Abordagens ao estudo, rendimento académico e atribuições causais do desempenho em estudantes do ensino superior

Abstract

Com o objectivo de contribuir para o estudo do rendimento académico no ensino superior e tendo como quadro de referência os trabalhos de Entwistle (1997) e de McAuley, Duncan e Russell (1992), procurámos esclarecer as relações entre as abordagens ao estudo, as atribuições causais, o rendimento académico e a percepção subjectiva do rendimento académico. Os dados foram recolhidos junto de 558 alunos, pertencentes a seis instituições de ensino superior e as medidas utilizadas foram a Causal Dimension Scale II (McAuley, Duncan & Russel, 1992), o inventário Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, 1997), tendo sido construído, para o rendimento académico, um indicador com base nas classificações obtidas. Procedimentos de modelação por equações estruturais permitiram concluir que as abordagens ao estudo constituem o factor mais importante do rendimento académico dos alunos, observando-se, igualmente, uma forte relação entre as abordagens ao estudo e as atribuições causais.

À fin d’apporter une contribution à l’étude du rendement académique dans l’enseignement supérieur, partant du cadre de référence théorique d’Entwistle (1997) et de McAuley, Duncan e Russell (1992), nous avons tenté d’éclaircir les relations entre les orientations d’étude, les attributions causales, le rendement académique et la perception subjective du rendement académique. Nous avons étudié 558 étudiants de six établissements de l’enseignement supérieur et les mesures utilisées ont été la Causal Dimension Scale II (McAuley, Duncan & Russel, 1992) et l’inventaire Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, 1997). Pour coter le rendement académique nous avons construit un indicateur sur les classifications obtenues. L’ajustement d’un modèle structurel indique que les orientations d’étude sont le facteur le plus important du rendement académique des étudiants. De même, on observe également une forte relation entre les orientations d’étude et les attributions causales.

In order to contribute to the study of academic achievement in higher education, and adopting Entwistle’s (1997) theoretical framework as well as that of McAuley, Duncan and Russell (1992), we sought to clarify the relationship between studying approaches, causal attributions, academic achievement and the subjective perception of academic achievement. The 558 sampled participants were students of six institutions of higher education and the instruments used were the Causal Dimension Scale II (McAuley, Duncan & Russel, 1992), the inventory Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, 1997), and also constructed an indicator of the scores obtained to quantify the academic performance. Structural equation modeling procedures show that studying approaches constitute the most important variable accounting for academic performance, and, equally, there is a strong relationship between studying approaches and causal attributions.