The prediction of academic success of aeronautical engineering students from Jungian personality type differences, reading ability, and attitudes toward study.

摘要

The basic consideration of this study was to attempt to identify predictors of persistence for six hundred two aeronautical engineering (AE) students at Parks College of Saint Louis University between the years 1981 and 1990. This problem was pursued through analyzing the incoming AE students' learning styles, and reading ability and study motivation levels. The intent was to explore how students' psychological type, reading comprehension, and study attitudes might relate to their persistence in the Aeronautical Engineering program. Data for this study were obtained from the Freshman Orientation Testing Program results on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, and the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes.;The assumption underlying this study is that predictors of persistence for AE students who graduate are different from those students who do not persist. Spady's, Tinto's, and Bean's models of college student persistence were reviewed.;The sample of AE students was found to prefer an introverted orientation and demonstrated preferences for perceiving through intuition, making judgments based on thinking, and ordering their environment. None of these differences was significant when comparing the two groups. Results of reading ability demonstrated no significant differences between the two student groups. Results of study motivation demonstrated significant differences between the two groups' scores, whereby graduates scored higher. Based on all six variables, there was significant ability to discriminate between graduates and nongraduates; however, the association with group membership was weak. Factors beyond this model accounted for student persistence.;What happens to students once in college may be more important than their entering characteristics, although study motivation was a factor in academics integration. The information provided by the three assessments seem to present descriptive data that can be used early in a student's academic career to determine educational and developmental needs.