This presentation presents an overview of research I conducted in fulfilling the requirements for an MA in Academic Practice at NUI Galway.

1. Córais Faisnéise Bainistíochta
Scoil Ghnó Lochlann Uí Chuinn
An Coláiste Ollscoile, BÁC 4
Éire
Management Information Systems
School of Business
University College Dublin, Dublin 4
Ireland
Knowledge acquisition in higher
education: a bioecological systems
theory perspective
MA Academic Practice
Minor Thesis
Dr Niamh O Riordan

2. © N O Riordan 2015/6
Session Overview
• Motivation
• Theoretical underpinning
• The state of the art
• Research objective and preliminary model
• Research design
• Findings
• Discussion
• Conclusion

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Motivation
• Universities and the public good (Williams, 2016)
– Individual growth
– Economic growth
– Societal growth
• Academic achievement and controversy
– Socioeconomic background?
– Ethnic background (e.g. Richardson, 2008)?
– Gender (e.g. Crawford and Wang, 2016)?
– Assessment strategies and grading practices (e.g. Bailey, 2015)?
• But what is academic achievement all about, really?
– What is it, really?
– What factors impact upon it and how?
– What impact does it ultimately have, really?
Human Capital Mandate
€2.7bn

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Theoretical underpinning
• (Developmental) psychology
– Kurt Lewin
• Field Theory
• Life space
• Akin to Heidegger’s Life World
– Bronfenbrenner (1976, 1977a, 1977b, 1979, 1986, 1994, 1995)
• An ecological perspective
• Very strong opinions on research design
• An original theory: the five systems
• A revised model: proximal processes
Bronfenbrenner 1977b
“From an ecological psychology
perspective, each learner-environment
interaction can be seen as the result of an
intentionally-driven agent perceiving and
acting on environmental affordances as
they move toward their currently adopted
goal” (Tudge et al., 1997)

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Bronfenbrenner (1979)

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1. The microsystem is an immediate setting containing the learner (e.g., home,
day care centre, classroom, etc.) A setting is defined as a place in which the
occupants engage in particular activities in particular roles (e.g., parent,
teacher, pupil, etc.) for particular periods of time.
2. The mesosystem comprises the interrelations among the major settings
containing the learner at a particular point in his or her life. The mesosystem is
the system of micro-systems
3. The exosystem is an extension of a mesosystem embracing the concrete social
structures, both formal and informal, that impinge upon or encompass the
immediate settings containing the learner and, thereby, influence and even
determine or delimit what goes on there. These structures include the major
institutions of the society, both deliberately structured and spontaneously
evolving, as they operate at the local community level
4. The macrosystem is the overarching institution of the culture or subculture,
such as the economic, social, educational, legal and political systems, of which
local micro-, meso-, and exo-systems are the concrete manifestations. Such
macro-systems are conceived and examined not only in structural terms but as
carriers of information and ideology that, both explicitly and implicitly, endow
meaning and motivation to particular agencies, social networks, roles, activities,
and their interrelations
5. Finally, the chronosystem (see Bronfenbrenner, 1994) encompasses change or
consistency over time not only in the characteristics of the person but also of
the environment in which the person lives (e.g. changes over the life course in
family structure, socioeconomic status, employment, place of residence, or the
degree of hecticness and ability in everyday life).

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Bronfenbrenner (1995);
Bronfenbrenner and Ceci (1994)
• P1: Especially in its early phases, and to a great extent throughout
the life course, human development takes place through the
processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction
between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and
the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external
environment. To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly
regular basis over extended periods of time. Such enduring forms of
interaction in the immediate environment are referred to as
proximal processes. Examples of enduring patterns of proximal
process are found in parent-child and child-child activities, group or
solitary play, reading, learning new skills, studying, athletic
activities, and performing complex tasks (p. 620)
• P2: The form, power, content, and direction of the proximal
processes affecting development vary systematically as a joint
function of the biopsychological characteristics of the developing
person; of the environment, both immediate and more remote, in
which the processes are taking place; and the nature of the
developmental outcomes under consideration. (p. 621)

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The state of the art
• Literature review
– Selection criteria
• ABS 2010 3* Journals
– Studies in higher education
– British Educational Research Journal
– Academy of Management, Learning and Education
– Inclusion criteria
• Published between 1996 and 2016
• Presents findings in relation to the factors affecting acaemic
attainment or success or performance rather than retention
or completion
• Presents a clearly described research method
• Carried out in a higher education setting
– n = 35
– Analysed with reference to Bronfenbrenner’s original work

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The state of the art
• Most studies focusing on the individual
• Many studies focusing on the microsystem
• Hardly any studies looking beyond that
• Most studies focusing on a single factor or maybe two
• Very little variation in research methods used
• Very little focus on the dynamics of relations over time
• Heavy reliance on quantitative data and large data sets
• Some engagement with student perception

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Research objective and preliminary
framework
To investigate the dynamic interplay between proximal processes in higher education

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Research design
• Unobtrustive measures
– Phase One
• Introductory maths class 2013/14, n = 150
• CAO points and country of origin
• Engagement processes
– Lecture attendance (organised by LO)
– Workshop attendance (voluntary)
– Support centre attendance
– Online video consumption (organised by LO)
• Attainment processes
– Continuous assessment completions
– Final exam mark
– Phase Two
• Found sources regarding effort
• Attribute time pressure to factors at the level of the meso-
and exosystems

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Findings
Phase One
• There are definite types of engagement patterns
– Those who participate fully
– Those with a strong preference one way or another
– Those whose engagement is problematic
• But, things change over time
– Student video consumption is a regular repeating pattern linked
to assessments
– Student lecture attendance definitely tails off over time and isn’t
linked to assessment timeline though it does heavily influence
attainment
• Time management capability is interesting: the strongest students
engage with videos much earlier than weaker students
• There are definite differences in engagement patterns according to
gender and possibly prior knowledge but how this plays out in
interim attainment and overall attainment is interesting

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Findings
Phase Two
• A variety of factors impact upon students’ capacity to engage in
higher education both in terms of the mesosystem and also the
exosystem
– From the student perspective...
• Financial pressure
• Family committments
• Tools and technologies
– From the instructor perspective…
• Resource availability
• Workload and working conditions, ‘stretch’
• Grading practices and conventions including inflation

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Discussion and conclusion
• The bioecological systems perspective presents a
powerful interpretive lens through which to
understand academic achievement in the context
of higher education
• An application of this lens to existing literature
suggests that many factors influencing academic
achievement have not yet to date been examined
• This study begins to unpack the implications of
the chronosystem for academic achievement and
in particular, the impact – and unintended
consequences - of learning technologies on
academic achievement

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QUESTIONS?