Academic Competition at St. Francis Xavier University Presented by: Katie Smith Jennifer Dunn Justin Saddlemyer

Introduction Competition is rivalry between two or more persons or groups. This concept was applied to academics to test if this trait was present in secondary education academics Academic competition would exist among students at St. Francis Xavier

Previous Research In Perceived (Academic) Control and Causal thinking in Achievement Settings (Perry 2003), student drop out rate and performance were contrasted with perceived personal control Results demonstrate that a reduction in perceived personal control predict high drop out rates and decreases in performance

Discriminant Validity Discriminant Validity was measured using Managing envy and Jealousy (Dogan & Vecchio, 2001) This eight item scale measures whether a person experiences negative emotions or jealousy during work (school) Participants predisposed to jealousy should not display competitiveness, and therefore no relation should be found with academic competition

Convergent Validity Convergent validity was measured using The relationship between work experiences and job (school) involvement (Lorance & Mortimer, 1985) An eight item scale gauging job involvement, altered to represent school involvement Students who are involved in their work should also be concerned with the performance of their peers compared to themselves, and display academic competition

Academic Competition Scale Academic competition was assessed using a 15 item scale which included 7 reverse coded items 30 participants were surveyed “I feel that I should be in the top ten percentile of my classes” “I miss class sometimes”

Results For New Scale Academic Competition Reliability The reliability of our Academic competition scale is close to the critical value of.70. Highest Cronbach’s Alpha that could be obtained ( 7, 11, 15)

Items taken out of scale 7. “ I become agitated when I don’t understand a concept and other people do.” -Self esteem 11. “ I feel bad for others when their marks are low on assignments/exams” -Sympathy 15. “ I am often stressed over school work.” -Stress Factors

Results for School Involvement School Involvement Reliability Scale is close to the critical value of.70 Highest Cronbach’s alpha that could be obtained (5)

Items Deleted From School Involvement 5. “On most days of your classes, how often does time seem to drag for you?” -Attention

Convergent Validity School Involvement Our significance level is greater the 0.05, therefore School Involvement (Convergent Validity) is not significantly correlated with academic competition. Our Pearson’s Correlation is.339 or 34%.

Results For Jealousy Scale Jealousy Scale Jealousy scale is reliable as it exceeds the.70 critical value Highest Cronbach’s Alpha obtained without extraction of scale items.

Discriminant Validity Jealousy Scale Our significance level is greater then 0.05, therefore our Jealousy scale (Discriminant Validity) is not significantly correlated with academic competition. Our Pearson’s Correlation is.136 or 14%

Discussion The discriminant scale was proven correct, as no significant correlation was found between jealousy and academic competition However, there was also no significant correlation found between the convergent scale, school involvement, and the academic competition scale There was not sufficient evidence in our results to affirm academic competition at St. FX

Conclusions There were only five male participants of the 30 people surveyed, or 16 percent Bigger samples sizes would have produced more accurate results The adaptation of the Job Involvement scale into School Involvement may have had adverse effects on the results

Questions? Thank you for you time, and those who participated in the study.