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The Relationship Between Academic Trait Boredom, Learning Approach and University Achievement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2019

Brian Hemmings ,
Russell Kay  and
John G. Sharp
Brian Hemmings*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Russell Kay
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
John G. Sharp
Affiliation:
Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
*
Author for correspondence: Brian Hemmings, Email: bhemmings@csu.edu.au
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Abstract

This study explored factors that influence academic achievement and hence, future career prospects. The relationships between the factors, academic trait boredom, approach to learning and academic achievement were examined using data collected from university students at a small English university and from their student records. The initial statistical analysis revealed significant effects of gender on learning approach and two of the three academic trait boredom subscales. Female students proved to be less prone to academic trait boredom than their male counterparts. A model was then developed that showed how a student’s choice of learning approach was influenced by academic trait boredom and impinged on academic achievement. This modelling also confirmed that students who are more prone to academic trait boredom are also more likely to adopt a surface approach to learning rather than a deep or strategic one. The results of this investigation have implications for students, lecturers, course designers and learning support staff both here in this one location as well as elsewhere across the higher education sector.

Keywords

trait boredomlearning approachachievementhigher education
Type
Articles
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 41 - 50
Copyright
© Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2019 

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