College Students: Achieving Academic Goals Through Heuristics Psychology - Research Paper

Introduction

Educational psychology generates different factors that influence academic achievement among college students. The primary domain of psychology is heuristics psychology that describes generic relations between learning and instructional designs. It is the psychology of how mind operates by discovering more about self-regulated and metacognition learning. Thus, psychology demonstrates how learners selectively apply and change due to heuristics effects. The heuristic domain is known as the psychology of how learners decide to learn. It is essential to distinguish different psychology domains; thus, there is a need to apply different approaches to understand psychology on college student's performance.

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The structure of the human mind and the memory system is the main foundation that determines the rationale for the learning process. It comprises short-term and long-term memory that is the primary mechanism for learning. The way the memory work is the conscious component that is responsible for receiving and processing collected information that performs various tasks and aid in solving different problems (Riciputi & Erdal, 2017). They also help in handling new knowledge, new responsibilities, and new difficulties. Therefore, learning occurs when the information is successfully transferred from the operating memory and stored in long-term memory.

There is a framework that accommodates the roles of discovery and explicit approaches in the human mind, for instance, the gradual release of responsibility, balanced instruction, and enhanced discovery learning. The load instruction explicitly emphasizes the need to manage or reduce the cognitive burden on college students in the process of learning (Schuh, 2019). The critical concern with the working memory is its limitations. Such limitations lead to challenges to educators more so when teaching or introducing different materials. Working memory is limited to seven or fewer elements that can be lost within the time limit of thirty seconds only if it is rehearsed several times.

There are primary functions of working memory within the classroom. The features include processing information on books or novels and unfamiliar information that may come due to listening, observing, or reading. The working memory limits are too relevant at different levels in the learning process. Therefore, understanding specific information develops the foundation for the perfect ordering and balancing of the explicit instruction and guides the learning process (McConville, McAleer, & Hahne, 2017). Impairment in the functions of working memory is the main reason why college students with executive functioning difficulties experience problems in education.

Students' performance involves retrieving information that is stored in long term memory and applying them to different tasks. If the working memory is too much loaded, then the instructional content is not understood. Moreover, the information is confused, misinterpreted, and not entirely sent to long-term memory. Data is delivered as instruction and learning tasks, not necessarily burdening working memory. There are several differences between the components of metacognition among different researchers (Schuh, 2019). The researchers indicate that it contains two dimensions, metacognitive regulation, and metacognitive knowledge. Also, the two aspects operationalized into monitoring and regulatory functions.

The students who possess well developed metacognitive knowledge and managerial skills, and applies their metacognition will always excel academically. The influential decisive role of metacognition in academic achievement and learning in different domains such as mathematics, reading competence, music, problem-solving, and better performance in class is vital for student performance. These are knowledge and experiences or goals and activation of strategies (Riciputi & Erdal, 2017). Thus, it is essential to identify these factors that correlate to academic achievement.

The way teachers judge students should be accurate. It is vital to research the accuracy in judgment focus on different students' features that are relevant in education, such as academic achievement, cognitive ability, learning motivation, and anxiety test. Various studies analyze the determinants in academic performance; they include significant factors that hinder student's learning and achievement in school (Schuh, 2019). Some researchers assume that past student performance determines future performance and grades.

The first year in college is the determinant for the future success of the students and persistence in performance. Therefore, the understanding and management of the student's behaviors need a systematic approach that brings attention to the interaction between personality and coping style. Goal achievement is a mental framework within every student that determines student achievement behavior in any academic setting (Behzadnia, Adachi, Deci & Mohammadzadeh, 2018). Learners do orient in the process of learning. It is essential to understand how the students behave in a learning situation and academic goal achievement.

According to the researchers in the field of psychology, the students who engage in learning situation have three fundamental questions to answer. The students need to know why they are performing such academic activities and the reasons for such events. Moreover, the student needs to know what to achieve by the end of the studies. All these expectations rely upon the capability of the learners to perform certain activities related to academics (Schuh, 2019). Conversely, self-efficacy is the judgment of students' capacity to organize themselves and execute courses of action needed to gain a specific type of performance. It, therefore, affects the student's choice, efforts, and persistence to perform academic activities.

Students often judge their intellectual capabilities concerning the school values and curriculum demands before deciding to persist in the course or not-one of the most powerful predictors of students' performance in the self-efficacy. Among many college students, self-efficacy is directly related to every students' performance, commitment, judgment, and health within the school environment. However, many motivated students involved in different activities because they enjoy working on such tasks, they learn because of curiosity on the delivered content, and they are challenged with the same learning activities.

Motivation is positively related to the student's performance and their perception of education. Similarly, when students are motivated, they engage in different activities that will positively impact their performance. It is essential to understand the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (Schuh, 2019). At the beginning of learning, the students may be low in intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation makes the students attend the lectures and finish the course program.

The researchers have focused on the metacognition and work upon psychology and education to bridge links between practice and theory. Moreover, there is enough evidence that some disfluency at the time of learning improves performance during the test. Having focus on three topics in educational psychology, for instance, metacognition in knowledge, belief information that is crucial in aspect in the field of epistemic cognition and affect. All these relate to different research on emotion within the classrooms. Nevertheless, motivating students lead to gaining of better skills through learning behavior and learning experiences, the significance of controlling student's motivation, and learning process. To successfully self-regulate students, it requires the use of metacognitive, cognitive, and motivational activities when the students are learning.

References

Behzadnia, B., Adachi, P. J., Deci, E. L., & Mohammadzadeh, H. (2018). Associations between students' perceptions of physical education teachers' interpersonal styles and students' wellness, knowledge, performance, and intentions to persist at physical activity: A self-determination theory approach. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 39, 10-19.

McConville, J., McAleer, R., & Hahne, A. (2017). Mindfulness training for health professional students-the effect of mindfulness training on psychological well-being, learning, and clinical performance of health professional students: a systematic review of randomized and non-randomized controlled trials. Explore, 13(1), 26-45.

Riciputi, S., & Erdal, K. (2017). The effect of stereotype threat on student-athlete math performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 32, 54-57. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.06.003

Schuh, J. H. (2019). Student Success in College. Psychology. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0234