Free Paper Sample: What Is the Effect of Internal Assets on Academic Success?

This research will seek to explore and provide more elaboration on the impacts that internal assets have on academic success. Internal assets are the elements which focus on the individual qualities that help one to develop positive choices as well as a sense of confidence, purpose, and passion (Furlong et al. 2009). According to Kettunen (2015), academic success refers to the extent to which an individual has gone towards the achievement of educational goals. This research design for this study is quantitative and will include a sample size of 200 respondents and will explore the following components, the definition of the problem, the statement of purpose, background of the study, literature review, hypothesis of the research and hypothesis testing. These assets are the bases for several Character education programs and therefore determines

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Background and Problem Definition

The research will be relevant to the students as it will explain why failure to use internal assets causes their failure in academics (Furlong et al. 2009). Academic failure increases the level of juvenile delinquency within the society. This has resulted in approximately $15 billion in community economic losses as well as $179 billion in government expenditures. This is because crime committed by academic failures requires police protection and application of legal activities which is too expensive. Notably, 43% of American families live in poverty since they did not perform better in academic studies. This is because they have limited opportunity for employment and mostly this is evident among the Latin Americans. Failure in academic is costly to families since they have to engage in hard labor with low. Finally, schools that record low academic achievements have reported a significant loss of resource utilization by 3 to 4 % annually (Stevens & Wilkerson, 2010). This loss can be translated to accrue to $1.2 million per every academic year. Such losses result from the significant decline of the enrolment rate in those schools. Basically, those are the effects and cost of academic failures for the four variables.

Purpose

The main aim of this research is to identify the relationship between internal assents and academic success. More importantly, we will seek to come up with the major factors that lead to academic failure. Al-Hossain and Sofian (2015) established that many children fail since they hardly embrace internal assets. It has further been established that those who succeed in their academics have embraced various internal assets (Simoes et al. 2010). In this regard, the community has a significant role regarding the success of the children, as the background helps the children to develop a positive or a negative attitude towards the internal assets (Yegidis et, al. 2012). The economic background might lead to academic failure because children from poor background will have low self-esteem as well as negative attitudes. Also, the economic background might affect the children academic performance because they might not have the funds to pay so that they can access various internal assets that will improve their academic success. (Benson et, al. 2011) established that the developmental assets offer grounded opportunities towards promoting academic success. The independent variable in this research is the internal assets while the dependable variable is the academic success.

Relevance

The findings of this research will inform development intervention programs such as tutoring, policies as well as curriculum. By using qualitative research, analytical realism can be established through interpretative materials (Denzin & Lincoln 2011). The research will be relevant to the students as it will explain why failure to use internal assets causes them to fail in their academics. For example, Alvarado and Ricard (2013) established that youth who do not do well require thriving. Therefore, the findings of the research will show the impact on the profession of social work in that the findings will be used to improve the development programs so that academic failure can be avoided. Benson, Leffert, Scales, and Blyth (2012) noted that the community has a critical role in child development. In this regard, the findings will help the members of the social work profession to understand the internal assets that lack in the community. This approach will help them to come up with ways that will motivate the learners to use these internal assets to improve their success. Additionally, the internal assets will be developed which will be used by the learners in their studies to improve their academic performance.

Literature Review

Results of Other Studies

The following are some of the internal assets that affect the academic environment:

Social competency

Research has it that socially rejected children are said to be academic failures. It is in this aspect that one tends to argue that social behaviors are the primary predict academic success. It should be pointed out that Christensen et,al. (2011) emphasizes the use of theory to understand psychological research which is an important aspect in social science (Rovai et, al. 2013) to achieve study goal. However, it is also established that it is important for researchers to understand the research aspects and process from the beginning. In this regard, some interpersonal aspects such as problem-solving capabilities, social goal setting, as well as the feeling of trust and societal support are branded as some of the predictors that link learners to intellectual competence. Social competency is the ability for learners to interact with one another within their learning system. This ensures an effective flow of information from one learner to the other as well as educational stakeholders.

Coping skills

According to Bahari et, al. (2012), student's ought to cope with stress which is common to them, mainly caused by environment and workload they have. Although different student's experience different levels of stress, their coping skills impact on their overall academic success. Individuals who can cope with the academic situations and endure to the fullest have always recorded higher performance in their studies. It is in this aspect that one tends to argue that coping strategies or skills are closely associated with academic excellence among learners. Indeed, these are some of the internal assets that educational facilities, as well as learners, should consider to achieve better grades in schools. This implies that coping skills make it possible for learners to gain confidence and adopt every kind of learning environment. This boost their level of self-esteem a factor that ensures high performance is achieved in academics (Bahari et, al. 2012). If student's cope with personal stressors in the schools by using various coping strategies, then they reduce the frequency of the stressors thereby improving their academic performance.

Commitment to learning

Commitment to learning is another key indicator of academic achievement and grade improvement. This is a dependent variable in the sector of education and any field related to positive performance. This variable calls for extra role behavior geared towards supporting the core activities within the educational sector (Fry et, al. 2012). It must be understood that students should be committed to learning to achieve better grades in their studies. Commitment to learning is a variable that every learner should embrace. It closely correlates to individual's self-esteem and efficacy towards learning a given topic or study.

Indeed, commitment to learning is an internal asset that is spearheaded by teachers. In school teachers are the role models of learners and they should always attract learners to be committed towards their academic performance and activities. A situation where teachers are not committed to getting better grades will result in low academic performance. According to Fry et al. (2012), this is because learners may lack extrinsic motivation from their role models hence tend to put fewer efforts in academics. It is in this aspect that one tends to argue that committed teachers will always make learners committed and hence better grades will be witnessed. Besides, Sek-yum Ngai and Cheung (2009) noted that parents are important contributors to the child's development.

There is much effect on academic success resulting from three indicators that are social competency, coping skills and commitment to learning. According to Yegidis et al. (2012), learning institutions, as well as the stakeholders, should take precautions of the indicators if higher grades should be witnessed in the educational sector. Learners on their side are also advised to employ good or desirable behavior to compete fairly in the academic arena. The three indicators are the core internal assets to academic success, and they must be embraced for any goal-oriented learning institution.

Academic success is one of the most critical issues that every person aims to achieve. The education process has to be diligently conducted so that success can be realized (Madsen, Hicks, &Thompson 2011). Furthermore, there are various issues which can contribute to success within the education sectors (Yegidis et al. 2012). One of these elements is the internal assets that are available within an institution. When there is embracement of internal assets, the academic success might go up (Lunenburg 2011). The first element that relates to internal assets is the commitment to teach.

Theoretical Framework

Name of the theory you chosen

The theory of achievement goal is going to be used for this research.

Who developed the theory?

Nicholls, John. G work on achievement motivation developed this theory (Dweck, 1986). Dweck and Leggett (1988) also collaborated on helping further the research behind the theory.

How the theory describes, explain and predict the relationship between the variables shown in the conceptual framework

This theory relates to how someone may evaluate their competence based on social capabilities that in turn result in positive changes in someone life (Dweck & Leggett 1988). Such changes are usually characterized by the level to which an individual is successful within the society. In this aspect achieving goal, theory tends to relate the internal assets as well as the academic achievement of learners. Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, and Ormston (2013) and Tracy (2012) noted that it is important to explore the challenges of theoretical, qualitative research for the success of the study. This theory was initiated to give clarity as far as students adaptive and maladaptive responses to achievement challenges are concerned. This is the reason as to why achievement goal theory tends to shed light on how the perceived internal assets like social competency, coping skills and commitment to learning effects and impacts academic achievement. In as much as achievement goal theory is geared towards analyzing adaptive and maladaptive responses to achievement challenges, it can also be affected by certain internal assets as far as academic achievement is concerned. For instance, in every learning institution, teachers are the core providers of knowledge, and they instill wisdom needed for one to be successful academically. In this regard, the theory will enable qualitative analysis which allows multiple examinations to provide multiple answers (Bernard & Bernard, 2012; Neuman, 2013).