Cognitive and personality factors in relation to timely completion of a college degree.(Report)

The timely completion of a higher education degree and the enhancement of academic performance are concerns of students as well as parents and college administrators. The current study assesses the impact of cognitive and affective factors as related to students completing undergraduate degree requirements as well as their cumulative college GPA. Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores for both Verbal and Math sections, metacognitive skills, locus of control, interpersonal support, measures of self-efficacy, and action behaviors were entered into linear regression analyses for both cumulative GPA and years to graduation. Results based on 158 freshmen over a six-year period found internal locus of control significantly contributed to obtaining an undergraduate degree in a timely manner. Metacognitive factors, action behaviors, and high school GPA significantly contributed to cumulative college GPA at the time the college degree was awarded.

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Higher education presents a wide array of challenges for today's students including completion of college in a timely manner. For previous undergraduate students four years were typically required to complete a degree program. Today's freshman may now spend five, six, and sometimes in excess of six years in order to successfully complete an undergraduate degree program (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004). A wide variety of factors can be related to an extended college experience including monetary concerns with many students holding part-time or even full-time jobs to cover expenses, indecision about one's choice of major, changing majors, changing colleges/universities, adjustment to personal freedoms, and ineffective and/or inefficient learning strategies. All of these are factors that need to be taken into account in time to graduation and graduation rates. While raw graduation rates may not be the best means of evaluating colleges, there has recently been more emphasis on accountability and standards from the public sector in obtaining a degree in a timely manner from two- and four-year institutions (Scott, Bailey, & Kienzl, 2006).

Borkowski and his colleagues (Borkowski, Chan, & Muthukrishna, 2000; Borkowski, Carr, Rellinger, & Pressley, 1990) posit a model of academic achievement based on the dimensions of metacognition and affective factors. Metacognition involves knowledge of learning strategies and using this personal knowledge in an effective and efficient manner. Self-efficacy with factors of motivation, locus of control, and personal attributes are part of the affective component in Borkowski's model. Successful information processing results when there is an integration of these metacognitive and affective components. Prior research supports metacognitive factors in predicting academic success as measured by college GPA (Hall, 2001; Hall, Smith, & Chia, 2002).

Research (Hall, 2001, Hall et al., 2002) supports the influence of metacognitive factors in academic success. Metacognition as measured by the Executive Process Questionnaire--EPQ (Hall, 1994; 2005) is a significant predictor of students' college GPA along with SAT scores, and high school GPA. A significant relationship was not found between scores on the measure of metacognition and the Verbal or Math SAT scores suggesting that metacognition represents a different component of academic success. The key factor for metacognition in prediction of college GPA is the student being able to select an appropriate strategy and then putting this strategy into use in the college setting. High school GPA has also been shown to be a predictor of success in terms of both college GPA and institutional graduation rates (Stumpf & Stanley, 2002). The relationship between academic success in college and affective factors is less direct, however.

Hall et al. (2001) found a significant relationship between metacognitive factors and measures of internal locus of control, but the internal locus of control scale failed to meet the criteria for inclusion in the stepwise regression in predicting college GPA. A later study showed a significant relationship between internal locus of control and high school rank as well as high school GPA (Hall et al., 2002). Again, locus of control failed to meet the criteria for inclusion in stepwise regression in predicting college GPA, but there seemed to be an indirect motivational component with locus of control.

Findings suggest that metacognitive strategies play a direct role in academic success as measured by GPA, but internal locus of control has an indirect role as well. Taken together these two components lend support to Borkowski's (Borkowski & Murthukrishna, 1995; Borkowski, 1996; Borkowski & Burke, 1996; Borkowski et al., 2000) theory of executive functioning. Studies suggest students with high internal locus of control see their own choices and behavior resulting in positive outcomes and this leads to an achievement orientation (Borkowski et al., 2000). Executive functioning is a process of self-regulation with knowledge and application of cognitive skills ...