CHAPTER THREE: ADJUSTMENT DIFFICULTIES OF FIRST YEAR BLACK STUDENTS
3.4. INTRA-PSYCHIC FACTORS
these conflicts resulted in high levels of distress, confusion concerning their core identity and poor academic performance.
Other studies find similarly high levels of cultural alienation and poor interracial interaction among black students. Smith, for example, describes black students on white campuses as caught in a "whirlwind of confusing racial identities" (1980 in Smith, 1981, p. 300). On one hand they perceive campus as a hostile environment where they are viewed as less than equal to their white peers, are required to abandon their cultural heritage to fit in, and where the curriculum is foreign to their experiences. On the other hand, they respond by joining all-black social and community groups, discouraged by the university in the supposed interests of cross-cultural integration.
Hence they are caughtin a catch-22 situation, constantly reminded of their separate racial identity but also discouraged from those activities that might overcome their isolation and alienation.
Hughes (1987) also explores black students' experiences of cultural isolation which is attributed to the dominant white culture on campus. She argues that many black students cope with this alienation by actively deferring their psycho-social and cultural development until they have graduated, indicated in the following statement: "1 have decided to tough it out. 1 will resurface and continue my life when this sentence is over" (Hughes, 1987, p. 540).
Itis therefore clear that the interpersonal environment encountered by black students on white campuses is a stressful one leading to high levels of loneliness, racial conflicts and alienation from campus life. These factors in turn impact on students' academic performance and likelihood of dropping out of university (Suen, 1983). Placed in a position oflow status many of these interpersonal experiences of black students are clearly different from those of white students, suggesting the need for special interventions aimed directly at their adjustment difficulties.
would argue however, that cognitive and linguistic factors play such a crucial role in South African black students' academic adjustment, and make up such a large proportion of local studies in this area, that there is merit in considering them separately from other
psychological factors.
3.4.1. Cognitive and linguistic factors:
The academic performance of all students is influenced by a host of cognitive factors. Van Overwalle (1989), for example, found a variety of cognitive factors to have moderate relation to examination performance, including regular studying (r=0.31), understanding of course content (r
=
0.29), and verbal expressiveness (r=
0.29). Aninteresting, and somewhat unexpectedfinding was that although students' perception of the efficacy of their study methods was a small but significant predictor of examination performance, (r= 0.34), the use of specific surface or deep learning strategies (Biggs, 1987) did not predict academic achievement.
Distinctions between deep and surface learning strategies are common (Biggs, 1987; Entwistle and Ramsden, 1983), and have been used to explain a host of academic difficulties (Barnsley,
1992 and Bulman, 1996). Surface learning involves rote memorisation of discrete facts, with no attempt to integrate these. The student is extrinsically motivated, and studying is merely a means to the end of receiving a qualification. The deep learner, however, focuses on the underlying meaning of material, to maximise understanding. This student is intrinsically motivated, and reads widely, integrating information and applying it to hislher own experiences (Biggs, 1987).
Findings of the many studies measuring these two approaches suggest two key patterns. Firstly lack of interest, unfamiliar material and an overloaded curriculum, lead to over-reliance on surface learning, while enthusiasm and interest in the course lead to deep level learning
(Entwistle, 1981 in Giraud and Frielick, 1994). Secondly students adapt their strategy to suit the assessment criteria used, adopting a surface strategy, for example, if rote-learnt answers are required (Gowand Kember, 1990 in Giraud and Frielick, 1994).
InSouth Africa academic development practitioners have widely considered the surface learning pattern as the root of many black students' academic difficulties. Barnsley (1992), for example, argues that they often claim to understand course content, but when tested, have only surface knowledge, battling to recognise the difference between learning discrete bits of information and deeper understanding of a text. Nyamapfere and Letsaka (1995) link this over-reliance on surface learning among black students to inadequate preparation for the demands of university study both due to poor secondary education, and to usually being a first-generation student.
Over-reliance on rote learning leads to other weaknesses, including poor writing skills, (Wood, 1998) and helps to explain high levels of plagiarism among black students. Successful essay writing requires textual interpretation and synthesis of the views of several sources into a
coherent argument, features of deep learning. Many black students reportedly cannot do this, and resort to copying from the text, assuming that if an idea has been published it must be correct.
Coleman (1993) also links surface learning to poor examination preparation and time
management, finding that black students in her survey spent between 45 and 60 hours learning for one examination.
Development of deep learning is often viewed as a panacea for black students' difficulties. At the University of the Western Cape it is the main aim of student development (Mahatey, Kagee and Naidoo, 1994), while the University of the Witwatersrand consider it integral to all curricula:
An important objective of the University is to provide the community with high calibre, well-educated and thinking people. Essential to the achievement of this objective is the student's conversion from the surface-learning or rote-learning strategy characteristic of schoolleavers to a deep level learning style.Itshould not be possible to achieve a Wits degree by rote learning alone
(University of the Witwatersrand, 1991, in Giraud and Frielick, 1994, p. 220).
The University of Natal also emphasis deep level learning as one of its primary objectives:
Curricula and research design...need to be organised in such a way that scholars are produced who go beyond the isolated facts, who make connections across disciplines,
who help shape a more coherent view of knowledge and a more integrated and authentic
view of life (University of Natal, 1994, p.5).
Results of a three year survey at the University of the Witwatersrand, however, suggest an
inconsistency between commitment to deep level learning at policy level and the implementation thereof. In all faculties except for Arts, surface learning was found to be more common than deep learning at undergraduate level and consistently used in all years of study. A marked decline in surface learning was, however, found in all faculties at Honours level (Giraud and
Frielick, 1994).
Many causal factors may explain these fmdings. Teaching strategies and curricula clearly affect the learning strategy used. Abrupt changes to deep learning at Honours level parallel the
requirements for in-depth understanding and application of knowledge, while curriculum overload and over-reliance on lecturing as the main form of information delivery at
undergraduate level, account for higher levels of surface learning. Assessment also plays a role, with courses relying on written examinations and testing retention of content leading to students' adoption of surface strategies. Inadequacies in black schooling are also contributing factors as is the difficult transition from school to university and insufficient orientation to the academic requirements of university.
Giraud and Frielick's (1994) study demonstrates that the commitment to deep learning shown in university policy documents, rarely filters down to the level of teaching practices, which
continue to rely on traditional lecturing and assessment of rote learning. The academic development literature, it could be argued, suffers from a similar abstraction, with greater emphasis on broad transformational issues than on strategies by which these policies can be implemented (Boughey, 1994; Frielick, 1993 and Sanders and Seneque, 1992). Academic development has contributed to students' reliance on surface learning. Academic skills and literacy courses, for example, focus on the teaching of a set of generic academic skills. Instead of transferring this knowledge to other courses, however, students view academic skills as yet another body of content to be rote learnt and passed (Blunt,1992 and Wood, 1998). By
emphasising skills instead of content, attention is also diverted away from the complexities of a
text to generic skills, resulting in learning that is "superficial, bookish and ultimately inconsequential" (Wood, 1998, p.90).
Two other cognitive difficulties to receive considerable attention in the academic development literature are inadequately developed academic skills (Agar, 1990; Nyamapfene and Letsaka, 1995 and Savage, 1993) and language difficulties (Agar, 1990; Coleman, 1993 and Wood, 1998).
The former is perceived by both staff and students as one of the major causes of black students' failures (Coleman, 1993), and forms the basis for many academic development interventions (Grewar, 1987; Pandor, 1991 and Starfield and Hart, 1991a). Language difficulties include slow reading speed, poor essay writing and an inability to articulate an argument. At school black students' progress was hampered by teachers who were, themselves, second language speakers, while at university they are overwhelmed by the complexities of learning from first language speakers with little experience of the difficulties facing second language learners.
Cognitive difficulties thus affect all aspects of learning, including the management of time, reliance on rote learning and class participation. The tendency exists, however, for staff to overemphasise their importance and show little awareness of the impact of material and psycho- social factors which are just as central to black students' adjustment to university (Agar, 1987b).
3.4.2. Psychological and emotional factors:
Black students face many psychological adjustment difficulties although very little local research has focussed on these, forcing conclusions to be drawn from the experiences of African-
American students. As mentioned in section 3.3 the experience of being a minority student on a white campus is a stressful one, with academic anxieties compounded by feelings of alienation from a culture very different to their own (Hughes, 1987). In one of the few South African studies to explore these issues Coleman (1993) suggests that psychological concerns are widespread among black students, with over half of the difficulties affecting academic performance of a psychosocial nature, such as low self-esteem, lack of a support network and loneliness.
Suen (1983) focuses on black students' feelings of alienation, distinguishing between three aspects of alienation, namely feelings of meaninglessness and loss of direction, loss of control over one's studies and powerlessness, and feelings ofloneliness. To clarify the distinction between these components, meaninglessness can be thought of as a sense of existential
alienation, loss of control as academic alienation, and loneliness as social alienation. Although black students scored higher than white ones on all three components, lower levels of the first two components (but not loneliness) were found in comparison to earlier studies. This may be due to an increase in academic development programmes, lowering feelings of powerlessness and loss of direction, but not students' sense of isolation. Similar findings of loneliness and marginality are reported by Hughes (1987), Zea, Reisen, Beil and Caplan (1997) and Zweigenhaft and Cody (1993).
The few South African studies in this area also report high levels of alienation among black students on historically white university campuses. In a series of semi-structured interviews with black Psychology I students at the University of Cape Town, Lea (1987) found strong feelings of racial alienation, starting with Orientation Week, which subjects claimed oriented them to the social interests of white students and established their feelings of cultural difference. This alienation was then entrenched in course content that had little relevance to subjects'
experiences, and in the wider university community, where they felt that their needs were under- represented:
The whites run the show, most students are white - it's a white place. I battle
academically, almost one could say because I'm not white. I felt that nowhere, not even in one piece of course content, was there anything for me
(student in Lea, 1987, p. 83).
The loss of control over one's studies, or academic alienation described by Suen (1983), above, is a common experience among local black students, according to Bamsley (1992). In a useful analogy she compares the experiences of black science student to novice dart players:
Itis my experience that many of the students I have encountered perceive learning to be a somewhat random process. In other words they see learning as being rather like a game of darts where one throws randomly in the hope of hitting something and sometimes one is
lucky and hits the bull' s eye and sometimes one is not. This idea results in students not feeling responsible for their own learning and creates a sense of helplessness
(Barnsley, 1992, p.31).
Students often respond to this lack of control by giving up and retreating into a state of learned helplessness (Whitman, Spendlove and Clark, 1986). Loss of control also leads to a state of isolation as students fail to form the relations with peers or staff who will provide support in their studies (Barnsley, 1992). Few black students approach staff for help, either due to fear of
angering the staff member, denial of their difficulties, or lack of awareness that they are not coping until they fail the course. Students also develop a set of negative feelings and thought patterns about their apparent lack of ability, termed 'self efficacy' by Bandura (1997). This can lead to disillusionment and depression (Barnsley, 1992). These negative thoughts become entrenched, resulting in enduring beliefs that are resistant to change, and that lead to reduced effort spent on that discipline. This in turn confirms their beliefs when they then fail the course.
Other psychological difficulties which impact on academic performance are low self-esteem and self-confidence (Holmbeck and Wandrei, 1993 and Mooney, Sherman and Lo Presto, 1991). A pattern of low self esteem among black South African students is generally found. Sixty percent of the students interviewed by Coleman (1993) reported low self-esteem and unhappiness at university, while 41 % of students in Lea's (1987) study described low confidence and self- esteem. These results can be explained both as the result of the academic alienation and social isolation referred to above (Suen, 1983), and as due to the wider socio-political issue of being a member of an oppressed group (which would influence existential alienation): "We find that in the life experience of the African, there is hardly any situation in his life in which his sense of self esteem is nourished...his subjective experience is one of feeling emasculated" (Manganyi, 1973, p.IO-Il).
Some studies, on the other hand, find evidence of higher self-esteem for black than white students once educational attainment is controlled (Lay and Wakstein, 1985). Two theoretical explanations for this are Sub-cultural Encapsulation (McCarthy, Rigsby and Yancy, 1972 in Lay
and Wakstein, 1985) and Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1981). The former argues that black students replace dominant White Anglo-Saxon Protestant values of independence and individual achievement with their own community-oriented cultural values. This emphasis on the group provides social support which elevates self-esteem.Italso leads to the dominance of external attributions for success and failure, while white students are governed by cultural factors of individualism and rely on internalised attributions. Evidence to support this view comes from the finding that black South African matriculants are more likely to attribute academic failures to external factors than black Americans as a way of maintaining a positive self-esteem (Lobhan,
1975 in Howcroft, 1990).
According to Social Identity Theory self esteem is closely related to group membership (Tajfel, 1981). Positive self esteem is derived through social comparison along dimensions on which the ingroup is positively accentuated. If they compare poorly with the comparison group, however, self esteem is lowered. At university, black students become aware of their own inferior academic performance in comparison to white students, due to the ecological markers (such as alternative selection and academic development programmes) described by Brown (1997) in section 3.2.
Group membership thus becomes salient and they seek to boost group esteem. Several strategies exist to achieve this, including psychological mobility into the dominant white campus culture, changing the comparison group to one poorer than them, (such as black people not accepted into university), or social creativity. Here new comparison categories are introduced on which black people rate positively (such as a sense of community). This explains the higher self esteem found among blacks in the 1960s than 1980s due to earlier efforts of the Black Consciousness
Movement to elevate their sense of community (Macrone, 1975 in Howcroft, 1990). A fourth strategy is direct competition with the comparison group as in the protest campaigns described in section 3.1.
Two further difficulties are failure to make realistic performance appraisals and a lack of confidence, with Lea (1987) finding that 60% of black students are too afraid to approach their lecturer. Bamsley (1992) and Sedlacek (1987) attribute this to poor interracial communication, leaving students embarrassed at appearing incompetent, afraid of angering their lecturer, or
anxious about articulating their concerns. The combination of unrealistic appraisals and poor staff-student interaction at predominantly white universities therefore creates a no-win situation, where students are either unaware that they have a problem, or too anxious to do anything about it.