The study investigated the association and relative influence of cognitive/motivational and demographic factors on final degree grade point average (GPA) in a single undergraduate cohort. Although academic self-efficacy, approaches to learning, prior achievement and age all produced significant correlations with GPA, regression analysis identified prior achievement (R 2 change = .288), age (R 2 change = .201) and academic self-efficacy (R 2 change = .062) as the only significant predictors of GPA. Significant increases in academic self-efficacy (d = .46), deep (d = .43) and strategic (d = .37) approaches to learning, and self-confidence (d = .33), and a significant decrease in internal academic locus of control (d = .50), were also reported when comparing first and final year scores. Conclusions suggested that prior academic achievement, age and academic self-efficacy provide a partial explanation for academic achievement in higher education, that any measure of prior achievement must be relevant, that self-efficacy appears to be the most relevant perceived control construct in a learning context, and that further work focusing on age in the context of academic achievement in higher education is both necessary and warranted.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 147 citations exist upstream.