2nd International Conference on New Learning Technologies : Classroom 2000 and FACILE information day, Monday and Tuesday 30.-31. August 1999

The proposed paper aims to investigate the longitudinal development of students' motivation over the first year of their studies at a business school by using latent growth curve modeling. The study tackles the following core research questions: How do first-year university students' intrinsic and extrinsic vary over time? Which (motivational) factors are related to students' motivational development? Although motivational dispositions have been analyzed extensively in previous studies, their longitudinal development has hitherto not been examined in the higher education context. This longitudinal study is conducted at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The current sample includes 280 first-year students who have been surveyed three times and who are representative of the first-year student population. Descriptive results show that prior to their studies, students were motivated most by intrinsic factors, however, extrinsic motivation was also quite high. Employing latent growth curve modeling, it could be shown that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation decline significantly over the course of the first year (8 months). The study contributes to motivation theory by providing further insights into the development of academic motivation over time. Latent growth curve modeling as a method can be well used for longitudinal data analysis, thus, excluding measurement error from longitudinal data. Furthermore, the study supports educational developers by determining factors influencing students' motivational development.

A highly selective first study phase in many Swiss study programs leads to a rather competitive climate among students. However, the atmosphere at the university is an important factor for students' transition into Higher Education. An important question in this context is whether students' are equipped with different dispositions influencing how they cope with this transition. Other research has already shown that different groups of students can be identified regarding their student behavior. Yet, so far little is known about patterns of variables characterizing students, transitioning successfully. The paper takes advantage of a person-centered approach, i.e. the latent-class analysis, which makes it possible to identify groups of individuals, sharing common attributes. The research was conducted as a longitudinal study during their first year at a Swiss university. The return rate was about 67%, with 820 utilizable questionnaires at t1. Based on the analysis of students' anxiety, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, three distinct classes of students could be identified. The first class can be called the "highly motivated and self-confident" students. The second class is characterized by the same pattern, however, on a more intermediate level and the last class can be described as the "least motivated and most anxious" group of students. This study contributes to research and theory on students' transition into higher education and could be a first hint that students' experiences of this transition can vary substantially.

The first year of studying has been extensively researched in order to better understand the transition into Higher Education (HE) as well as the phenomena of student performance, retention, and drop out. Although research points to the importance of the socio-cultural dimension of first-year experiences, surprisingly little is known about the actual processes through which students integrate into the socio-cultural context of HE. To address this research gap, an interview study was conducted with 15 first-year university students. The analysis revealed distinctive transition processes into HE that were developed into a typology with four transition types. Interestingly, students who tended to be more critically reflective about their studies were in danger of having a rougher transition than less critically reflective counterparts. For the former, it is essential to develop social relationships that tie them to their studies while the latter manage study-related challenges by simply working through them.