Academic Achievement

Excerpt taken from my research proposal, pages 112-117.

*Minor adjustments have been made for formatting and readability purposes.

Academic achievement: Academic achievement is usually calculated by grades and test scores and is based on the academic goals of students, teachers, and educational institutions (Flair, 2024).

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Various socioeconomic (SES) factors and students’ perceptions of equitable access to higher education influence individuals’ decisions to pursue a postsecondary degree. Similarly, there are a variety of factors which impact the academic achievement (AA) of students who seek degrees or professional certifications at higher education institutions. To begin, it is important to identify how AA has been measured.

Whereas Kebritchi et al. (2025) determined student success to be based on completing a degree, experiencing professional advancement, developing relationships with faculty, cultivating technical and social skills, and growing their social support systems, other researchers simply based students’ AA on their GPAs (Akram & Suneel, 2023; Castro et al., 2024; Mohamed et al., 2023).

For instance, GPA was used by Wilson et al. (2022) as a predictor of academic success at the postsecondary level in a study of first-year undergraduate students in Canada and also by Rentz et al. (2021), who determined that students who graduated from Palau High School with higher GPAs had better academic outcomes when attending PCC. Regardless of how it is measured, AA is dependent on both internal and external elements which I will explain in greater detail in the following paragraphs.

Educational institutions play a significant role in the AA of students at the postsecondary level. In a thorough examination of women attending higher education institutions in Ethiopia, Wakuma et al. (2024) found a multitude of factors involving the individual and their families, institutions, and instructors to be directly related to AA. For example, a lack of parental involvement and not having access to a guidance counselor in high school was found to negatively impact students’ AA, especially in underrepresented groups (Olivarez et al., 2024).

On the other hand, when institutions promoted culturally responsive and inclusive teaching methods, facilitated by strong faculty-student relationships and high-context communication practices, underrepresented populations experienced higher levels of academic success (Rojas-Alfaro & Enriquez, 2025). According to Moreu and Brauer (2022), inclusive teaching practices promote the academic success of marginalized students who experience achievement gaps because of structural inequalities related to race, gender, sexuality, SES, and primary school abilities.

Institutions and classroom instruction in higher education determine whether students feel supported or feel dependent on support and accounting for diversities in SES and institutional backgrounds promotes AA (Leenknecht et al., 2020; Xie et al., 2022). When schools focus on inclusivity and empowerment, even disadvantaged students can experience AA.

Gender inequity is a significant hinderance to the academic achievement of women. For example, university students who were survivors of GBV experienced difficulties meeting deadlines and academic expectations (Coffey et al., 2023). Furthermore, Mohamed et al. (2023) found being a younger male, from a high-income family was positively associated with postsecondary success. And in a study of maternal education in Bangladesh, data from 2004 to 2018 showed women’s level of academic completion was proven to be negatively associated with their partner’s level of academic completion (Das et al., 2022). In other words, the more educated their partner was, the less likely they were to pursue higher education.

To address gender disparities in education, Visser et al. (2021) studied the effects of a community-wide intervention aimed to change perceptions of gender roles and to promote support for female education in primary schools in Ethiopia. The authors reported improved attitudes towards females in the classroom as well as an increase in self-esteem scores and educational ambitions for girls in the program.

Adult female students have been shown to be resilient and determined in their academic pursuits. Researchershave found while women face structural socioeconomic and cultural deterrents to AA in higher education, they also benefit from innate characteristics which help them overcome those obstacles (Britwum et al., 2024; Coffey et al., 2023; Wilson et al., 2022). For instance, in Castro et al.’s (2024) study of Chilean university students, a lack of financing and other variables affecting low-SES households created disadvantages for women that negatively impacted their performance however, women utilized their personal attributes and individual strengths to achieve greater academic success than their male cohorts. This was further supported by Akram and Suneel (2023) who found in a study of Pakistani college students that while females were less confident than males, they were more committed to achieving high grades.

In addition, while Zhou et al. (2022) found academic success to be dependent on both cognitive skills and noncognitive attributes, Britwum et al. (2024) studied five-hundred college student in Ghana and found that although gender and age did not have a significant interaction with AA, females were found to demonstrate higher emotional intelligence than males. Moreover, Wilson et al. (2022) reported that while various factors related to emotional intelligence were correlated with student’s success, female students were more likely to complete higher education programs on time.

In today’s academic environments, technology has emerged as a key component of AA. For example, the results of ALrasheedy et al.’s (2025) study of university students in humanity sciences indicated a notable improvement in students’ motivation to succeed academically when blended learning techniques were used in the classroom. In India, undergraduate students demonstrated positive attitudes towards online learning, citing an appreciation for the flexibility, convenience, and personalized learning opportunities it provided (Saikia et al., 2024). Additionally, microlearning technology encourages greater student engagement and motivation to learn, which consequently improves academic outcomes (Hlazunova et al., 2024).

Furthermore, web-based mobile augmented reality (AR) has been found to be a valid option for providing equitable access to innovative education methods regardless of SES, and even in countries with primitive learning technologies (Moro et al., 2023). Gil Parga et al. (2024) also agreed that AR provides greater accessibility to learning and increases academic performance however, the researchers noted how AR technologies were most effective when used for student training in potential workplace scenarios. Together, these studies demonstrate how important it is for students in virtual classrooms to be engaged with their coursework and feel motivated to participate in the learning process.

Technology can contribute to the successes of students and instructors alike. In South Africa, when a lack of resources and family support negatively affect the performance of young female students in distance learning institutions, Chauke and Dlamini (2024) found community hubs with working computers that have consistent and stable internet access, are key in enabling female students and promoting their AA. Technology also played a key role in coaching primary school teachers while building their instructional leadership skills in Palau (Kilcullen & Tabelual, 2024). The authors of this study found educators and administrators had the ability to learn from one another using video collaboration. This was especially effective because in-person visits had been previously limited because some schools were only accessible by boat. Ultimately, technology continues to redefine the possibilities of learning, connection, and AA across all levels of education.

Although many researchers studying AA utilized qualitative or mixed methodologies, there are a number of quantitative studies where researchers used regression analysis, employed questionnaires as data collection tools, and chose GPA to measure the AA of students. For example, Castro et al. (2024) used GPA as an academic outcome indicator and Mohamed et al. (2023) used GPA as a comparison between AA and students’ lifestyles. In other studies, Akram and Suneel (2023) and Wilson et al. (2022) used GPA in quantitative studies which employed questionnaires as the data collection tool and relied on the participants’ self-reported GPAs.

Similarly, Xie et al. (2022) and Zhou et al. (2022) used questionnaires with Likert-scale questions to collect self-reported data. And finally, Das et al. (2022), Wilson et al. (2022), and Zhou et al. (2022) all employed regression analysis in their studies of AA. These examples establish the use of GPA in quantitative studies and the application of regression analysis when studying the AA of a variety of students around the world.

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References

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Britwum, F., Owusu Amponsah, M., Kobina Effrim, P., & Aidoo, S. (2024). A two-way interaction effects of gender and age on emotional intelligence and academic achievement of students in the colleges of education in the Volta zone of Ghana. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.101074

Castro, C., Pavez, C., Contreras, F., & Morales, F. (2024). Academic performance of adult women in higher education: A case study at University of the Américas, Chile. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Educational Studies, 19(2), 249–272. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-011X/CGP/v19i02/249-272

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