Inherent factors that contribute to learners

Nuria Villalobos Ulate, M.A. Olga Chaves Carballo, Ph.D.

Inherent Factors that Contribute to BEI Learners’ Academic Success at UNA Introduction Academic success in higher education has been one of the most paramount concerns for college administrators, educators, and students through history. Worldwide, college learners’ pivotal goal is to attain their academic aims and graduate as the bestprofessionals. Therefore, one of the main objectives of higher education is to ensure student success by providing high quality in education, including higher levels of institutional commitment, satisfaction with faculty, encouragement and guidance. This kind of university culture

contributes to making learners actively involved in their learning, a key element for academic achievement. The aimof this paper is to analyze the factors that contribute to academic success for third and fourth level-students of the BEI at UNA.

I.

Context at UNA

Part of the mission of the ELCL1 is to contribute to the development of the country with the knowledge of areas such as linguistics, literature, second language teaching and translation. With this university commitment,

administrators andeducators should provide students with an adequate environment to allow them succeed in their academic work and professional life.

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Escuela de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje

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The Strategic Plan at the ELCL (Objective A.5. p.7, 2006) states the need to create a program of university life in order to take advantage of free time and which encourages students to commit to theiruniversity studies in order to prevent desertion. Another factor in this concern is professors’ influence in students’ professional life, and Element D (p. 8) of the Pedagogic Module of UNA establishes respect, tolerance and dialogue in the learners’ and professors’ relationship.

The BEI is also an accredited major from SINAES2 that certifies quality in the following components: curriculum, faculty,learners, administrative staff, infrastructure, and university services. The requirement to keep this accreditation is the constant improvement of all the constituents that help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.

UNA offers a humanistic curriculum that concentrates on the development of the students as creators of their own learning. In humanism, learning isstudent centered and personalized where affective and cognitive needs are met in order to develop self-actualized people in a cooperative, supportive environment. As well it promotes student-centered classrooms where learners have the opportunity to reinvent, participate freely and work on problem-solving and decision-making tasks.

In order to assure the students’ transformation into creative andcritical individuals, educators’ role include the responsibility to commit to their students. The quality of the education a learner receives is the excellence of professors.

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Sistema Nacional de Acreditación de la Educación Superior

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Teaching demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum and standards, enthusiasm, a caring attitude and a love for learning, knowledge ofdiscipline and classroom management techniques and a desire to make a difference in the lives of learners. According to Rosenthal (2006), great teachers should:

• Set high expectations for all students • Have clear, written-out objectives • Be prepared and organized • Engage students and get them to look at issues in a variety of ways • Form strong relationships with their students and show thatthey care about them as people • Be masters of their subject matter • Give constant praise Educators’ teaching makes an impact on students’ achievement with their art and science since they are the ones who inspire and engage students in the university life and its rewards. The known educator Freire (2005, p. 5) points out,

“It is a task that requires that those who commit themselves to...