Grit and atypical path: an empirical analysis on student behavior

Details

Supervisors

Hindriks, Jean

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

The success of students in the school system is an increasingly serious topic, and research is going further into the factors involved. It is crucial for public policy to know what can be done to encourage student success, both in terms of academic achievement and in terms of employment outcomes. To do this, we will explore the personality trait of Grit, introduced by Angela Duckworth et al (2007), and its endogenous factors. We will look at how information and communication technologies (ICT) impact Grit and the academic success. We will also carry out an empirical study on the success of students in the LECGE1312 course examination, under randomized control trial for 3 different periods, with the same questionnaire but different question orders. We will use descriptive and inferential statistics, such as ANOVA and simple linear regression, to check the impact of question order on success, and to highlight the resilience of the students. The results show that for the same questions and a symmetrical order, the average results are significantly different. This may indicate a certain perseverance and resilience level, grit's main factors, from some students during the examination. However, the results were not always consistent across samples, and it was not possible to demonstrate longer-term and further correlations of Grit.