Student Performance in Business Class Given That Case Study

Student Performance in Business Class

Given that all students in a given business class are exposed to the same professor and the same course materials, one might expect them to perform similarly. However, there is a broad range in how students perform in business classes. The purpose of this research study is to determine which variables impact student performance in business class.

I have formulated several hypotheses about student performance in business class. In this section, I will list my hypothesis, as well as my supporting reasons for the hypothesis.

H1: Female students perform better than male students.

My reason for this hypothesis is that my casual observations have supported the idea that female students appear to care more about their classes and attend more lessons.

H2: Proficient English speakers perform better than ESL students.

My reason for this hypothesis is that the better a student's English skills, the greater the student's ability to participate in class. There is an extensive amount of research about cultural study habits and their impact on student performance, so it is important to realize that English speaking may be linked to performance, but probably will not be determinative of performance (Fuchs & Wobmann 2007).

H3: A student's college background will influence school performance.

I believe that a student's undergraduate school will impact performance in business classes because different undergraduate institutions have different learning cultures.

H4: The greater a student's motivation, the better the student's performance in class.

I believe that students who find their business classes interesting and are motivated to learn are more likely to perform well in the class.

H5: Students perform better when instructors seek to actively engage the students.

Students will be more motivated and likely to perform better when the instructor is seeking to actively involve them in the class. This has been established by researchers for both in-person and online learning environments (Picciano 2002).

H6: Students will perform better when the course involves group assignments.I believe that the group learning dynamic helps engage students, which increases motivation. Therefore, any activity that is geared towards group participation, from group discussions to group projects, is likely to increase student performance.

H7: Student performance will be positively correlated with lecture attendance.

I believe that students who attend more lectures will perform better in their classes.

H8: I believe that students experiencing moderate stress are likely to perform better than students who do not report experiencing stress and students who report feeling high levels of stress.

I do not believe that stress negatively impacts performance, but that stress can have a positive impact by enforcing positive behaviors. The positive impact of low-level stress is supported by Chemers et al. (2001). However, if a student experiences too much stress, I think that would negatively impact class performance.

Methods

In order to test my hypothesis, I developed a series of 15 questions and administered the questionnaire to a class of business students consisting of 14 males and 20 females. The questionnaire was a forced-choice questionnaire, making students choose between a limited number of choices for each question.

Questionnaire and Results

1. Gender?

Male: 14 Female:20

2. GPA?

2-2.5: 4 M. 4 F. 2.6-3: 9 M. 4 F. 3.1-3.5: 1 M. 9 F. 3.6-4: 3 F

3. Grade at last level in English?

A / B+ / B / C+ / C / D or below

A: 3M 4F B+: 4M 2F B: 2M 4F C+: 6F C: 3M 1 FD or below: 2M 3F

4. Score in ESP2 (measures communication skills)?

100-90: 6M 9F 89-80: 8M 9F 79-70: 2F 69-60: 0

5. Am not doing well in some subjects if:

a. Friends who are your classmates in that subject; because they influence your presence and your attention to the lecture

Strongly Agree: 0 Agree: 5M 4F Neutral: 5M 3F Disagree: 3M 8F Strongly Disagree: 1M 5F

b. Not interested to learn

Strongly.....