Effect of Integrated Study Reading on Students’ Academic Success Mindset and Academic Achievement

Abstract

As a key factor of academic achievement, study reading skill is taught to tertiary institution students with the expectation that they will practice it on their own but the reality is that most students do not. They usually delay study reading till few days to examinations when they will now ‘burn the mid-night oil’. This leads to high incidences of examination mal-practice and low grade. This study was conducted to make case for the integration of study reading in students’ daily schedules through regulated monitoring. Three null hypotheses were tested. 400 students from four departments in three faculties of a non-residential polytechnic were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups of 200 each.  Both groups were lectured on study reading skill and the importance of academic success mindset but only the experimental group was monitored to practice study reading. The two instruments used were Effect of Integrated Study Reading Questionnaire (EISRQ) filled by experimental group before and after treatment and Test of Students’ Achievement (TOSA I-IV) administered on both groups after treatment. Results showed that there were significant differences in the mean academic achievement (t(398)=11.11, p < 0.05) and academic success mindset (t(199) = 20.33, p < 0.05) of both groups. Also, no significant disparity on academic success mindset was recorded based ND and HND dichotomy (r .88 t(199)= -1.421, p<0.05). It was concluded that if closely monitored and supervised to practise study reading every student has the potential to be high on academic success mindset and achieve high scores in examinations. It was recommended that necessary institutional arrangements should be made to promote and monitor students’ study reading and to orientate them on the values of academic success mindset.

Keywords: Integrated study reading; Study reading; Academic achievement; Academic success mindset.