Academic buoyancy in higher education

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a new instrument toward assessing English as foreign language students’ academic buoyancy and to investigate the association between academic buoyancy and three demographic variables of GPA, gender and educational level using the newly-designed questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach To do so, a new questionnaire consisting of 27 items was designed which measures four aspects of L2 buoyancy, namely, sustainability, regularity adaptation, positive personal eligibility and positive acceptance of academic life. The scale was then translated into Persian and its validity (computed via confirmatory factor analysis estimates) and reliability (computed via Cronbach’s α) were substantiated. Findings All the items were found to have accepted factor loading. The results regarding the association between academic buoyancy and demographic variables along with the relevant discussion are presented. Originality/value Though over the years, researchers have used a variety of methods and scales to measure buoyancy, all of the instruments have been consisted of few items (usually four) which do not include the many aspects related to student buoyancy as one of the tenets of individual differences in positive psychology. Moreover, the same materials were used for distinctive settings of school and workplace in which the individuals adapt different goal orientations and perspectives. Consequently, the need for designing a comprehensive and specific instrument which includes all the aspects of academic buoyancy focusing on EFL students in higher education is manifested.

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