The relationship of problem-solving ability to persistence/withdrawal behavior and to academic success at a private university
State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, PhD Thesis, (1993)Zusammenfassung
Researchers in the area of college persistence/withdrawal behavior are constantly looking for factors that can predict which students will remain in college and which will drop out. In order to improve persistence, most colleges are now offering a special course to incoming freshmen to address the issues of transition and needed skills. This paper focuses on one of those skills: problem-solving ability. Could the varying levels of problem solving skills that the incoming students bring with them have any effect on their continued enrollment? Can a student's ability or inability to solve problems have any impact on his or her level of academic success? The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which problem-solving ability is related to persistence in college and academic success. If problem solving ability is positively related to persistence and to success, there would be reason for colleges to include problem solving training in these freshmen courses. Heppner demonstrates in his research that training in problem-solving does increase problem-solving skills. During the first weeks of their first semester, over four hundred freshmen completed the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) by Heppner. Additional demographic data and information on their commitment to higher education and to the college attended was obtained as a part of the questionnaire accompanying the PSI. Other information was obtained from institutional records on student's high school academic record, residence status, ethnic background and gender. Students who completed the PSI were then followed longitudinally for three years. Data on their QPA and their registration status were obtained from institutional records. The findings did not support a significant relationship between problem solving ability and persistence/withdrawal behavior. It is hypothesized that effective problem solvers are as likely to choose withdrawal (and possible transfer) as the optimal solution to their problem, as they are to choose continued enrollment. The main predictors of persistence found in the study were commitment to the institution and commitment to goal, factors which were found in earlier research on Tinto's model by Pascarella and Terenzini. Other significant predictors of persistence were gender, college residence, income, high school average and SAT scores. The findings did support a small but significant relationship between problem solving ability and academic success as measured by QPA, even when holding the main predictors, high school average and SAT scores, constant. Other predictors of QPA were gender and college residence.