IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mar/magkse/202236.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Math Skill Growth and Learning Differences in Higher Education. Can Lower-Skilled Students Catch up?

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Buechele

    (University of Kassel)

  • Carina Marten

    (University of Kassel)

Abstract

Studies determining students' success in higher education mostly rely on students' predetermined baseline variables like high school GPA or ACT scores and, therefore, describe skill differences at the beginning of college but not the development of these differences over time. Whether ex-ante lower-skilled students can catch up or higher-skilled students may expand their initial lead remains unclear. We investigate the students' learning growth in a business math course and analyze if the gap between initially higher and lower-skilled students changes. Also, we provide possible reasons for different skill growth rates using panel data and mixed-effects models. The results suggest that ex-ante higher-skilled students become disproportionately better (cumulative learning pattern). However, we find evidence that this is only because of engagement effects. In other words, ex-ante lower-skilled students cannot catch up and fall behind even more because they seem less engaged in their studies than higher-skilled students.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Buechele & Carina Marten, 2022. "Math Skill Growth and Learning Differences in Higher Education. Can Lower-Skilled Students Catch up?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202236, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    • Handle: RePEc:mar:magkse:202236
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb02/research-groups/economics/macroeconomics/research/magks-joint-discussion-papers-in-economics/papers/2022-papers/36-2022_buechele.pdf
    File Function: First 202236
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George D. Kuh & Ty M. Cruce & Rick Shoup & Jillian Kinzie & Robert M. Gonyea, 2008. "Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(5), pages 540-563, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angela Boatman & Bridget Terry Long, 2016. "Does Financial Aid Impact College Student Engagement?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(6), pages 653-681, September.
    2. Basmah Al-Bogami & Tariq Elyas, 2020. "Promoting Middle School Students’ Engagement Through Incorporating iPad Apps in EFL/ESL Classes," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    3. Dr. Brunilda Zenelaga & Blerina Hamzallari, 2018. "The Role of the Family in the Education of Children in Conflict with the Law: Empirical Evidence from Albanian Context," European Journal of Education Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 1, September.
    4. Yajun Wu & Xia Kang, 2021. "A Moderated Mediation Model of Expectancy-Value Interactions, Engagement, and Foreign Language Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, November.
    5. Karen C. H. Zhoc & Beverley J. Webster & Ronnel B. King & Johnson C. H. Li & Tony S. H. Chung, 2019. "Higher Education Student Engagement Scale (HESES): Development and Psychometric Evidence," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(2), pages 219-244, March.
    6. Mei Tian & Genshu Lu & Hongbiao Yin & Lijie Li, 2020. "Student Engagement for Sustainability of Chinese International Education: The Case of International Undergraduate Students in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Chris A Boulton & Emily Hughes & Carmel Kent & Joanne R Smith & Hywel T P Williams, 2019. "Student engagement and wellbeing over time at a higher education institution," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, November.
    8. Catherine Audrin & Marine Hascoët, 2021. "Bored to Be Wild: How Boredom Is Related to Pre-Service Teachers’ Intention to Persist in Their Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-11, April.
    9. Stefan Buechele, 2020. "Evaluating the link between attendance and performance in higher education - the role of classroom engagement dimensions," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202010, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Veselina P. Vracheva & Robert Moussetis & Ali Abu-Rahma, 2020. "The Mediational Role of Engagement in the Relationship Between Curiosity and Student Development: A Preliminary Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1529-1547, April.
    11. Zavale, Nelson Casimiro & Santos, Luísa A. & Manuel, Lourenço & da Conceição L. Dias, Maria & Khan, Maida A. & Tostão, Emílio & Mondjana, Ana M., 2017. "Decision-making in African universities demands rigorous data: Evidence from graduation rates at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 122-134.
    12. Simon Amez & Stijn Baert, 2021. "Bye, bye, Hotel Mama, bye, bye good grades? Living in a student room and exam results in tertiary education," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 21/1018, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    13. Inmaculada García-Martínez & José María Augusto Landa & Samuel P. León, 2021. "The Mediating Role of Engagement on the Achievement and Quality of Life of University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.
    14. Alexander K. Killion & Jessica Ostrow Michel & Jason K. Hawes, 2022. "Toward Identifying Sustainability Leadership Competencies: Insights from Mapping a Graduate Sustainability Education Curriculum," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    15. Hye Jeong Kim & Ah Jeong Hong & Hae-Deok Song, 2018. "The Relationships of Family, Perceived Digital Competence and Attitude, and Learning Agility in Sustainable Student Engagement in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Megan M. Tippetts & Bobbi Davis & Stephanie Nalbone & Cathleen D. Zick, 2022. "Thx 4 the msg: Assessing the Impact of Texting on Student Engagement and Persistence," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(6), pages 1073-1093, September.
    17. Altschwager, Teagan & Dolan, Rebecca & Conduit, Jodie, 2018. "Social brand engagement: How orientation events engage students with the university," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    18. Josipa Roksa & Teniell L. Trolian & Ernest T. Pascarella & Cindy A. Kilgo & Charles Blaich & Kathleen S. Wise, 2017. "Racial Inequality in Critical Thinking Skills: The Role of Academic and Diversity Experiences," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(2), pages 119-140, March.
    19. Lauren Ratliff Santoro & Jonas B. Bunte, 2023. "What Did You Get? Peers, Information, and Student Exam Performance," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(3), pages 423-450, May.
    20. Daniel A. Collier & Dan Fitzpatrick & Chelsea Brehm & Keith Hearit & Andrea Beach, 2020. "Structuring First-Year Retention at a Regional Public Institution: Validating and Refining the Structure of Bowman’s SEM Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(8), pages 917-942, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    math skill; learning growth; higher education; learning differences; student heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mar:magkse:202236. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bernd Hayo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vamarde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.