study habits of senior high school students research

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• Published: 02 December 2020

Enhancing senior high school student engagement and academic performance using an inclusive and scalable inquiry-based program

• Locke Davenport Huyer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1526-7122 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Neal I. Callaghan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8214-3395 1 , 3   na1 ,
• Sara Dicks 4 ,
• Edward Scherer 4 ,
• Andrey I. Shukalyuk 1 ,
• Margaret Jou 4 &
• Dawn M. Kilkenny   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3899-9767 1 , 5  

npj Science of Learning volume  5 , Article number:  17 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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The multi-disciplinary nature of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers often renders difficulty for high school students navigating from classroom knowledge to post-secondary pursuits. Discrepancies between the knowledge-based high school learning approach and the experiential approach of future studies leaves some students disillusioned by STEM. We present Discovery , a term-long inquiry-focused learning model delivered by STEM graduate students in collaboration with high school teachers, in the context of biomedical engineering. Entire classes of high school STEM students representing diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds engaged in iterative, problem-based learning designed to emphasize critical thinking concomitantly within the secondary school and university environments. Assessment of grades and survey data suggested positive impact of this learning model on students’ STEM interests and engagement, notably in under-performing cohorts, as well as repeating cohorts that engage in the program on more than one occasion. Discovery presents a scalable platform that stimulates persistence in STEM learning, providing valuable learning opportunities and capturing cohorts of students that might otherwise be under-engaged in STEM.

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Introduction.

High school students with diverse STEM interests often struggle to understand the STEM experience outside the classroom 1 . The multi-disciplinary nature of many career fields can foster a challenge for students in their decision to enroll in appropriate high school courses while maintaining persistence in study, particularly when these courses are not mandatory 2 . Furthermore, this challenge is amplified by the known discrepancy between the knowledge-based learning approach common in high schools and the experiential, mastery-based approaches afforded by the subsequent undergraduate model 3 . In the latter, focused classes, interdisciplinary concepts, and laboratory experiences allow for the application of accumulated knowledge, practice in problem solving, and development of both general and technical skills 4 . Such immersive cooperative learning environments are difficult to establish in the secondary school setting and high school teachers often struggle to implement within their classroom 5 . As such, high school students may become disillusioned before graduation and never experience an enriched learning environment, despite their inherent interests in STEM 6 .

It cannot be argued that early introduction to varied math and science disciplines throughout high school is vital if students are to pursue STEM fields, especially within engineering 7 . However, the majority of literature focused on student interest and retention in STEM highlights outcomes in US high school learning environments, where the sciences are often subject-specific from the onset of enrollment 8 . In contrast, students in the Ontario (Canada) high school system are required to complete Level 1 and 2 core courses in science and math during Grades 9 and 10; these courses are offered as ‘applied’ or ‘academic’ versions and present broad topics of content 9 . It is not until Levels 3 and 4 (generally Grades 11 and 12, respectively) that STEM classes become subject-specific (i.e., Biology, Chemistry, and/or Physics) and are offered as “university”, “college”, or “mixed” versions, designed to best prepare students for their desired post-secondary pursuits 9 . Given that Levels 3 and 4 science courses are not mandatory for graduation, enrollment identifies an innate student interest in continued learning. Furthermore, engagement in these post-secondary preparatory courses is also dependent upon achieving successful grades in preceding courses, but as curriculum becomes more subject-specific, students often yield lower degrees of success in achieving course credit 2 . Therefore, it is imperative that learning supports are best focused on ensuring that those students with an innate interest are able to achieve success in learning.

When given opportunity and focused support, high school students are capable of successfully completing rigorous programs at STEM-focused schools 10 . Specialized STEM schools have existed in the US for over 100 years; generally, students are admitted after their sophomore year of high school experience (equivalent to Grade 10) based on standardized test scores, essays, portfolios, references, and/or interviews 11 . Common elements to this learning framework include a diverse array of advanced STEM courses, paired with opportunities to engage in and disseminate cutting-edge research 12 . Therein, said research experience is inherently based in the processes of critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. This learning framework supports translation of core curricular concepts to practice and is fundamental in allowing students to develop better understanding and appreciation of STEM career fields.

Despite the described positive attributes, many students do not have the ability or resources to engage within STEM-focused schools, particularly given that they are not prevalent across Canada, and other countries across the world. Consequently, many public institutions support the idea that post-secondary led engineering education programs are effective ways to expose high school students to engineering education and relevant career options, and also increase engineering awareness 13 . Although singular class field trips are used extensively to accomplish such programs, these may not allow immersive experiences for application of knowledge and practice of skills that are proven to impact long-term learning and influence career choices 14 , 15 . Longer-term immersive research experiences, such as after-school programs or summer camps, have shown successful at recruiting students into STEM degree programs and careers, where longevity of experience helps foster self-determination and interest-led, inquiry-based projects 4 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 .

Such activities convey the elements that are suggested to make a post-secondary led high school education programs successful: hands-on experience, self-motivated learning, real-life application, immediate feedback, and problem-based projects 20 , 21 . In combination with immersion in university teaching facilities, learning is authentic and relevant, similar to the STEM school-focused framework, and consequently representative of an experience found in actual STEM practice 22 . These outcomes may further be a consequence of student engagement and attitude: Brown et al. studied the relationships between STEM curriculum and student attitudes, and found the latter played a more important role in intention to persist in STEM when compared to self-efficacy 23 . This is interesting given that student self-efficacy has been identified to influence ‘motivation, persistence, and determination’ in overcoming challenges in a career pathway 24 . Taken together, this suggests that creation and delivery of modern, exciting curriculum that supports positive student attitudes is fundamental to engage and retain students in STEM programs.

Supported by the outcomes of identified effective learning strategies, University of Toronto (U of T) graduate trainees created a novel high school education program Discovery , to develop a comfortable yet stimulating environment of inquiry-focused iterative learning for senior high school students (Grades 11 & 12; Levels 3 & 4) at non-specialized schools. Built in strong collaboration with science teachers from George Harvey Collegiate Institute (Toronto District School Board), Discovery stimulates application of STEM concepts within a unique term-long applied curriculum delivered iteratively within both U of T undergraduate teaching facilities and collaborating high school classrooms 25 . Based on the volume of medically-themed news and entertainment that is communicated to the population at large, the rapidly-growing and diverse field of biomedical engineering (BME) were considered an ideal program context 26 . In its definition, BME necessitates cross-disciplinary STEM knowledge focused on the betterment of human health, wherein Discovery facilitates broadening student perspective through engaging inquiry-based projects. Importantly, Discovery allows all students within a class cohort to work together with their classroom teacher, stimulating continued development of a relevant learning community that is deemed essential for meaningful context and important for transforming student perspectives and understandings 27 , 28 . Multiple studies support the concept that relevant learning communities improve student attitudes towards learning, significantly increasing student motivation in STEM courses, and consequently improving the overall learning experience 29 . Learning communities, such as that provided by Discovery , also promote the formation of self-supporting groups, greater active involvement in class, and higher persistence rates for participating students 30 .

The objective of Discovery , through structure and dissemination, is to engage senior high school science students in challenging, inquiry-based practical BME activities as a mechanism to stimulate comprehension of STEM curriculum application to real-world concepts. Consequent focus is placed on critical thinking skill development through an atmosphere of perseverance in ambiguity, something not common in a secondary school knowledge-focused delivery but highly relevant in post-secondary STEM education strategies. Herein, we describe the observed impact of the differential project-based learning environment of Discovery on student performance and engagement. We identify the value of an inquiry-focused learning model that is tangible for students who struggle in a knowledge-focused delivery structure, where engagement in conceptual critical thinking in the relevant subject area stimulates student interest, attitudes, and resulting academic performance. Assessment of study outcomes suggests that when provided with a differential learning opportunity, student performance and interest in STEM increased. Consequently, Discovery provides an effective teaching and learning framework within a non-specialized school that motivates students, provides opportunity for critical thinking and problem-solving practice, and better prepares them for persistence in future STEM programs.

Program delivery

The outcomes of the current study result from execution of Discovery over five independent academic terms as a collaboration between Institute of Biomedical Engineering (graduate students, faculty, and support staff) and George Harvey Collegiate Institute (science teachers and administration) stakeholders. Each term, the program allowed senior secondary STEM students (Grades 11 and 12) opportunity to engage in a novel project-based learning environment. The program structure uses the problem-based engineering capstone framework as a tool of inquiry-focused learning objectives, motivated by a central BME global research topic, with research questions that are inter-related but specific to the curriculum of each STEM course subject (Fig. 1 ). Over each 12-week term, students worked in teams (3–4 students) within their class cohorts to execute projects with the guidance of U of T trainees ( Discovery instructors) and their own high school teacher(s). Student experimental work was conducted in U of T teaching facilities relevant to the research study of interest (i.e., Biology and Chemistry-based projects executed within Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories; Physics projects executed within Undergraduate Design Studios). Students were introduced to relevant techniques and safety procedures in advance of iterative experimentation. Importantly, this experience served as a course term project for students, who were assessed at several points throughout the program for performance in an inquiry-focused environment as well as within the regular classroom (Fig. 1 ). To instill the atmosphere of STEM, student teams delivered their outcomes in research poster format at a final symposium, sharing their results and recommendations with other post-secondary students, faculty, and community in an open environment.

The general program concept (blue background; top left ) highlights a global research topic examined through student dissemination of subject-specific research questions, yielding multifaceted student outcomes (orange background; top right ). Each program term (term workflow, yellow background; bottom panel ), students work on program deliverables in class (blue), iterate experimental outcomes within university facilities (orange), and are assessed accordingly at numerous deliverables in an inquiry-focused learning model.

Over the course of five terms there were 268 instances of tracked student participation, representing 170 individual students. Specifically, 94 students participated during only one term of programming, 57 students participated in two terms, 16 students participated in three terms, and 3 students participated in four terms. Multiple instances of participation represent students that enrol in more than one STEM class during their senior years of high school, or who participated in Grade 11 and subsequently Grade 12. Students were surveyed before and after each term to assess program effects on STEM interest and engagement. All grade-based assessments were performed by high school teachers for their respective STEM class cohorts using consistent grading rubrics and assignment structure. Here, we discuss the outcomes of student involvement in this experiential curriculum model.

Student performance and engagement

Student grades were assigned, collected, and anonymized by teachers for each Discovery deliverable (background essay, client meeting, proposal, progress report, poster, and final presentation). Teachers anonymized collective Discovery grades, the component deliverable grades thereof, final course grades, attendance in class and during programming, as well as incomplete classroom assignments, for comparative study purposes. Students performed significantly higher in their cumulative Discovery grade than in their cumulative classroom grade (final course grade less the Discovery contribution; p  < 0.0001). Nevertheless, there was a highly significant correlation ( p  < 0.0001) observed between the grade representing combined Discovery deliverables and the final course grade (Fig. 2a ). Further examination of the full dataset revealed two student cohorts of interest: the “Exceeds Expectations” (EE) subset (defined as those students who achieved ≥1 SD [18.0%] grade differential in Discovery over their final course grade; N  = 99 instances), and the “Multiple Term” (MT) subset (defined as those students who participated in Discovery more than once; 76 individual students that collectively accounted for 174 single terms of assessment out of the 268 total student-terms delivered) (Fig. 2b, c ). These subsets were not unrelated; 46 individual students who had multiple experiences (60.5% of total MTs) exhibited at least one occasion in achieving a ≥18.0% grade differential. As students participated in group work, there was concern that lower-performing students might negatively influence the Discovery grade of higher-performing students (or vice versa). However, students were observed to self-organize into groups where all individuals received similar final overall course grades (Fig. 2d ), thereby alleviating these concerns.

a Linear regression of student grades reveals a significant correlation ( p  = 0.0009) between Discovery performance and final course grade less the Discovery contribution to grade, as assessed by teachers. The dashed red line and intervals represent the theoretical 1:1 correlation between Discovery and course grades and standard deviation of the Discovery -course grade differential, respectively. b , c Identification of subgroups of interest, Exceeds Expectations (EE; N  = 99, orange ) who were ≥+1 SD in Discovery -course grade differential and Multi-Term (MT; N  = 174, teal ), of which N  = 65 students were present in both subgroups. d Students tended to self-assemble in working groups according to their final course performance; data presented as mean ± SEM. e For MT students participating at least 3 terms in Discovery , there was no significant correlation between course grade and time, while ( f ) there was a significant correlation between Discovery grade and cumulative terms in the program. Histograms of total absences per student in ( g ) Discovery and ( h ) class (binned by 4 days to be equivalent in time to a single Discovery absence).

The benefits experienced by MT students seemed progressive; MT students that participated in 3 or 4 terms ( N  = 16 and 3, respectively ) showed no significant increase by linear regression in their course grade over time ( p  = 0.15, Fig. 2e ), but did show a significant increase in their Discovery grades ( p  = 0.0011, Fig. 2f ). Finally, students demonstrated excellent Discovery attendance; at least 91% of participants attended all Discovery sessions in a given term (Fig. 2g ). In contrast, class attendance rates reveal a much wider distribution where 60.8% (163 out of 268 students) missed more than 4 classes (equivalent in learning time to one Discovery session) and 14.6% (39 out of 268 students) missed 16 or more classes (equivalent in learning time to an entire program of Discovery ) in a term (Fig. 2h ).

Discovery EE students (Fig. 3 ), roughly by definition, obtained lower course grades ( p  < 0.0001, Fig. 3a ) and higher final Discovery grades ( p  = 0.0004, Fig. 3b ) than non-EE students. This cohort of students exhibited program grades higher than classmates (Fig. 3c–h ); these differences were significant in every category with the exception of essays, where they outperformed to a significantly lesser degree ( p  = 0.097; Fig. 3c ). There was no statistically significant difference in EE vs. non-EE student classroom attendance ( p  = 0.85; Fig. 3i, j ). There were only four single day absences in Discovery within the EE subset; however, this difference was not statistically significant ( p  = 0.074).

The “Exceeds Expectations” (EE) subset of students (defined as those who received a combined Discovery grade ≥1 SD (18.0%) higher than their final course grade) performed ( a ) lower on their final course grade and ( b ) higher in the Discovery program as a whole when compared to their classmates. d – h EE students received significantly higher grades on each Discovery deliverable than their classmates, except for their ( c ) introductory essays and ( h ) final presentations. The EE subset also tended ( i ) to have a higher relative rate of attendance during Discovery sessions but no difference in ( j ) classroom attendance. N  = 99 EE students and 169 non-EE students (268 total). Grade data expressed as mean ± SEM.

Discovery MT students (Fig. 4 ), although not receiving significantly higher grades in class than students participating in the program only one time ( p  = 0.29, Fig. 4a ), were observed to obtain higher final Discovery grades than single-term students ( p  = 0.0067, Fig. 4b ). Although trends were less pronounced for individual MT student deliverables (Fig. 4c–h ), this student group performed significantly better on the progress report ( p  = 0.0021; Fig. 4f ). Trends of higher performance were observed for initial proposals and final presentations ( p  = 0.081 and 0.056, respectively; Fig. 4e, h ); all other deliverables were not significantly different between MT and non-MT students (Fig. 4c, d, g ). Attendance in Discovery ( p  = 0.22) was also not significantly different between MT and non-MT students, although MT students did miss significantly less class time ( p  = 0.010) (Fig. 4i, j ). Longitudinal assessment of individual deliverables for MT students that participated in three or more Discovery terms (Fig. 5 ) further highlights trend in improvement (Fig. 2f ). Greater performance over terms of participation was observed for essay ( p  = 0.0295, Fig. 5a ), client meeting ( p  = 0.0003, Fig. 5b ), proposal ( p  = 0.0004, Fig. 5c ), progress report ( p  = 0.16, Fig. 5d ), poster ( p  = 0.0005, Fig. 5e ), and presentation ( p  = 0.0295, Fig. 5f ) deliverable grades; these trends were all significant with the exception of the progress report ( p  = 0.16, Fig. 5d ) owing to strong performance in this deliverable in all terms.

The “multi-term” (MT) subset of students (defined as having attended more than one term of Discovery ) demonstrated favorable performance in Discovery , ( a ) showing no difference in course grade compared to single-term students, but ( b outperforming them in final Discovery grade. Independent of the number of times participating in Discovery , MT students did not score significantly differently on their ( c ) essay, ( d ) client meeting, or ( g ) poster. They tended to outperform their single-term classmates on the ( e ) proposal and ( h ) final presentation and scored significantly higher on their ( f ) progress report. MT students showed no statistical difference in ( i ) Discovery attendance but did show ( j ) higher rates of classroom attendance than single-term students. N  = 174 MT instances of student participation (76 individual students) and 94 single-term students. Grade data expressed as mean ± SEM.

Longitudinal assessment of a subset of MT student participants that participated in three ( N  = 16) or four ( N  = 3) terms presents a significant trend of improvement in their ( a ) essay, ( b ) client meeting, ( c ) proposal, ( e ) poster, and ( f ) presentation grade. d Progress report grades present a trend in improvement but demonstrate strong performance in all terms, limiting potential for student improvement. Grade data are presented as individual student performance; each student is represented by one color; data is fitted with a linear trendline (black).

Finally, the expansion of Discovery to a second school of lower LOI (i.e., nominally higher aggregate SES) allowed for the assessment of program impact in a new population over 2 terms of programming. A significant ( p  = 0.040) divergence in Discovery vs. course grade distribution from the theoretical 1:1 relationship was found in the new cohort (S 1 Appendix , Fig. S 1 ), in keeping with the pattern established in this study.

Teacher perceptions

Qualitative observation in the classroom by high school teachers emphasized the value students independently placed on program participation and deliverables. Throughout the term, students often prioritized Discovery group assignments over other tasks for their STEM courses, regardless of academic weight and/or due date. Comparing within this student population, teachers spoke of difficulties with late and incomplete assignments in the regular curriculum but found very few such instances with respect to Discovery -associated deliverables. Further, teachers speculated on the good behavior and focus of students in Discovery programming in contrast to attentiveness and behavior issues in their school classrooms. Multiple anecdotal examples were shared of renewed perception of student potential; students that exhibited poor academic performance in the classroom often engaged with high performance in this inquiry-focused atmosphere. Students appeared to take a sense of ownership, excitement, and pride in the setting of group projects oriented around scientific inquiry, discovery, and dissemination.

Student perceptions

Students were asked to consider and rank the academic difficulty (scale of 1–5, with 1 = not challenging and 5 = highly challenging) of the work they conducted within the Discovery learning model. Considering individual Discovery terms, at least 91% of students felt the curriculum to be sufficiently challenging with a 3/5 or higher ranking (Term 1: 87.5%, Term 2: 93.4%, Term 3: 85%, Term 4: 93.3%, Term 5: 100%), and a minimum of 58% of students indicating a 4/5 or higher ranking (Term 1: 58.3%, Term 2: 70.5%, Term 3: 67.5%, Term 4: 69.1%, Term 5: 86.4%) (Fig. 6a ).

a Histogram of relative frequency of perceived Discovery programming academic difficulty ranked from not challenging (1) to highly challenging (5) for each session demonstrated the consistently perceived high degree of difficulty for Discovery programming (total responses: 223). b Program participation increased student comfort (94.6%) with navigating lab work in a university or college setting (total responses: 220). c Considering participation in Discovery programming, students indicated their increased (72.4%) or decreased (10.1%) likelihood to pursue future experiences in STEM as a measure of program impact (total responses: 217). d Large majority of participating students (84.9%) indicated their interest for future participation in Discovery (total responses: 212). Students were given the opportunity to opt out of individual survey questions, partially completed surveys were included in totals.

The majority of students (94.6%) indicated they felt more comfortable with the idea of performing future work in a university STEM laboratory environment given exposure to university teaching facilities throughout the program (Fig. 6b ). Students were also queried whether they were (i) more likely, (ii) less likely, or (iii) not impacted by their experience in the pursuit of STEM in the future. The majority of participants (>82%) perceived impact on STEM interests, with 72.4% indicating they were more likely to pursue these interests in the future (Fig. 6c ). When surveyed at the end of term, 84.9% of students indicated they would participate in the program again (Fig. 6d ).

We have described an inquiry-based framework for implementing experiential STEM education in a BME setting. Using this model, we engaged 268 instances of student participation (170 individual students who participated 1–4 times) over five terms in project-based learning wherein students worked in peer-based teams under the mentorship of U of T trainees to design and execute the scientific method in answering a relevant research question. Collaboration between high school teachers and Discovery instructors allowed for high school student exposure to cutting-edge BME research topics, participation in facilitated inquiry, and acquisition of knowledge through scientific discovery. All assessments were conducted by high school teachers and constituted a fraction (10–15%) of the overall course grade, instilling academic value for participating students. As such, students exhibited excitement to learn as well as commitment to their studies in the program.

Through our observations and analysis, we suggest there is value in differential learning environments for students that struggle in a knowledge acquisition-focused classroom setting. In general, we observed a high level of academic performance in Discovery programming (Fig. 2a ), which was highlighted exceptionally in EE students who exhibited greater academic performance in Discovery deliverables compared to normal coursework (>18% grade improvement in relevant deliverables). We initially considered whether this was the result of strong students influencing weaker students; however, group organization within each course suggests this is not the case (Fig. 2d ). With the exception of one class in one term (24 participants assigned by their teacher), students were allowed to self-organize into working groups and they chose to work with other students of relatively similar academic performance (as indicated by course grade), a trend observed in other studies 31 , 32 . Remarkably, EE students not only excelled during Discovery when compared to their own performance in class, but this cohort also achieved significantly higher average grades in each of the deliverables throughout the program when compared to the remaining Discovery cohort (Fig. 3 ). This data demonstrates the value of an inquiry-based learning environment compared to knowledge-focused delivery in the classroom in allowing students to excel. We expect that part of this engagement was resultant of student excitement with a novel learning opportunity. It is however a well-supported concept that students who struggle in traditional settings tend to demonstrate improved interest and motivation in STEM when given opportunity to interact in a hands-on fashion, which supports our outcomes 4 , 33 . Furthermore, these outcomes clearly represent variable student learning styles, where some students benefit from a greater exchange of information, knowledge and skills in a cooperative learning environment 34 . The performance of the EE group may not be by itself surprising, as the identification of the subset by definition required high performers in Discovery who did not have exceptionally high course grades; in addition, the final Discovery grade is dependent on the component assignment grades. However, the discrepancies between EE and non-EE groups attendance suggests that students were engaged by Discovery in a way that they were not by regular classroom curriculum.

In addition to quantified engagement in Discovery observed in academic performance, we believe remarkable attendance rates are indicative of the value students place in the differential learning structure. Given the differences in number of Discovery days and implications of missing one day of regular class compared to this immersive program, we acknowledge it is challenging to directly compare attendance data and therefore approximate this comparison with consideration of learning time equivalence. When combined with other subjective data including student focus, requests to work on Discovery during class time, and lack of discipline/behavior issues, the attendance data importantly suggests that students were especially engaged by the Discovery model. Further, we believe the increased commute time to the university campus (students are responsible for independent transit to campus, a much longer endeavour than the normal school commute), early program start time, and students’ lack of familiarity with the location are non-trivial considerations when determining the propensity of students to participate enthusiastically in Discovery . We feel this suggests the students place value on this team-focused learning and find it to be more applicable and meaningful to their interests.

Given post-secondary admission requirements for STEM programs, it would be prudent to think that students participating in multiple STEM classes across terms are the ones with the most inherent interest in post-secondary STEM programs. The MT subset, representing students who participated in Discovery for more than one term, averaged significantly higher final Discovery grades. The increase in the final Discovery grade was observed to result from a general confluence of improved performance over multiple deliverables and a continuous effort to improve in a STEM curriculum. This was reflected in longitudinal tracking of Discovery performance, where we observed a significant trend of improved performance. Interestingly, the high number of MT students who were included in the EE group suggests that students who had a keen interest in science enrolled in more than one course and in general responded well to the inquiry-based teaching method of Discovery , where scientific method was put into action. It stands to reason that students interested in science will continue to take STEM courses and will respond favorably to opportunities to put classroom theory to practical application.

The true value of an inquiry-based program such as Discovery may not be based in inspiring students to perform at a higher standard in STEM within the high school setting, as skills in critical thinking do not necessarily translate to knowledge-based assessment. Notably, students found the programming equally challenging throughout each of the sequential sessions, perhaps somewhat surprising considering the increasing number of repeat attendees in successive sessions (Fig. 6a ). Regardless of sub-discipline, there was an emphasis of perceived value demonstrated through student surveys where we observed indicated interest in STEM and comfort with laboratory work environments, and desire to engage in future iterations given the opportunity. Although non-quantitative, we perceive this as an indicator of significant student engagement, even though some participants did not yield academic success in the program and found it highly challenging given its ambiguity.

Although we observed that students become more certain of their direction in STEM, further longitudinal study is warranted to make claim of this outcome. Additionally, at this point in our assessment we cannot effectively assess the practical outcomes of participation, understanding that the immediate effects observed are subject to a number of factors associated with performance in the high school learning environment. Future studies that track graduates from this program will be prudent, in conjunction with an ever-growing dataset of assessment as well as surveys designed to better elucidate underlying perceptions and attitudes, to continue to understand the expected benefits of this inquiry-focused and partnered approach. Altogether, a multifaceted assessment of our early outcomes suggests significant value of an immersive and iterative interaction with STEM as part of the high school experience. A well-defined divergence from knowledge-based learning, focused on engagement in critical thinking development framed in the cutting-edge of STEM, may be an important step to broadening student perspectives.

In this study, we describe the short-term effects of an inquiry-based STEM educational experience on a cohort of secondary students attending a non-specialized school, and suggest that the framework can be widely applied across virtually all subjects where inquiry-driven and mentored projects can be undertaken. Although we have demonstrated replication in a second cohort of nominally higher SES (S 1 Appendix , Supplementary Fig. 1 ), a larger collection period with more students will be necessary to conclusively determine impact independent of both SES and specific cohort effects. Teachers may also find this framework difficult to implement depending on resources and/or institutional investment and support, particularly if post-secondary collaboration is inaccessible. Offerings to a specific subject (e.g., physics) where experiments yielding empirical data are logistically or financially simpler to perform may be valid routes of adoption as opposed to the current study where all subject cohorts were included.

As we consider Discovery in a bigger picture context, expansion and implementation of this model is translatable. Execution of the scientific method is an important aspect of citizen science, as the concepts of critical thing become ever-more important in a landscape of changing technological landscapes. Giving students critical thinking and problem-solving skills in their primary and secondary education provides value in the context of any career path. Further, we feel that this model is scalable across disciplines, STEM or otherwise, as a means of building the tools of inquiry. We have observed here the value of differential inclusive student engagement and critical thinking through an inquiry-focused model for a subset of students, but further to this an engagement, interest, and excitement across the body of student participants. As we educate the leaders of tomorrow, we suggest that use of an inquiry-focused model such as Discovery could facilitate growth of a data-driven critical thinking framework.

In conclusion, we have presented a model of inquiry-based STEM education for secondary students that emphasizes inclusion, quantitative analysis, and critical thinking. Student grades suggest significant performance benefits, and engagement data suggests positive student attitude despite the perceived challenges of the program. We also note a particular performance benefit to students who repeatedly engage in the program. This framework may carry benefits in a wide variety of settings and disciplines for enhancing student engagement and performance, particularly in non-specialized school environments.

Study design and implementation

Participants in Discovery include all students enrolled in university-stream Grade 11 or 12 biology, chemistry, or physics at the participating school over five consecutive terms (cohort summary shown in Table 1 ). Although student participation in educational content was mandatory, student grades and survey responses (administered by high school teachers) were collected from only those students with parent or guardian consent. Teachers replaced each student name with a unique coded identifier to preserve anonymity but enable individual student tracking over multiple terms. All data collected were analyzed without any exclusions save for missing survey responses; no power analysis was performed prior to data collection.

Ethics statement

This study was approved by the University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (Protocol # 34825) and the Toronto District School Board External Research Review Committee (Protocol # 2017-2018-20). Written informed consent was collected from parents or guardians of participating students prior to the acquisition of student data (both post-hoc academic data and survey administration). Data were anonymized by high school teachers for maintenance of academic confidentiality of individual students prior to release to U of T researchers.

Educational program overview

Students enrolled in university-preparatory STEM classes at the participating school completed a term-long project under the guidance of graduate student instructors and undergraduate student mentors as a mandatory component of their respective course. Project curriculum developed collaboratively between graduate students and participating high school teachers was delivered within U of T Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (FASE) teaching facilities. Participation allows high school students to garner a better understanding as to how undergraduate learning and career workflows in STEM vary from traditional high school classroom learning, meanwhile reinforcing the benefits of problem solving, perseverance, teamwork, and creative thinking competencies. Given that Discovery was a mandatory component of course curriculum, students participated as class cohorts and addressed questions specific to their course subject knowledge base but related to the defined global health research topic (Fig. 1 ). Assessment of program deliverables was collectively assigned to represent 10–15% of the final course grade for each subject at the discretion of the respective STEM teacher.

The Discovery program framework was developed, prior to initiation of student assessment, in collaboration with one high school selected from the local public school board over a 1.5 year period of time. This partner school consistently scores highly (top decile) in the school board’s Learning Opportunities Index (LOI). The LOI ranks each school based on measures of external challenges affecting its student population therefore schools with the greatest level of external challenge receive a higher ranking 35 . A high LOI ranking is inversely correlated with socioeconomic status (SES); therefore, participating students are identified as having a significant number of external challenges that may affect their academic success. The mandatory nature of program participation was established to reach highly capable students who may be reluctant to engage on their own initiative, as a means of enhancing the inclusivity and impact of the program. The selected school partner is located within a reasonable geographical radius of our campus (i.e., ~40 min transit time from school to campus). This is relevant as participating students are required to independently commute to campus for Discovery hands-on experiences.

Each program term of Discovery corresponds with a five-month high school term. Lead university trainee instructors (3–6 each term) engaged with high school teachers 1–2 months in advance of high school student engagement to discern a relevant overarching global healthcare theme. Each theme was selected with consideration of (a) topics that university faculty identify as cutting-edge biomedical research, (b) expertise that Discovery instructors provide, and (c) capacity to showcase the diversity of BME. Each theme was sub-divided into STEM subject-specific research questions aligning with provincial Ministry of Education curriculum concepts for university-preparatory Biology, Chemistry, and Physics 9 that students worked to address, both on-campus and in-class, during a term-long project. The Discovery framework therefore provides students a problem-based learning experience reflective of an engineering capstone design project, including a motivating scientific problem (i.e., global topic), subject-specific research question, and systematic determination of a professional recommendation addressing the needs of the presented problem.

Discovery instructors were volunteers recruited primarily from graduate and undergraduate BME programs in the FASE. Instructors were organized into subject-specific instructional teams based on laboratory skills, teaching experience, and research expertise. The lead instructors of each subject (the identified 1–2 trainees that built curriculum with high school teachers) were responsible to organize the remaining team members as mentors for specific student groups over the course of the program term (~1:8 mentor to student ratio).

All Discovery instructors were familiarized with program expectations and trained in relevant workspace safety, in addition to engagement at a teaching workshop delivered by the Faculty Advisor (a Teaching Stream faculty member) at the onset of term. This workshop was designed to provide practical information on teaching and was co-developed with high school teachers based on their extensive training and experience in fundamental teaching methods. In addition, group mentors received hands-on training and guidance from lead instructors regarding the specific activities outlined for their respective subject programming (an exemplary term of student programming is available in S 2 Appendix) .

Discovery instructors were responsible for introducing relevant STEM skills and mentoring high school students for the duration of their projects, with support and mentorship from the Faculty Mentor. Each instructor worked exclusively throughout the term with the student groups to which they had been assigned, ensuring consistent mentorship across all disciplinary components of the project. In addition to further supporting university trainees in on-campus mentorship, high school teachers were responsible for academic assessment of all student program deliverables (Fig. 1 ; the standardized grade distribution available in S 3 Appendix ). Importantly, trainees never engaged in deliverable assessment; for continuity of overall course assessment, this remained the responsibility of the relevant teacher for each student cohort.

Throughout each term, students engaged within the university facilities four times. The first three sessions included hands-on lab sessions while the fourth visit included a culminating symposium for students to present their scientific findings (Fig. 1 ). On average, there were 4–5 groups of students per subject (3–4 students per group; ~20 students/class). Discovery instructors worked exclusively with 1–2 groups each term in the capacity of mentor to monitor and guide student progress in all project deliverables.

After introducing the selected global research topic in class, teachers led students in completion of background research essays. Students subsequently engaged in a subject-relevant skill-building protocol during their first visit to university teaching laboratory facilities, allowing opportunity to understand analysis techniques and equipment relevant for their assessment projects. At completion of this session, student groups were presented with a subject-specific research question as well as the relevant laboratory inventory available for use during their projects. Armed with this information, student groups continued to work in their classroom setting to develop group-specific experimental plans. Teachers and Discovery instructors provided written and oral feedback, respectively , allowing students an opportunity to revise their plans in class prior to on-campus experimental execution.

Once at the relevant laboratory environment, student groups executed their protocols in an effort to collect experimental data. Data analysis was performed in the classroom and students learned by trial & error to optimize their protocols before returning to the university lab for a second opportunity of data collection. All methods and data were re-analyzed in class in order for students to create a scientific poster for the purpose of study/experience dissemination. During a final visit to campus, all groups presented their findings at a research symposium, allowing students to verbally defend their process, analyses, interpretations, and design recommendations to a diverse audience including peers, STEM teachers, undergraduate and graduate university students, postdoctoral fellows and U of T faculty.

Data collection

Teachers evaluated their students on the following associated deliverables: (i) global theme background research essay; (ii) experimental plan; (iii) progress report; (iv) final poster content and presentation; and (v) attendance. For research purposes, these grades were examined individually and also as a collective Discovery program grade for each student. For students consenting to participation in the research study, all Discovery grades were anonymized by the classroom teacher before being shared with study authors. Each student was assigned a code by the teacher for direct comparison of deliverable outcomes and survey responses. All instances of “Final course grade” represent the prorated course grade without the Discovery component, to prevent confounding of quantitative analyses.

Survey instruments were used to gain insight into student attitudes and perceptions of STEM and post-secondary study, as well as Discovery program experience and impact (S 4 Appendix ). High school teachers administered surveys in the classroom only to students supported by parental permission. Pre-program surveys were completed at minimum 1 week prior to program initiation each term and exit surveys were completed at maximum 2 weeks post- Discovery term completion. Surveys results were validated using a principal component analysis (S 1 Appendix , Supplementary Fig. 2 ).

Identification and comparison of population subsets

From initial analysis, we identified two student subpopulations of particular interest: students who performed ≥1 SD [18.0%] or greater in the collective Discovery components of the course compared to their final course grade (“EE”), and students who participated in Discovery more than once (“MT”). These groups were compared individually against the rest of the respective Discovery population (“non-EE” and “non-MT”, respectively ). Additionally, MT students who participated in three or four (the maximum observed) terms of Discovery were assessed for longitudinal changes to performance in their course and Discovery grades. Comparisons were made for all Discovery deliverables (introductory essay, client meeting, proposal, progress report, poster, and presentation), final Discovery grade, final course grade, Discovery attendance, and overall attendance.

Statistical analysis

Student course grades were analyzed in all instances without the Discovery contribution (calculated from all deliverable component grades and ranging from 10 to 15% of final course grade depending on class and year) to prevent correlation. Aggregate course grades and Discovery grades were first compared by paired t-test, matching each student’s course grade to their Discovery grade for the term. Student performance in Discovery ( N  = 268 instances of student participation, comprising 170 individual students that participated 1–4 times) was initially assessed in a linear regression of Discovery grade vs. final course grade. Trends in course and Discovery performance over time for students participating 3 or 4 terms ( N  = 16 and 3 individuals, respectively ) were also assessed by linear regression. For subpopulation analysis (EE and MT, N  = 99 instances from 81 individuals and 174 instances from 76 individuals, respectively ), each dataset was tested for normality using the D’Agostino and Pearson omnibus normality test. All subgroup comparisons vs. the remaining population were performed by Mann–Whitney U -test. Data are plotted as individual points with mean ± SEM overlaid (grades), or in histogram bins of 1 and 4 days, respectively , for Discovery and class attendance. Significance was set at α ≤ 0.05.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author DMK. These data are not publicly available due to privacy concerns of personal data according to the ethical research agreements supporting this study.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been possible due to the support of many University of Toronto trainee volunteers, including Genevieve Conant, Sherif Ramadan, Daniel Smieja, Rami Saab, Andrew Effat, Serena Mandla, Cindy Bui, Janice Wong, Dawn Bannerman, Allison Clement, Shouka Parvin Nejad, Nicolas Ivanov, Jose Cardenas, Huntley Chang, Romario Regeenes, Dr. Henrik Persson, Ali Mojdeh, Nhien Tran-Nguyen, Ileana Co, and Jonathan Rubianto. We further acknowledge the staff and administration of George Harvey Collegiate Institute and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME), as well as Benjamin Rocheleau and Madeleine Rocheleau for contributions to data collation. Discovery has grown with continued support of Dean Christopher Yip (Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, U of T), and the financial support of the IBME and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) PromoScience program (PROSC 515876-2017; IBME “Igniting Youth Curiosity in STEM” initiative co-directed by DMK and Dr. Penney Gilbert). LDH and NIC were supported by Vanier Canada graduate scholarships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and NSERC, respectively . DMK holds a Dean’s Emerging Innovation in Teaching Professorship in the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, U of T.

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These authors contributed equally: Locke Davenport Huyer, Neal I. Callaghan.

Authors and Affiliations

Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Locke Davenport Huyer, Neal I. Callaghan, Andrey I. Shukalyuk & Dawn M. Kilkenny

Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Locke Davenport Huyer

Translational Biology and Engineering Program, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Neal I. Callaghan

George Harvey Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, Toronto, ON, Canada

Sara Dicks, Edward Scherer & Margaret Jou

Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Dawn M. Kilkenny

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Contributions

LDH, NIC and DMK conceived the program structure, designed the study, and interpreted the data. LDH and NIC ideated programming, coordinated execution, and performed all data analysis. SD, ES, and MJ designed and assessed student deliverables, collected data, and anonymized data for assessment. SD assisted in data interpretation. AIS assisted in programming ideation and design. All authors provided feedback and approved the manuscript that was written by LDH, NIC and DMK.

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Correspondence to Dawn M. Kilkenny .

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Davenport Huyer, L., Callaghan, N.I., Dicks, S. et al. Enhancing senior high school student engagement and academic performance using an inclusive and scalable inquiry-based program. npj Sci. Learn. 5 , 17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-00076-2

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The impact of virtual learning on students’ educational behavior and pervasiveness of depression among university students due to the COVID-19 pandemic

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One of the worst pandemics of recent memory, COVID-19, severely impacted the public. In particular, students were physically and mentally affected by the lockdown and the shift from physical person-to-person classrooms to virtual learning (online classes). This increased the prevalence of psychological stress, anxiety, and depression among university students. In this study, we investigated the depression levels in Saudi Arabian university students who were learning virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic and examined its impact on their educational proficiency.

The study focused on two points: first, examining the depression levels among undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia, by adapting the Zung (Self-Rating Depression Scale) questionnaire. Second, whether there is an association between the levels of depression and various distress factors associated with virtual (online) learning resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on students’ educational behaviors. The questionnaire was prepared using a monkey survey and shared online, via email, and on WhatsApp groups, with participants in two universities, a public and private university in the largest city of Saudi Arabia. A total of 157 complete responses were received. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24, the chi-square test, descriptive statistics, and multilinear regression.

The results indicated that three-fourths of the university students suffered from different depressive symptoms, half of which had moderate to extreme levels of depression. Our study confirmed that a boring virtual (online) learning method, stress, fear of examinations, and decreased productivity were significantly associated with increased depression. In addition, 75% and 79% of the students suffered from stress and fear of examinations, respectively. About half of the students were associated with increased depression. The outcome also indicated that female students experienced extreme depression, stress, and fear of examinations more than males.

These findings can inform government agencies and representatives of the importance of making swift, effective decisions to address students’ depression levels. It is essential to provide training for students to change their educational experience mindset, which might help decrease "depression and stress-related growth." There is also a need to search for a better virtual teaching delivery method to lessen students' stress and fear of examinations.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the highly contagious coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic [ 1 ]. As the cases of COVID-19 increased, China, and many other countries practiced partial or complete lockdowns. It is estimated that this drastic measure helped save 3 million lives across 11 European nations [ 2 ]. Toward the end of January 2022, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide was 360,578,392, and 5,620,865 confirmed deaths. The number of people who received vaccination doses globally was 9,679,721,754 [ 3 ].

To contain the virus, the lockdown caused academic disruptions. This resulted in the indeterminate closure of schools, universities, various institutes, shopping malls, and centers of economic activities [ 4 , 5 ]. Repetitive activities, transfer of educational mode to distance (virtual) learning, and change in social life amplified the prevalence of psychological stress, anxiety, depression, and acute stress reactions among university students [ 6 ]. Sociodemographic factors associated with low mental health include financial constraints, old age, infection risk, and fear of losing a relative or friend. In addition, COVID-19 pandemic-related educational stress may be attributed to (in no particular order): (a) transformed teaching and assessment methods; (b) skepticism about university education; (c) technological worries about online courses [ 7 , 8 ]; (d) uncertainty about the future because of academic disruptions; (e) fear of failing examinations; (f) inability to concentrate during lectures, and many more factors. All these factors have been detected in universities across the world [ 9 , 10 ]. A global study that inspected students’ experiences in about 62 different countries, including a university in the United States, found that students expressed worries about their academic achievements and professional careers and feelings of dullness, anxiety, and frustration [ 9 ]. Students in China also reported increased sadness, anger, anxiety, and fear [ 11 ]. The occurrence of depression, psychological distress, and anxiety from pandemics differed from country to country. A study in Italy reported that 15.4% of Italians suffered from extremely high levels of depression, 12.6% were highly stressed, and 11.5% were highly anxious [ 12 ]. In Malaysia, it was reported that severe to extremely severe levels of depression and anxiety were found in 9.2% and 13.2% of the subjects, respectively. Moderate stress was found in 9.5% of subjects, and severe to highly severe stress was found in 6.6% of subjects [ 13 ]. Furthermore, students in Switzerland manifested a decrease in social interface and higher levels of stress, anxiety, and loneliness [ 14 ]. Adults have also reported declining physical activity, while food eating increased during pandemic quarantine periods compared to previous times [ 15 ].

The first COVID-19 case appeared in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on March 2, 2020 [ 16 ], while the lockdown was imposed on March 8, 2020. To keep students on track due to the pandemic, the education delivery mode was switched to virtual learning. It has been over one year since teaching was transferred online, and many countries worldwide have tried to revert to the standard path of education by opening schools and universities. Although the COVID-19 vaccine is available worldwide, some countries are still practicing lockdown because of the appearance of several more contiguous variants of the coronavirus, such as Delta, a SARS-CoV-2 strain that was first spotted in India [ 17 ]. The spread of COVID-19 presents a serious risk; in mid-April 2022, the confirmed cases in KSA were 751,717, out of which 736,910 had recovered, and 9,055 deaths were recorded [ 18 ].

The psychological consequences of COVID-19 have been observed and described in KSA. Al-Hanawi et al. [ 19 ] reported different levels of distress in 40% of the general Saudi population because of COVID-19. Moreover, Alkhamees et al. [ 20 ] reported moderate to severe psychological effects in 23.6% of the general Saudi population. In another study of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on Saudi Arabian residents, Alyami et al. [ 21 ] stated that the percentages of mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe levels of depression were 41%, 20%, 6.2%, and 3.2%, respectively. Furthermore, Khoshaim et al. [ 22 ] reported that about 35% of students experienced moderate to extreme anxiety levels. Azmi et al. [ 23 ] observed that 75% of students suffered from various levels of depression, while 41% suffered from low levels of self-esteem.

Likewise, another study found that 35% of students in the western and northern regions of KSA had high rates of distress [ 24 ]. Following the observed rise of psychological disorders, the authorities posted health messages and distributed procedures to the public. For example, during the pandemic, the Saudi Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [ 25 ] supplied a precautionary manual for mental and social health focused on prevention, pressure, and fear control. From the foregoing, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the physical and mental health of the public in general and students in particular, as university students are among those most severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this study, we investigated the depression levels of university students in Riyadh, the capital and largest city in KSA, who were learning virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also assessed the impact of virtual learning on their educational behaviors. The following questions were explored during the investigation:

What are the levels of depression among university students?

What is the impact of virtual learning on students’ educational behaviors and what are the relationship between depressive symptoms they exhibited and virtual learning?

To answer the second question, we explored the relationship between the levels of depression and various distress factors associated with virtual learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on students’ educational behaviors. These factors were divided into two main categories: Category 1 dealt with factors relating to how virtual learning has affected students’ feelings from an educational perspective. Category 2: dealt with factors relating to how virtual learning affected students’ understanding of subjects/learning materials.

Once we ascertain the current levels of depression and their impact on students’ educational behavior, we may embark on helping them cope with the extraordinary situation. Hopefully, this will help lower their elevated depression levels. Furthermore, we hope our study will guide policymakers in searching for innovative ways of online teaching to make learning less stressful and more productive.

Design and sampling procedure

This study examines depression levels and investigates virtual learning-related distress factors, which might predict the increased level of depressive symptoms among university students in Riyadh City during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research design

We conducted a descriptive survey-based study to obtain responses from students at large universities in Riyadh, the capital of KSA. The total size of the target population of the city of Riyadh is about 7 million [ 26 ]. The sampled population of both universities’ undergraduate students was approximately 0.027 million (27,000). The male-to-female ratio of undergraduate students at King Saud University (KSU) is about 67%: 33%; the male-to-female ratio of undergraduate students at Prince Sultan University (PSU) is about 28%: 72%, as this is a female-dominated university. Since the sampled population was largely heterogeneous, we minimized the heterogeneity by dividing the given population into sub-populations to obtain sampling units that are homogeneous internally and heterogeneous externally. Hence, we used a stratified random sampling technique, which is more appropriate than other sampling techniques for obtaining better estimates of the parameters of interest. To ensure the efficiency of the estimates, we used the proportional allocation technique to determine the sample size.

A Monkey survey was used to prepare the questionnaire, following the approval of PSU’s Institutional Review Board. The questionnaire included demographic questions, such as gender, age, and college. Zung’s Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS), with 20 items on a 4-point Likert scale, was used to measure depression. The questionnaire also had questions to address distress factors associated with virtual learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students were asked to read all the questions carefully and answer them.

The survey was written in English and Arabic side by side. A subject expert translated the questionnaire from Arabic to English. Thereafter, five more experts checked the same questions for more corrections and authenticity. The actual online survey took place from March to April 2021. The survey was voluntary, and the informed consent of the students was sought. We received reasonable responses from the students; however, we also received some incomplete responses. The missing/incomplete responses were discarded from the study so that the estimated results were not compromised. The valid responses received from males and females were 49.7% and 50.3%, respectively.

Measuring instruments

Demographic data and personal characteristics, such as age, gender, and area of study, were recorded.

Depression measure

The ZSDS was used to measure the levels of depression. The tool is a 20-item self-reporting assessment device used for measuring depression levels [ 27 , 28 ]. This is divided into 10 positively worded and 10 negatively worded items. The latter items were reversely scored. Each item was scored on a Likert-type scale as follows: 1 =  Never , 2 =  Sometimes , 3 =  Often/most of the time , and 4 =  Always . The total raw scores ranged from 20–80, and when converted into the depression index (termed "ZSDS index"), the range becomes 25–100. To determine the level of depression, we classified the ZSDS index into four classes (levels). Therefore, ZSDS index scores were considered "normal" from 25–49, "Mildly Depressed,” from 50–59, “Moderately Depressed” from 60–69, and “Severely Depressed” from 70 and above [ 27 ]. In [ 29 ], the author translated the ZSDS measure into Arabic and further validated it. Question 6, “I still enjoy sex,” was deemed offensive religiously and culturally. Therefore, it was rephrased to “I enjoy looking at, talking to, and being with attractive women/men,” which is culturally more appropriate. The accuracy of the new version was verified in [ 29 ]. The Arabic and English languages were used side by side to prepare the questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of this study was 0.87, showing high internal consistency.

Data on distress factors associated with virtual learning

Data on distress factors associated with virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic were divided into two categories. The first category dealt with questions on how virtual learning due to the pandemic affected students’ feelings from an educational perspective and caused a) lack of motivation/boredom, b) stress, c) worry and fear of exams, and d) decreased productivity. The second category dealt with questions on virtual learning and its effect on students’ understanding of subjects/materials, such as a) It needs more self-effort to understand, b) It made learning and understanding harder for them, c) They need more time to understand the subject, i.e., the understanding pace became slower, d) Virtual learning is boring, and e) they had difficulty solving problems in academic subjects and writing down the solutions correctly. The answer to each question was either “Yes” or “No.”

Finally, the questionnaire had an open-ended question that offered students a chance to express in their own words how the lockdown and virtual teaching had affected their educational advancement.

Data analysis

Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 24 software. The categorical variable demographic data were analyzed descriptively to determine the essential characteristics of the sample and were presented as counts and percentages. The level of depression index among university students in Riyadh, and its association with gender, age, and their field of education, was analyzed using the chi-square test and descriptive statistics. Multilinear regression analysis was performed to investigate the connection between depression levels and various factors associated with virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The statistically significant level was set at \(p \le 0.05.\)

Demographic characteristics

The total number of participants was 157 university students. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the participants.

Students’ levels of depression and demographic variables

In the univariate analysis, chi-square tests were used to determine the associations between students’ demographic variables and the ZSDS level. Table 2 displays the association between depression levels with gender, age, and college. Among the demographic variables, only the association with gender was statistically significant at \({\chi }^{2}\) = 20.229, and p  < 0.001, while the association with age and college was not significant. A total of 74.4% of the students had various levels of depression. Of these, 37%, 21.7%, and 16% had mild, moderate, and severe depression levels, respectively. In addition, females (28%) had more depressive symptoms than males (4%).

Educational distress factors associated with virtual learning and descriptive statistics

The factors related to virtual learning sequel to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on students’ educational behaviors were divided into two categories. Questions on virtual learning's effect on students' feelings from an educational perspective (Category 1) had four items, each with a "Yes" or "No" answer. Likewise, questions on virtual learning and its effect on students’ understanding of the subjects/materials (Category 2) had five items, each with a “Yes” or “No” answer. Table 3 demonstrates the descriptive statistics. In the first category, the highest percentage was feeling worried and having a fear of exams (79%), followed by stress (75.2%), lack of motivation, and decreased productivity (70%, each). In the second category, the highest percentage was 78%, who felt they had to put extra self-effort into understanding and studying.

Furthermore, 74.5% felt that virtual learning was more challenging for them to understand than physical learning. In addition, 73% said virtual learning was slow and extra time was needed to understand and learn the concepts, while 64% found it boring. Finally, 58.6% had difficulty solving problems and submitting properly written answers (for math and computer science subjects).

Distress factors related to virtual learning and depressive symptoms

Multilinear regression analysis was used to study whether various distress factors related to virtual learning can influence depressive symptoms among students.

The first category, which dealt with students’ feelings from the educational point of view, hypothesized that lack of motivation, stress, worry/fear of examinations, and decreased productivity would significantly impact the development of depressive symptoms among students.

Multi-regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses, with the Zung depression index as a dependent variable. The results show that 24.6% of the variance in Zung’s depression index can be accounted for by four predictors, collectively \(, F(4, 152) = 12.414, p < 0.001\) . Looking at the unique individual contribution of the predictors, the result shows that worry and fear of exams ( \(\beta =0.290, t=3.589, p<0.001)\) , stress ( \(\beta =0.202, t=2.566, p=0.011<0.05)\) , and decreased learning amount and not being productive ( \(\beta =0.211, t=2.783, p=0.006<0.05)\) , statistically significantly contributed to worsening depressive symptoms. The predictor, feeling lack of motivation, did not significantly impact developing depressive symptoms.

The second category dealt with virtual learning and its effect on students’ understanding of the subjects/materials. It was hypothesized that the need for extra self-effort to understand the subject, learning became harder, learning became slower, learning was boring, and difficulty in solving problems and writing answers properly would have a statistically significant impact on developing depressive symptoms among students.

Multi-regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses, with Zung’s depression index as a dependent variable. The test showed that 13% of the variance in Zung's depression index can be accounted for by the five predictors, collectively \(, F(5, 151) = 4.505, p < 0.001\) . Looking at the unique individual contribution of the predictors, the result shows that learning is not much fun or exciting ( \(\beta =0.250, t=3.060, p=0.003<0.05)\) , and facing difficulty in solving questions and writing answers properly ( \(\beta =0.176, t=2.067, p=0.05<0.05)\) , were statistically significantly associated with worsening depressive symptoms. While the other three predictors, learning became harder, learning became slower, and the need to put extra self-effort did not contribute significantly to depressive symptoms, as shown in Table 4 .

Furthermore, we explored two distress factors, stress, and worry/fear of exams, which contributed statistically significantly to worsening depressive symptoms. Using the chi-square test, we examined the association of the distress factors with depression levels; that is, what extent does stress or worry/fear of exams contribute to moderate or severe depression. The results showed a statistically significant association between stress and moderate to severe levels of depression ( \({\chi }^{2}\) = 17.179, and p  < 0.001). Likewise, there was a statistically significant association between worry/fear of exams and moderate to severe levels of depression ( \({\chi }^{2}\) = 30.236, and p  < 0.001), Table 5 .

The association between stress or worry/fear of exams and gender was examined using the chi-square test. There was a statistically significant association between these two factors and gender, with more females having higher stress levels (54%) than males (41%). Also, worry/fear of exams manifested in 60% of females and 40% of males during virtual learning, sequel to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are presented in Table 6 .

Open-ended questions

The questionnaire ended with an open-ended question, in which students were asked to write in their own words how the lockdown has affected their educational advancement. Excerpts of the negative comments from students are outlined below:

“Virtual teaching and exam resulted in increased cheating." “Virtual teaching caused difficulty in understanding the subject, which resulted in lowering my grades.” "I have to sit in the same room with my siblings while learning online, as my home is small. So, I cannot concentrate at all; it just makes me very frustrated.”

From their comments, it is clear that a virtual learning environment is entirely different from a physical classroom teaching environment where exams are conducted with invigilators proctoring.

Significantly few students provided positive comments.

"Virtual teaching made me understand better and increased productivity and my grades."

In this study, we investigated the severity of depressive symptoms among university students while learning virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on educational behaviors in KSA We collected samples from different universities in Riyadh. The total number of complete responses was 157. The Zung Self-Rating Depression measure was used to measure depression levels. Our results indicate that 75% of the students suffer from different levels of depression (37%, 22%, and 16% of the students reported mild, moderate, and extremely severe levels of depression, respectively). This result is consistent with an American study, which reported that 44% of students in the USA experienced an augmented level of depressive thoughts [ 30 ].

The association between the levels of depression and various distress factors associated with virtual learning due to the pandemic and its impact on students’ educational behaviors was explored using multilinear regression. These factors are divided into two main categories: Category 1: These factors relate to how virtual learning has affected students’ feelings from an educational perspective. This consists of four items: lack of motivation, stress, worry/fear of exam, and decreased productivity. Category 2 factors relate to how virtual learning has affected students’ understanding of the subjects/materials. This category has five items, including need of extra self-effort, need to study harder, learning is slower, virtually learning is boring, difficulty in solving problems, and writing properly.

Consistent with our hypotheses, we confirmed that stress, worry/fear of examinations, and decreased productivity were significantly associated with an increased level of depression. Another recognized factor that contributes significantly to a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms among university students is that virtual teaching and learning becomes boring. Furthermore, students faced difficulty in solving mathematics and science problems and writing the answers properly due to online teaching. A few other factors, such as lack of motivation, learning became more complex and slower, and the need to put extra self-effort contributed to developing depressive symptoms.

Our results indicate that 75% of the students suffer from stress, and about half (47%) have high levels of depression. This is consistent with the results in [ 13 ]. Our findings also indicate that 79% of the students suffer from fear of exams, and about half of them (47%) experience moderate to severe levels of depression. It is usual for some students to have worries and fear for exams; however, it is highly unusual for more than three-fourths of the students to experience fear and worry. This is a clear indication that the changed mode of lecture delivery and exam administration because of COVID-19 has a significant role in raising depression levels among university students. Our findings indicate that a higher percentage of females experience extreme levels of depression than males (28% of females compared to only 4% of males), stress (59% females, vs. 41% males), and worry/fear of exams (60% females, vs. 40% males). This finding is consistent with many studies concerning college students, in which females were at a higher risk of suffering psychologically during virtual learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 9 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Another study showed that Vietnamese female students had a higher percentage of depression compared to male students [ 34 ]. Furthermore, Huange et al. [ 35 ] reasoned that Chinese females experienced more anxiety than males during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we assert that feamles are more commonly inclined toward depression and anxiety disorders than males [ 36 ].

The results of the open-ended responses demonstrated the students’ frustration and stress relating to online learning. In contrast, very few students positively indicated that online learning and studying from home felt relaxing.

COVID-19 has been a catastrophic experience. Although it has largely subsided, new variants are causing apprehension among health officials. Our research found that 75% of university students in Saudi Arabia suffer from some degree of depression. Half of these students showed moderate to extreme levels of depression. This is greater than the expected depression level in the overall population. Our study confirms that stress, worry, and fear of examinations, decreased productivity, and the fact that virtual learning is boring are significantly associated with increased depression. Our findings also indicate that 75% (79%) of the students suffer from stress (fear of exams), and that about half of them have increased levels of depression. It should be noted that the students are 18–24 year olds. This is consistent with the study [ 22 ], which found that psychological distress, stress, and anxiety were higher in the younger age group during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remarkably, more female students experienced extreme depression, stress, and fear of exams than male students. This result supports previous reports that females were at higher risk of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 9 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].

Our observation calls for instant attention and sustenance for students. There is a requirement to explore potential coping policies that have been shown to be effective during pandemics [ 37 ]. The results of our research might direct policymakers to develop distress management protocols as part of their policy for dealing with future pandemics [ 38 ]. It is essential to provide training for students to redirect their educational experience mindset to focus on the “bright side” and expand instances that may guide "depression and stress-related growth.” A flexible mindset can also help students adapt to new ways of learning and developing tremendous gratitude for life. In addition, there is a need to explore better online teaching delivery methods to lower students’ stress and fear of exams.

Study strengths and limitations

The strength of this study is that it was conducted after students had received virtual teaching for more than one year because of the Pandemic. Therefore, this study accurately reflects students’ depression levels and how these impact their educational behaviors in KSA.

Furthermore, the study was conducted in Riyadh, the capital of KSA, hence our study sample is more reflective of the Saudi student population. Moreover, the depression assessment tool for the study, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, is a reliable, universally acceptable scale.

The limitation of our study is that the sample was not randomly selected from all university students, as a convenience sampling method was used.

Availability of data and materials

The raw data supporting the results of this study will be made available by the corresponding author without undue reservation.

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Acknowledgements

Fatima Azmi would like to thank Prince Sultan University for funding the project and covering the publication fees.

This work was supported by a research project grant [Grant number: COVID-19-DES-2020–43] from Prince Sultan University, KSA.

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Conceptualization: FMA; AMA. Data Curation: FMA; AMA. Formal Analysis: FMA. Methodology: FMA; HNK. Writing-Original Draft: FMA; AMA. Writing-Review and Editing: FMA; HNK; AMA. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

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Azmi, F.M., Khan, H.N. & Azmi, A.M. The impact of virtual learning on students’ educational behavior and pervasiveness of depression among university students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Global Health 18 , 70 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00863-z

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Research Article

Self-efficacy and resilience as predictors of students’ academic motivation in online education

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected] , [email protected]

Affiliation Department of English, Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, Kazerun, Iran

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran

Roles Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran

• Parisa Abdolrezapour, 
• Sahar Jahanbakhsh Ganjeh, 
• Nasim Ghanbari

• Published: May 23, 2023
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984
• Reader Comments

Motivation as a catalyst for human conduct has been associated with lots of variables. However, self-efficacy and resilience as two important components of the individuals’ psychological capital have not received enough scientific attention. This gets more significance considering the global COVID-19 pandemic with noticeable psychological consequences for the learners receiving online education. Hence, the current study proceeded to investigate the relationship between students’ self-efficacy, resilience, and academic motivation in online education. To this aim, a convenience sample of 120 university students coming from two state universities in south of Iran participated in an online survey. The questionnaires used in the survey included the self-efficacy questionnaire, resilience questionnaire, and academic motivation questionnaire. Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistical methods were applied to analyze the obtained data. The results pointed to a positive relationship between self-efficacy and academic motivation. In addition, those with a higher degree of resilience were found to experience higher academic motivation. Moreover, the results of multiple regression test revealed that self-efficacy and resilience can significantly predict the academic motivation of the students involved in an online mode of education. The research proposes a number of recommendations for developing the learners’ level of self-efficacy and resilience through enacting various pedagogical interventions. In this way, a heightened level of academic motivation would enhance EFL learners’ learning rate.

Citation: Abdolrezapour P, Jahanbakhsh Ganjeh S, Ghanbari N (2023) Self-efficacy and resilience as predictors of students’ academic motivation in online education. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0285984. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984

Editor: Ehsan Namaziandost, Ahvaz Jundishapur University: Ahvaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Received: January 29, 2023; Accepted: May 5, 2023; Published: May 23, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Abdolrezapour et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak made an abrupt transition to online platforms for many businesses and schools were no exception. This transition brought new challenges for individuals and profoundly affected their perceptions, feelings and attitudes [ 1 , 2 ]. They mostly found it difficult to overcome their stress and maintain their motivation, despite the persistence of quarantine conditions and the ever-increasing concerns about the virus spread. Such ever-growing stress did also affect university students and their academic performance and beliefs as they have experienced dramatic changes in habits and their daily routines [ 3 ].

The research to date has confirmed learners’ challenges and psychological problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In this regard, a number of studies were conducted to investigate such factors as learners’ mental health [ 4 , 5 ], learners’ attitude [ 6 ], motivation [ 7 ], anxiety and coping strategies [ 8 ], as well as learners’ [ 1 ] and teachers’ perceived flow [ 2 ]. However, there has been no reliable evidence on the contribution of two highly researched psychological capital variables (i.e., self-efficacy and resilience) in traditional classes for the academic motivation of the students involved in online education. Therefore, this paper was set out to address this gap in the literature.

Academic motivation

Motivation has received increasing attention in a wide range of disciplines. It is regarded as a multidimensional construct encompassing various constituents as goals, beliefs, perceptions, values, emotions, and needs [ 9 – 11 ]. As Gottfried [ 12 ] states, academic motivation refers to the “enjoyment of school learning characterized by a mastery orientation, curiosity, persistence, task-endogeny, and the learning of challenging, difficult, and novel tasks” (p.525).

This study applies one of the most prominent theories in research on motivation, i.e., self-determination theory [ 13 – 15 ], which is also a macro-theory of human development and well-being and has been extensively applied in education. This theory makes a distinction between autonomous (intrinsic) and controlled (extrinsic) motivation that explains why individuals act in a certain way. According to Ryan and Deci [ 16 ], the key determinants of academic motivation are the fulfillment of the needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. However, these conditions might not be met in an online education context. As for autonomy, teachers find it difficult to cultivate learners’ autonomy by allowing them to have a choice and most students do not possess the independent learning skills; students struggle to measure their competence when there is no interaction with the environment and the peers and little formative feedback has been provided; and finally, when working from home and following the lectures alone, students’ perception of social group would be transformed and there would be lower emotional bond among the peers [ 17 ]. Despite the learners’ higher motivation in some online classes [ 18 ], which might be due to the choice they have been awarded, there has been a decrease in the level of their motivation amidst the coronavirus pandemic [ 19 ]. Given the importance of academic motivation in students’ cognitive engagement in the academic tasks, several researchers focused on the influence of the COVID-19 restrictions on students’ academic motivation [ 19 , 20 ] and they confirmed the significant effect of the pandemic in decreasing learners’ motivation. In addition, this transition was associated with increased negative emotions such as stress and anxiety [ 8 , 21 , 22 ]. Previous studies also confirmed the role of self-efficacy in individuals’ level of stress [ 23 ]. Thus, it can be hypothesized that those with a lower level of control on self-efficacy would experience higher stress and subsequently lower motivation. However, there is no empirical study confirming this issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, self-efficacy was considered as another variable in this study.

Self-efficacy

Following Bandura’s [ 24 ] social cognitive theory, in this article, self-efficacy is defined as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p.3), which has a significant contribution in one’s choice of activity and the time devoted to a given task [ 25 ]. This concept is associated with cognitive, motivational, and affective processes that would subsequently influence effective performance [ 26 ]. Bandura [ 27 ] situates self-efficacy within an expectancy-value framework, whereby “motivation is the product of the expectation that a given course of action will produce certain outcomes and the value placed on those outcomes” (p. 28). Therefore, self-determination theory (SDT), with its emphasis on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and expectancy-value framework, and in consequence self-efficacy theory, are clearly related.

Self-efficacy has been the focus of several second/foreign language researchers [ 28 – 33 ], all confirming its positive correlation with academic success and performance in different language subskills including speaking [ 34 , 35 ], reading [ 36 ], listening [ 37 , 38 ], and writing [ 39 , 40 ]. In other words, the literature confirmed that a strong sense of self-efficacy could predict individuals’ better language performance and learning achievement.

Self-efficacy has also been found to be a significant factor in online education environments [ 41 – 43 ] due to learners’ new experiences associated with the online context. However, considering the stress associated with education during the pandemic, which is mainly caused by task overload, pandemic fears, social isolation, and confinement [ 44 – 46 ], it was hypothesized that there would be a decline in students’ self-efficacy, which was found to be linked to their performance and had an indirect impact on the academic motivation [ 47 ]. As Pajares [ 48 ] claims, efficacious learners persist longer when encountering difficulties. Thus, there is a need for studies unraveling EFL learners’ self-efficacy level and find its possible contribution to academic motivation in this pandemic.

Resilience is defined variously in different social contexts. In psychology, for example, it is defined as the strategies adopted by individuals to respond to a challenging event [ 49 ], while in education, it deals with the students’ ability to cope with adversities and succeed [ 50 ]. In general, the term refers to an effective mechanism for overcoming adverse situations [ 51 ]. Previous studies dealing with the main components of resilience pointed to multiple factors including empathy and sociability [ 52 , 53 ] as well as persistence in spite of hardship or discouragement [ 54 ]. The existing literature also confirmed the positive relationship between the resilience and educational success.

According to SDT, the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs, i.e., relatedness, autonomy and competence, improves well-being and strengthens inner resources related to resilience. Therefore, SDT and data from several sources [ 55 , 56 ] establish the correlation between motivation and resilience. In general, resilience is crucial for emotional balance and social success [ 57 ]; it is also “a process of interactive adaptation that facilitates coping in the face of adversity” [ 58 ] and as [ 59 ] claim, it “is pivotal to cope with stress and vital to stay in balance” (p.12). Thus, it is effective for coping with stressful periods of uncertainty such as the one accompanied by the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, a number of researchers have sought to determine the key role played by resilience in the university or academic context [ 60 ], in people’s psychological and social state [ 61 ] and its significant relationship with the ability to handle the stress created during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 62 ]. In addition, [ 63 ] pointed to some critical factors in building and inhibiting resilience including support, community, leadership, and planning at universities. The authors also confirmed the pivotal role of online and flexible learning for the resilience-building.

However, despite the importance of resilience and its significant effect on decreasing individuals’ stress and increasing their psychological well-being, it was not until the last decade that researchers considered resilience worthy of scholarly attention in the second language context. Recent studies [ 52 , 64 – 67 ] focused on its relation to motivation and proficiency in language learning. Following this line of research, [ 51 ] pointed that this concept should be studied alongside other variables with which it interacts, and a number of studies confirmed its significant role in the ability to manage the stress during the coronavirus pandemic [ 68 – 70 ]. Hence, the present study aims to focus on its ability to predict the individual’s academic motivation in online education.

The present study

Alongside what mentioned above, the present research intended to study the contribution of two psychological variables of self-efficacy and resilience for the academic motivation of the English language learners in online education. Relying on the above grounds, the following two hypotheses were pursued in this study:

• Hypothesis 1. Students’ self-efficacy predicts their academic motivation in online education.
• Hypothesis 2. Students’ resilience predicts their academic motivation in online education.

Methodology

Ethics statement..

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the 1964 Helsinki declaration and clearance from the Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects of Yasuj University was obtained. Moreover, at the onset of the study, our participants were informed that the data of the study will be used only for research purposes and that all data will be used anonymously throughout the study.

Participants.

A convenience sample of 120 Iranian EFL learners (age range = 19–26, M = 21 years old, SD = 1.3) from two different state universities in south of Iran participated in this study. There were both male and female students in the study (35 males and 85 females). Participants were recruited via social media platforms (e.g., WhatsApp). They were all Persian native speakers studying for the bachelor’s degree of TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) and mostly had studied English for about eight to eleven years. After obtaining the written informed consent from each participant, they were asked to complete the online survey.

Instruments

To address the purpose of the present study, a number of questionnaires were used, which were all in English. Participants were undergraduate students studying English and it was supposed that they know the meaning of the words; however, in the instruction section, they were asked to check the dictionary, whenever they had difficulty understanding the wording of an item.

Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy (QESE)

To assess the degree of EFL learners’ self-efficacy, the self-efficacy questionnaire adapted from [ 71 ] was used. This instrument was originally developed from interviews, observations and verbal protocols of Chinese learners of English in the United States. The questionnaire intends to gain more insights into subjects’ judgements on their capabilities to accomplish certain tasks with English as their foreign language. This 32-item scale yields scores on four aspects of self-efficacy including speaking, listening, reading, and writing (8 items for each skill). Participants were required to answer on a 7-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating ‘I cannot do it at all’ and 7 indicating ‘I can do it very well’. [ 72 ] checked the validity of the scale in a sample of English language learners and confirmed that it measures a unidimensional construct. Furthermore, its high reliability was reported by [ 71 ] with the person reliability of .99 and item reliability of .98. Also, in this research, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.87. Overall, validation results of the previous studies in the context which reported acceptable levels of reliability and validity indices for the scale, and also the particular reliability measures obtained in the study provided reliable grounds to support the reliability and validity of the scale in this study.

Resilience questionnaire

One of the most popular scales in assessing learners’ resilience is Ego Resilience scale [ 73 ], which is a 14-item questionnaire. In this study, respondents were required to answer the questionnaire on a 6-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). A sample item for resilience is “I quickly get over and recover from being startled”. Learners’ higher scores on the scale point to their greater self-perceived levels of resilience. [ 73 ] provided evidence for the validity of the scale in a sample of participants at the age range of 18–23 and its construct validity was confirmed by [ 74 ]. In the current attempt, the reliability of the questionnaire was 0.66 through Cronbach’s alpha.

Academic motivation questionnaire

Academic Motivation Scale [ 75 ] including 33 items with two subscales, i.e., Intrinsic Motivation Subscale and the Extrinsic Motivation Subscale, was used. The Intrinsic Motivation Subscale involves three aspects including curiosity (3 items), challenge (9 items), and independent mastery (5 items); while, the Extrinsic Motivation Subscale entails three aspects including pleasing teacher (4 items), dependence on the teacher (6 items), and easy work (6 items). The scale has a five-point Likert scale from completely disagree (score 1) to completely agree (score 5). Some items such (e.g., items 3, 5, 8, and 15) are scored in a reverse order. The lowest and highest scores of this scale are 33 and 165, respectively. Scores of a value between 33 and 66 point to a weak academic motivation level, those of between 66 and 99 refer to an average level of academic motivation, and if the score lies above 99, the level of academic motivation will be at a high level. In [ 75 ], the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of this scale was reported as 0.88 and also in [ 76 ] in Iran, it was found to be 0.82. Moreover, [ 77 ] confirmed the validity of the scale in an Iranian sample through confirmatory factor analysis. In this research, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.81.

Data collection procedure

Early in the study, the instructors of the two universities were contacted to invite them participate in the study. Upon their agreement, the researchers provided the consent letters forms along with an online survey for the students. The students were assured that their responses would be kept confidential. Then, they completed the questionnaires, the links of which were shared with them through the well-known WhatsApp application. The collection of data lasted for two months. At the end of this phase, a body of 120 questionnaires were collected.

Data analysis

Using SPSS software (version 23), both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study. First, descriptive statistics were used to check the normality of the obtained data via such indices as Kurtosis and Skewness. Subsequently, Pearson correlation and multiple regressions statistical methods were used to investigate the research hypotheses posed earlier in the study.

The findings of the present study which include descriptive statistics, the correlation matrix between the research variables, and the results of multiple regression are presented in the following tables.

As the results of Table 1 show, the mean of self-efficacy and resilience variables as predictor variables are 147.76 and 59.92, respectively, and the standard deviations of these variables are 26.4 and 12.51, respectively. Also, the average of academic motivation was 87.28 and its standard deviation was 7.72.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984.t001

The correlation coefficient between the research variables is reported in Table 2 . As shown in this table, there is a positive and significant relationship (r = 0.36) between self-efficacy and academic motivation (p <0.01) and between resilience and academic motivation (r = 0.41).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984.t002

As shown in Table 3 , self-efficacy significantly predicted the students’ academic motivation (p <0.01) with a standard coefficient of 0.026. Also, resilience significantly predicted students’ academic motivation (p <0.01) with a standard coefficient of 0.33. The positive sign of standard coefficients between these variables indicates that increasing learners’ self-efficacy and resilience increases their academic motivation. Also, according to the results of this table, 23% of the variance related to students’ academic motivation is explained by self-efficacy and resilience variables. Therefore, according to the results of Table 3 , the research hypotheses posed earlier in this study, i.e., predicting students ’academic motivation based on self-efficacy and resilience variables are accepted. In other words, the results in this investigation showed that both self-efficacy and resilience predicted the students’ academic motivation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984.t003

The results obtained in this investigation on the significant correlation of self-efficacy and academic motivation and resilience and academic motivation have extended our knowledge of the factors contributing to improved online experience and yield suggestions for future studies. Several reports have established empirical evidence confirming the positive relationships between self-efficacy and language learning (29, 34–37, 39–40). Also, there is some evidence indicating that self-efficacy is a significant factor in online educational contexts [ 41 – 43 ]. In this regard, then, this investigation mirror those of previous studies that had confirmed the importance of students’ self-efficacy in language education, and especially language learning in the online environment. Also, it confirms the association between self-efficacy and academic motivation which was earlier established in the literature [ 47 ]. Generally, learners with a higher level of self-efficacy would exert much more learning effort than their counterparts of lower self-efficacy level and can better preserve their optimism. Considering the challenges associated with the online education such as the speed of Internet access, the type of learning device, online test anxiety, and lack of face-to-face interaction, as well as the challenges associated with the pandemic including, task overload, pandemic fears, social isolation, and confinement, those with higher self-efficacy would better accept challenging tasks, retain their interest in class discussions and tasks, and recover from disappointments sooner.

Moreover, research has shown that resilience is a contributing factor in the motivation and proficiency level of language learners [ 52 , 64 , 67 ]. Many studies [ 68 – 70 ] further supported that resilience has a significant role in the ability to manage stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, the researchers proposed positive relationships between language learners’ academic motivation in online learning and their resilience. This finding can be explained by the SDT which pointed to three factors, i.e., relatedness, autonomy and competence, as the key determinants of both academic motivation and resilience. Resilience, as noted in the literature, can positively affect individuals’ success in various domains. When they face challenges in learning a subject such as a foreign language, their resilience would be triggered to help them overcome the challenges and accordingly their motivation would be enhanced.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed many aspects of individuals’ lives and many contexts, including the university context has been no exception in being affected by the pandemic. Accordingly, normal lives of students changed notably as a consequence of physical distancing measures and also the shift from traditional in-person classes to online learning. Thus, the learners started experiencing a multitude of feelings such as fear, anxiety, and stress and mostly felt less motivated due to the lower social interaction they had. Hence, it is suggested that teachers apply motivation-boosting tasks and activities to prevent the decrease in academic motivation. Two significant factors leading to academic motivation, based on the findings of this investigation, are self-efficacy and resilience. So, language teachers are required to focus on tasks and activities used to enhance self-efficacy, and on educational practices which will reduce insecurity and enhance resilience.

Implications

Our findings have some implications for teacher training programs. First and foremost, the implication of this study is that every single attempt should be made to reduce unnecessary stressors for learners and promote their resilience. As such, this study suggests that policymakers give an important role to the inclusion of resilience-building tasks and activities by fostering close and respectful connections between students, teachers, and parents. Language teachers can devise tasks and activities that are based on the components of resilience, which would help students have the required resources and competencies to be more self-reliant in learning, creative in problem solving and effective in decision making.

Another significant pedagogical implication which is resulted from the findings of the current attempt is that to improve and upgrade language instruction, language teachers can apply instructional activities which flourish EFL learners’ self-efficacy. Interventions focusing on self-efficacy in educational settings may help come up with a solution to educational problems, but such trainings should be based on careful definition and analysis of self-efficacy components and psychological theory.

This study confirmed that EFL learners’ self-efficacy and resilience can significantly predict their academic motivation in an online mode of education. Taken together, the findings implied that language teachers need to improve learners’ self-efficacy and resilience in order to assist them in improving their academic motivation. In addition, given that SDT postulates the influence of autonomy, relatedness and competence on learners’ motivation, resilience and self-efficacy, applying strategies to enhance these three basic psychological needs are important for language learners to be able to manage the stressors and challenges associated with learning in both face-to-face and online settings. The results of this research suggest a number of directions for future research. In order to delve into the effect of self-efficacy and resilience on EFL learners’ academic motivation in greater detail, experimental investigations applying activities focusing on these two variables and exploring their effectiveness are clearly of interest.

As with all other studies, the findings of this study are subject to a number of limitations that need to be acknowledged. First, the participant sample was from different language proficiency levels and different universities undergoing various tasks and activities; therefore, studies with homogenized learners are likely to show different results. In this light, further investigations are recommended to replicate these results with learners of the same proficiency level to investigate the possible differences in learners’ self-efficacy and resilience levels. Moreover, this was a correlational study on three variables, namely self-efficacy, resilience and academic motivation with no focus on learners’ language proficiency and academic performance. Therefore, there is abundant room for further progress in exploring and (re)examining the role of self-efficacy and resilience in the second language learning context and its relation to learners’ academic motivation and academic success in online contexts and during the post-COVID pandemic.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285984.s001

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A Comparative Study about the Spending Habits of Senior High School and College Students during the Pandemic

This descriptive comparative study focuses on the spending habits of senior high school and college students during the pandemic using the maturity and consumer theory. These theories helped this study guide the researchers to find out who's the mature one is when it comes to managing their money, how senior high school and college students spend their money, and how often they spend money. 70 respondents permitted their answers in the online survey to contribute to the goal of this study. This study aims to show the comparison between senior high school and college students in terms of spending habits and the possible significant differences. As interpreted from the answers of the respondents, the senior high school students are the one who’s likely to spend more money during the pandemic, and the college students are the one who’s more likely to spend less and save money. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between the spending habits of senior high school and college students during the pandemic. The findings of this study may help students to be aware of their spending habits, and to be wise when it comes to spending their money.

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The Prevention Of Bad Habits Among Students

We consider the problem of preventing bad habits among adolescences. On the basis of existing theoretical approaches and the results of survey conducted by us at Kazan Federal University we identifies the factors which contribute to the formation of harmful habits among students. Adhering to the principle that it is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it, we pay careful attention to the prevention of harmful habits and to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among young people. In this article we present a pedagogical approach which enabled us to develop a system of practical measures for effective prevention and treatment of harmful habits among students. These measures can be practically applied both in humanitarian and technical universities. The important point in this article is that it is necessary to create an integrated system which includes various university structural units for the purpose of coordinating all kinds of activities aimed at preventing bad habits among students, encouraging them to pursue a healthy lifestyle and preserve their health. Based on the realization of axiological foundations of a healthy lifestyle, these activities should be performed systematically, providing a certain impact on students' structure of needs and their self-improvement processes. As a value health should be a priority in students' value system while self-improvement should be based on their spiritual-moral qualities. Students must be taught the skills of adherence to a healthy lifestyle, and we believe that our concept can be helpful in this respect. Keywords: Prevention students bad habits

Introduction

The relevance of the research.

The relevance of this research relates to the fact that modern social development is inhibited by the lack of readiness in people to lead a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, despite the increased levels of attention of the current Governments to health issues, such negative phenomena as drug abuse and alcoholism still represent serious problems in Russia. First of all, this concerns young people. The activity aimed at preventing bad habits among school children and students is often inefficient. Therefore the study of the problem of preventing bad habits among young people is fundamentally important.

Literature review

Such habits as smoking, alcoholism, and drug addiction are detrimental to people's health. The problem of preventing such habits among young people was studied by many authors. For example, Ellickson et al. ( 2003 ) studied public health problems associated with youth drinking. Wills, Sargent, and Gibbons ( 2009 ) considered adolescent alcohol problems. Vries et al. ( 2003 ) viewed parents' and friends' smoking habits as a predictor of future smoking among children. Madarasova-Geckova et al. ( 2005 ) scrutinized the influence of socio-economic status, parents and peers on smoking behaviour of teenagers. Minkin and Dobrotvorskaya ( 2002 ) described the current state of spiritual-moral health of the youth and outlined relevant problems. Pilyushenko ( 2014 ) made an attempt to define the value status of a healthy lifestyle.

What are reasons for bad habits? It is well known that an important role in this phenomenon is being played by social factors. Thus, the unprecedented growth in smoking in Russia in 1990th is connected with the fact that the demand for cigarettes differed from the volume of tobacco production. Bad habits may be stipulated by the desire of a person to belong to a particular social group. Certain unmet needs of young people may cause a psychological stress which, in turn, may promote the use of psychotropic drugs. Human needs are individual for every person. The wider the spectrum of spiritual needs of a person is, the less likely they are to develop bad habits. At the same time, low self-esteem can contribute to the formation of bad habits. Even the prevalence of spiritual needs over material ones does not guarantee the absence of bad habits. Thus, a drug addiction can be caused by dissatisfaction with oneself, which is strongly pronounced with a high development of spiritual needs. Another reason for forming bad habits can be connected to the gaps in education such, to a weak will, and a lack of need for a healthy lifestyle. Emotional fatigue can also cause the formation of bad habits, but this more often takes place among people of mature age. Mental disorders also predispose to the development of bad habits. We mean a psychopathic nature of a person, neuroses, craniocerebral traumas, and weak somatic health. Hereditary factors, though they are also predisposing, do not necessarily cause the formation in children of the same harmful habit as in their parents. Thus, the hereditary complication is observed in 37 – 40% of patients with alcoholism. And yet, this is a very high value. The problem of the genetic predisposition to alcoholism was thoroughly studied by many researchers, but no specific gene for alcoholism was found ( Fedoseev, 1992 ; Chisholm, 1994 ). The mentioned reasons are mainly characteristic for adults.

Reasons for developing bad habits in young people may be different. Both in adults and young people, they are connected with a complex of social, economic, and personal factors. These factors were studied by many authors. For example, Matosova ( 2012 ) described factors that promote the consumption of alcoholic beverages by teenagers and youth. Psychological predispositions for the use of alcohol by adolescents were studied by Mares, Vorst, and Engels ( 2011 ), while the social impact of mass media to this phenomenon was considered by Gibbons, Pomery, Gerrard et al. (2011). Poor social adaptation, adverse social factors (especially those coming from the family) can also contribute to the development and retention of bad habits in adolescents and youth. Thus, 70% of young people who have an alcohol addiction developed it due to the influence of their parents or other adults in their lives who consumed alcoholic drinks in their presence ( Chisholm, 1994 ). The desire of adolescents to imitate as well as their poor health awareness can contribute to the development of bad habits. Children and youth often misunderstand or underestimate the consequences of their exposure to smoking, alcohol, and drugs. The main argument for smoking among young people is the idea that smoking calms the nerves. False views on the impact of psychotropic substances are common not only in children but also in adults. These false views have deep historical roots. According to results of the research conducted at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century in Western Europe and South America, adults gave alcohol to children in order to ‘improve their health’, ‘increase appetite’, ‘accelerate growth’, ‘facilitate teething’, ‘warm the body’, ‘satisfy hunger’, and to ‘calm children’ ( Bratus', 1985 ). As for young people, the formation of bad habits in them is often curiosity-driven. Discussing effects of the exposure to psychotropic substances may have a strong appeal. The danger is that many young people believe that they need to experiment and that then can easily give up any habit if they want to.

Bad habits are damaging to health. Wills, Sandy, and Yaeger ( 2002 ) studied the interconnection between the consumption of psychoactive substances among adolescents and problems they faced. Usually a teenager starts smoking and then he/she proceeds to try alcohol and drugs. Preferences of tastes depend on the social status of a person, his/her financial means, psychological characteristics, and so on. Adults and adolescents differ in their preferences of psychotropic drugs. Moreover, teenagers and youth are more sensitive to such substances. The mortality rate among young alcoholics and drug addicts is very high. The main causes of death are suicides, accidents, somatic diseases, over dosing, and intoxication ( Morozov & Romanenko, 2004 ). As for drugs, it should be noted that young people are more likely to use more powerful drugs, while adults prefer weaker ones ( Mol', 1983 ). This fact is connected with the specificity of young organisms. The scale of youth alcoholism, smoking, and drug addiction in the world is frightening.

Is there a solution to this problem? Vorob'eva and Babaeva ( 2015 ) consider the promotion of a healthy lifestyle as a key to the successful social development. Belova ( 2014 ) proposes some concrete approaches to preventing alcoholism among students. Pilyushenko ( 2014 ) treats the value status of a healthy lifestyle as the main motive for its realization. The attitude of the Russian population to a healthy lifestyle was also studied by Valieva, Mefod'eva, and Yarullina ( 2016 ). The authors consider levels, leading principles, and pedagogical conditions for forming the proper attitude of students to a healthy lifestyle on an interdisciplinary basis in the framework of educational programs. Alekseeva ( 2014 ) analyses the advantages and disadvantages of some forms of a healthy lifestyle which are being promoted in Russia in the framework of the strategy for the development of physical culture and sports. Mitsan ( 2016 ) studies the impact of the motor activity of students of higher educational institutions on changes in their functional state during the study period. Konyaeva ( 2016 ) considers indicators of students' physical preparedness and their motivation for preserving health. Novikova and Kuz'min ( 2017 ) connect the problems of preserving students' health to the involvement of students in sports. University faculty should take into account the psychology of students, their abilities, types of mental activities, and much more. The most important task is to instil in students self-discipline, which allows them to preserve their health.

Problem Statement

The elaboration of the problem.

The most important question is how to significantly improve the efficiency of preventive measures against bad habits in students? We have succeeded to

reveal reasons for the formation of bad habits in youth and adults;

describe the main features of the influence of psychoactive substances on a human organism;

establish a moral basis for a healthy lifestyle;

propose certain ways to form a healthy lifestyle in various categories of the population, including students.

the approach to preventing bad habits among students by integration of educational efforts is not thoroughly developed yet within the pedagogical theory; there is neither a proper theoretical basis, nor methodological guides for teachers and students;

no methods for the effective encouragement of young people to pursue a healthy lifestyle are proposed, no barriers preventing this process are described;

the development of sustainable motivation to a healthy lifestyle is not thoroughly studied in pedagogical scholarship yet;

neither psychological nor pedagogical recommendations for higher school teachers effective for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among young people have been developed yet;

teachers are still not provided with an effective assessment tools (appropriate for estimating the readiness of an individual to a healthy lifestyle).

The theoretical and practical value of the paper

We develop a concept of systematic stimulation aimed at the prevention of bad habits among students. This concept includes principles, conditions, and factors that have a specific impact on the structure of needs of an individual and on his/her self-improvement processes. The value of health in students' system of values should be a priority, and the self-improvement should, first of all, be based on spiritual-moral qualities of a personality. Students must be taught the skills of adherence to a healthy lifestyle.

We describe a system of pedagogical measures aimed at prevention of bad habits among students. These measures can be applied practically both in humanitarian and technical universities.

Research Questions

Characteristics of how bad habits spread among students.

In 2015 and 2017 we conducted a survey among students at Kazan Federal University (KFU). The findings show that only 7% of KFU students view their health as perfect, while 11% view it as unsatisfactory. Many students complained about the state of their nervous, digestive, and cardiovascular systems, frequent colds, and bad eyesight.

It is well known that bad habits affect health. However, none of the questioned KFU students have admitted abusing alcohol, while 49% of respondents have admitted drinking alcohol at clubs and parties.

Another bad habit is smoking tobacco and smoking various smoking blends. 14% of the respondents at the Faculty of Law of Kazan Federal University have admitted smoking cigarettes which is a smaller percentage in comparison to previous years. The smoking statistics in KFU this year is better than in 2015. Many KFU students are proud of the fact that they follow the modern trend of being healthy.

Though the percentage of smokers among students is not so high, about 47% of respondents have answered positively to the question «Do you smoke a hookah when you are offered one?». This makes one think hard. Many people refuse tobacco now, but at the same time they switch to smoking other substances ignoring the danger.

Because of their insufficient awareness many young and adult people do not entirely understand that bad habits can seriously undermine their health. Even if they are aware of the possible harm, they hope that nothing bad will happen to them.

In recent years, a wide range of countries has been overwhelmed by drug addiction. Drug addicts are often young people. Note that KFU students are insufficiently informed about drugs. Thus, in 2017 about 13% of KFU students believed that there are addiction-free drugs, while 5% of students did not answer this question at all. However, the situation in KFU is much better now than in previous years. Thus, in 2015, about 68% of Journalism students believed in the existence of harmless drugs. The quantity of students that had tried drugs at least once now equals 10%, which is a little bit less than 12% in 2015.

Though the situation in the university has improved in recent years, outside the university it has become even worse. It is rather difficult to resist harmful impacts. Thus, in 2015 about 42% of KFU students were offered to try drugs, while by now this figure has increased to 46%. In addition, 37% of KFU students have drug addicts among their friends.

At the same time, in certain issues the university students are informed very well. Thus, 27% of Law students in KFU are aware of prices for drugs and of places where drugs can be bought.

Undoubtedly, it is better to prevent a disease than to treat it.

The concept of the systematic promotion of a healthy lifestyle among students

The concept of the systematic promotion of a healthy lifestyle among students allows one to effectively prevent the development of bad habits in students and thus to preserve their health. Its essence consists in pedagogically sound formation of the general and valeological culture of individuals during their education. The prevention of harmful habits among students is realized on the basis of the continuous improvement of the following factors:

- all units of the university structure should be involved in orienting students to a healthy lifestyle, namely, the university administration, heads of faculties, departments, research centers, youth organizations, etc;

- the educational process as a whole should be aimed at preventing bad habits among students and at preserving their health;

- the pedagogical practice related to preventing harmful habits in young people should be continuous.

The development of the system of measures aimed at orienting students to a healthy lifestyle has the following stages:

Stage I – ‘Planning and organization’.

Stage II – ‘Educational process’.

Stage III – ‘Systematic improvement’.

Stage IV – ‘Estimation and correction’.

The success in orienting students to a healthy lifestyle depends on the whole system of measures aimed at forming the structure of the value system and self-improvement of individuals. This system can help in raising the value of health in the value system to higher positions and to involve the moral sphere in the self-improvement processes.

The principles of preserving students' health and preventing them from developing harmful habits.

The process of students’ self-improvement should be based on their own creative aspirations for self-development and self-improvement, on their understanding of the meaning of life, rejection of selfish psychological attitudes, and the practice of a healthy lifestyle.

The structure and components of students’ readiness to a healthy lifestyle

The structure and components of students’ readiness for a healthy lifestyle include high valeological culture and practical adherence to a healthy lifestyle.

Factors of pedagogical prevention of bad habits among students

Factors of pedagogical prevention of bad habits among students include the following measures:

- the creation of a university environment that encourages both students and academics to lead healthy lives;

- the active involvement of teachers and students in physical activities and sports;

- the development of academic disciplines that help raise the value of health, prioritise it over other values;

- setting positive examples;

- encouraging all of the participants of the educational process to engage in spiritual and moral self-development.

The system of pedagogical measures to encourage students to lead healthy lives

The approach to orienting students to a healthy lifestyle should be systematic and integrated. It is necessary to create an integrated university system aimed at the youth’s orientation to a healthy lifestyle. This system should include various services and structures that can help in preserving students’ health. The basis of such a system is a complex of pedagogical measures as a part of the all-university system of measures aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle among students and academics. In addition to educational activity, this system should have some other functions. Therefore all of the activities of the structural components of such a system should be clearly coordinated. Moreover, there is a necessity in a special structural unit for coordinating the work of university structures involved in orienting students and faculty to a healthy lifestyle. This, in turn, requires the development of local regulatory documents for all aspects of the activity related to the prevention of bad habits and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. This is a task for specific structural university units. The need for research in the stated area is also very high. This implies the conduction of pedagogical, sociological, psychophysiological, valeological, and other studies and the creation of a theoretical and methodological basis for the prevention of certain diseases. These are the tasks for research structures to create theoretical foundations for effectively promoting a healthy lifestyle among university students and staff. A holistic system of healthy lifestyle promotion should be dynamically developing, being aimed at the preservation of students’ health. It should include university sports and health services, social, medical and valeological centers, the system for sanatorium treatment for students, student cafes, bars, and discos. An integrated approach is also necessary to develop health programs. Since the causes of various diseases are interrelated and, when some mechanism of the disease development is turned off, the organism can switch to some other mechanisms, the student's self-improvement process should be based on a complex system that defines basic parameters of a healthy lifestyle. An integrated approach also involves the use of potential opportunities for parents in upbringing the younger generation. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to orient family education towards a healthy lifestyle. The promotion of a healthy lifestyle should be carried out systematically, by all educational means. It is necessary to adjust the university education process with this goal in mind, i.e., the preservation of students' health. Only a systematic approach to creating conditions allowing students to orient themselves towards a healthy lifestyle can lead to success, so the entire higher education institution should be oriented towards a healthy lifestyle

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study.

The purpose of the study is to establish the principles and conditions for preventing bad habits among students.

Objectives of the study

During the research we have succeeded in attaining the following objectives:

1) analyzing the main theoretical approaches to preventing bad habits among students;

2) developing and justifying a pedagogical concept which allows one to prevent bad habits among students;

3) characterizing the structure of the system of pedagogical orientation of students to a healthy lifestyle;

4) describing factors of preventing bad habits among students.

Research Methods

Research techniques.

We used the following research techniques:

- theoretical methods, including the theoretical analysis of the research problem, as well as the analysis of modern advanced pedagogical, psychological and medical experience in preventing harmful habits and orientation of young people towards a healthy lifestyle, the scientific forecasting of the process of prevention of bad habits in students, and modelling;

- empirical methods, including the pedagogical observation, conversation, questioning, self-assessment, and self-analysis).

The experimental research base

In 2015 and 2017 we conducted a questionnaire of 345 law students at Kazan Federal University. To this end we have developed an original questionnaire for identifying the attitude of students towards bad habits.

Research stages

The research was carried out in the following logical sequence: firstly, we have formulated the problem, secondly, we have developed and justified the research strategy, determined and justified its goals and objectives, formulated and interpreted main theoretical premises, and designed a research plan. Then we conducted the questionnaire among KFU students and analyzed the obtained results.

[1. The main technique for preventing harmful habits among children and young people is based on pedagogical prevention measures.

2. The way out of today's situation is to change the opinion on harmful habits among young people through preventive work starting from early childhood. The fashion for health should be “vaccinated” in young people. A proper family education is very effective. Children, adolescents, and young people should be equipped with knowledge and skills to lead a healthy lifestyle. Moral education and self-improvement also help to resist bad habits.

3. It is necessary to actively promote physical culture, sports, and a healthy lifestyle among the youth. It is important to warn students of the danger of bad habits and it is useful to regularly conduct surveys in order to assess the spread of bad habits among young people.]

The main thing is not to underestimate the influence of bad habits. Therefore it is necessary to conduct anti-drug, anti-alcohol and other forms of healthy propaganda in children's educational institutions and universities; this reduces the probability of forming bad habits. Preventive activities should include both individual and group forms of psychological and pedagogical work as well as work with parents of young people.

How to prevent or eradicate smoking? In several countries, massive public companies have resulted in forming a negative attitude towards smoking and in reducing the number of smokers. A lot of smokers have given up smoking due to the public's negative attitude towards tobacco and the deterioration of their health. Usually, the older a person is, the stronger his/her desire to quit smoking is; it also depends on the self-assessment of one’s health condition and on the position of health in one’s value system. Teachers can influence their students’ value systems with preventive goals.

There are many methods for giving up bad habits. The best results are achieved through a complex therapy. A teacher can suggest that pupils should consider replacing cigarettes with something else when experiencing stress, being aware of their possible irritation and anxiety that comes when a person is trying to give up a harmful habit.

How to prevent or treat alcoholism? The treatment of alcoholics with a gradual reduction in dosages rarely leads to recovery. Methods that are based on threats and intimidation are also inefficient. The information about the damage that alcohol can cause to one’s health rarely cures alcoholics from their bad habit because the meaning of an alcoholic's life is distorted. Moreover, at the later stages of alcoholism, alcohol becomes the only meaning of their life. Administrative measures against alcoholism usually give a short-term effect, and then the consumption of alcoholic beverages may even exceed the initial level. Prohibitive measures are usually unpopular. They are often accompanied by smuggling, black markets, underground brewing enterprises, etc. Prohibitive measures are effective only for people who do not abuse alcohol. Alcoholics should necessarily be medically treated though the treatment of alcoholism is a difficult task. An alcoholic rarely admits that he/she is has a problem, even to himself/herself. For this reason, alcoholics often receive no medical treatment. The prevention of alcoholism and drugs addiction, especially in cases when a person has not yet begun to use psychotropic drugs, is much more efficient. It is better not to intimidate young people, but to give them an opportunity to assess the risk of harmful addictions and to show them possible ways to prevent bad habits, to demonstrate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. In education, it is important to use not only negative incentives, but also positive ones. Preventive methods used for children and for adolescents should be different.

How to prevent and treat drug addiction? The treatment of drug addicts is extremely difficult process. It should be also noted that preventive programs against drug addiction which work well in the West may fail in Russia. The effective prevention of drug addiction requires a scientific approach, financial investments, and special training programmes for teachers.

There are many forms and methods to prevent harmful habits, but when developing preventive programs, it is necessary to take into account that young people do not understand the consequences of inappropriate actions Once certain habits in regards to sex, food consumption, alcohol, drugs, and smoking are formed it is very difficult to change them. An important factor in changing the behaviour of those young people who use psychotropic substances concerns the satisfaction of their need for communication. It is the need for having friends and, above all, friends who have been able to give up the bad habit themselves. Therefore, in order to effectively conduct preventive work among the youth, it is necessary to involve in the process young volunteers who have succeeded in giving up the bad habit already.

Forms and methods of preventing harmful habits are different, and one of such methods is education. However, the information about harmful effects of bad habits on human health cannot always prevent them from forming. Moreover, the description of the impact of psychotropic drugs on a human organism can provoke the development of bad habits. It is necessary to inform young people about the effects of psychotropic substances on the body and mind of a person. It is better to talk about the harm of their use. In preventive activities directed towards eradicating harmful habits, various methods can be used. It is desirable to appoint young leaders to distribute proper information about psychotropic substances and give their own reasons for refusing drugs. Such programs are usually short-term, from two to six sessions. Any teacher can conduct preventive work without significant financial costs, minimizing the probability of forming bad habits among his/her students.

Acknowledgments

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University.

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31 August 2017

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https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.08.02.18

978-1-80296-028-0

Future Academy

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Teacher, teacher training, teaching skills, teaching techniques

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Dobrotvorskaya, S., & Kashina, O. (2017). The Prevention Of Bad Habits Among Students. In R. Valeeva (Ed.), Teacher Education - IFTE 2017, vol 29. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 138-148). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.08.02.18

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PENGEMBANGAN INSTRUMEN ASESMEN PORTOFOLIO ELEKTRONIK UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HABITS OF MIND PESERTA DIDIK PADA MATERI REAKSI EKSOTERM DAN ENDOTERM

Adhe Novy Astuty, - (2024) PENGEMBANGAN INSTRUMEN ASESMEN PORTOFOLIO ELEKTRONIK UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HABITS OF MIND PESERTA DIDIK PADA MATERI REAKSI EKSOTERM DAN ENDOTERM. S1 thesis, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.

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Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menghasilkan instrumen asesmen portofolio elektronik yang valid dan reliabel untuk meningkatkan habits of mind peserta didik pada materi reaksi eksoterm dan endoterm. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah Research and Development (R&D) dengan tiga tahap model pengembangan meliputi design, define, dan develop. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini melibatkan empat dosen pendidikan kimia dan tiga guru kimia sebagai validator, serta dua puluh peserta didik kelas sebelas di salah satu MA Kabupaten Ciamis sebagai subjek penelitian. Instrumen asesmen portofolio elektronik yang dikembangkan berupa tiga jenis task (rangkuman, laporan simulasi praktikum, poster) dan rubrik penilaian yang disusun berdasarkan kombinasi dari indikator pencapaian kompetensi pada materi reaksi eksoterm dan endoterm dengan indikator habits of mind. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa instrumen asesmen portofolio elektronik yang dikembangkan memiliki kualitas yang baik dengan nilai CVR 1,00 dan nilai Cronbach Alpha 0,94-1,00. Hasil uji coba instrumen asesmen portofolio elektronik yang dikembangkan dengan adanya pemberian feedback dapat meningkatkan habits of mind peserta didik pada materi reaksi eksoterm dan endoterm berdasarkan nilai N-Gain 0,7 dengan kategori sedang. Hasil uji coba task 1, 2, dan 3 diperoleh nilai N-Gain 0,66 dengan kategori sedang; 0,74 dengan kategori tinggi; dan 0,71 dengan kategori tinggi. Pada aspek regulasi diri, berpikir kritis, dan berpikir kreatif secara berturut-turut diperoleh nilai N-Gain 0,73 dengan kategori tinggi; 0,66 dengan kategori sedang; dan 0,64 dengan kategori sedang. The aims of the study is to obtain a valid and reliable electronic portfolio assessment instrument to improve students' habits of mind on exothermic and endothermic reaction materials. The research method used is Research and Development (R&D) with three stages of development models including design, define, develop. The participants in this study involved four chemistry education lecturers and three chemistry teachers as validators, twenty eleventh grade students at one of the Islamic Senior High School in Ciamis as research subjects. The electronic portfolio assessment instrument developed in the form of three types of tasks (summary, practicum simulation report, poster) and assessment rubrics are based on a combination of competency achievement indicators on exothermic and endothermic reaction materials with habits of mind indicators. The results showed that the electronic portfolio assessment instrument developed had good quality with a CVR value of 1.00 and a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.94-1,00. The trial results showed that electronic portfolio assessment instrument with the provision of feedback can improve students' habits of mind on exothermic and endothermic reaction materials based on the N-Gain value of 0.7 with a medium category. In the trial task 1, 2, 3, the N-Gain value was 0,66 with a medium category; 0,74 with a high category; 0,71 with a high category. In the aspects of self-regulation, critical thinking, creative thinking, the N-Gain value was 0.73 with a high category; 0.66 with a medium category; and 0.64 with a medium category.

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