Should we include study-management skills in the curriculum of pre-tertiary bridging programs?

Abstract

The study reported here was essentially exploratory. It had two aims. The first aim was to investigate whether the ATOMS Test (Roberts et al., 2001) and/or Vermunt’s (1994) ILS (ILS) were potentially useful instruments for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of the teaching of study-management-related skills in the Tertiary Preparation Program (TPP), a pre-tertiary bridging program offered in a print-based distance education mode by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). The term ‘study-management-related skills’ refers generally to a set of skills that have been identified in the literature as being necessary for the effective management by students of any formal program of study in which they attempt to engage. The second aim of the study was to identify relationships of potential heuristic interest between students’ study-management-related skills and their academic achievement and persistence with study in the TPP. The sample was drawn from students enrolled in the two compulsory core courses of the TPP, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. The ATOMS Test and the ILS were administered to all participating students by mail at the start of semester 2, 2005 (the pre-test) and again near the end of the semester (the post-test). The sample sizes were 142 for the first administration and 58 for the second administration. Various statistical analysis methods were used to test for the significance of difference between pre-test and post-test mean scores on each of the scales of the instruments, and for associations of significance between scores on the scales, scores on course assessment items, and students’ persistence with, or non-completion of, the courses. The ATOMS Test and the ILS appeared to be not useful, in their present forms, for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of the teaching of study-management-related skills in the core component of the program, and to be not useful as predictors of students’ academic achievement in, persistence with, or completion of, the core courses. Interpretation of the results of the study was dependent on the assumption that the measurements obtained by the use of the instruments were valid for TPP students. This assumption was not tested in the study. It is recommended that further studies be carried out to test the validity of the factor structures underlying the ATOMS Test and Vermunt’s (1998) learning styles for the entrant TPP population, and to further investigate relationships between variables measured by the instruments and student achievement/progress in the TPP core component, and changes in students’ self-ratings on various scales of the instruments ostensibly associated with experience of studying.