The relationship between learning and study skills and student persistence in a community college.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The community college has become an important avenue by which a large number of people gain access to higher education opportunities. Unfortunately, about half of the students who attend community colleges depart before completing a program of study. This study sought to address the problem of persistence in the community college.
The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between measures of learning, study strategies and student persistence. A sample of 169 students was considered. Recent high school graduates, enrolled full-time at the community college, who had declared a major were the focus of this investigation. These group characteristics were used because previous studies of persistence predictors suggested that age, enrollment status and intent were the most important predictors of student persistence. An ex post facto design was used in the study. The dependent variables were course persistence and program persistence. The independent variables were the scales of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) (Weinstein, Palmer & Schulte, 1987). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 10). Multiple regression procedures were employed.
The findings were: (1) Motivation and concentration were significant predictors of course persistence; (2) Motivation explained approximately 6 to 7% of the variance in measures of course persistence in the stepwise model but concentration was excluded from the model; (3) Anxiety and self-testing were significant predictors of program persistence; (4) While anxiety explained about 3 to 40 of the variance in program persistence in the stepwise model, self-testing was excluded.
The research contributes to understanding of the problem of persistence in the community college by providing evidence of the nature of the relationship of motivation and anxiety to student persistence.