Abstract:
The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the characteristics of the participants
who competed on a competitive team at the collegiate level and (2) to identify any differences between
participants and non-participants of a competitive team at the collegiate level. The population of this
study was traditional freshmen in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
enrolled in the fall semester of 2007 at Texas Tech University. The sample consisted of two groups. The
first group, participants, consisted of students who participated on a competitive team during their first
year of college. The second group, non-participants, consisted of students who did not participate on a
competitive team. A panel of academic experts used the Student Services Center to find criteria that could
match non-participants to participants in an attempt to control for extraneous variables. The extraneous
variables included gender, ACT score or equivalent, and academic major. The sample for this study
consisted of (N=28) traditional freshmen students. Data was collected at the end of the year from the 28
students surveyed. The results showed that several variables were related to student perceptions and
academic success. Further research is recommended to determine to what extent these variables are
related. The results from this research can be used to model what impacts a freshman student's perceptions
have on first-year academic success.
Keywords:
freshmen, competitive team participation
 Burris_September_2010_NACTA_JOURNAL-9.pdf | [ ] | 130 kB |
