery in a stationery case, textbooks, highlighted text in a textbook, and paper to practice questions for tests and examinations. Photograph 5-9 is illustrative of the level of micro environmental structuring evident in Sindi’s study activities. Sindi was attuned to what worked for her in her study environment, and Photograph 5-9 was taken to showcase both her ideal micro study environment, as well as the various items she used within this environment.
Prior to the discussion of Photograph 5-9 in the photo-elicitation interview, Sindi also alluded to a level of macro environmental structuring. During the focus group discussion she attended, participants were discussing the pros and cons of staying in university residences, and one of the participants noted, “The only thing you find there is bashes, parties, you find all those things that are not necessary. The things that are necessary are not there. So there is no more support for Photograph 5-9. Right setting to study (Sindi C1)
academic performance” (Mzolisi, FGD 1, 339). Sindi remarked, “That’s why I don’t stay in res [residence]” (Sindi, FGD 1, 344).
Sindi’s description exemplified an individual with a unique awareness of how her future
academic and career achievements were related to her maintaining her health. In addition, given that Sindi had worked and earned money before, she seemed determined to improve her
qualifications and enter the labour market and earn money again. However, Sindi’s future orientation and employments plans were grounded in the understanding that “at home they are waiting for me” (Sindi, PEI 2, 161). She ensured their wait would be worthwhile through her own responsible living, careful planning, meticulousness, and self-reflective and high
achievement-oriented study.