Abstract:

Academic performance can be understood as the “level of knowledge in an area or subject of an individual, compared to the standard age and academic level” (Jiménez, 2000). The literature indicates several factors that can affect or influence the students’ academic performance. Generally, previous research has considered socioeconomic factors, the width of the curriculum, teaching methodologies used, the difficulty of using an individual education, previous knowledge and concepts of students and the level of formal thought (Edel, 2003). Therefore, we have to consider that academic performance is a phenomenon influenced by multiple internal and external factors.

The analysis of the individual’s personality as a key determinant of students’ academic performance has been a growing interest in the last decades. This studies have moved away from the almost exclusive role of the intelligence possessed by students (Nácher, 2002). Several current researches suggest that academic performance is not only associated with these intellectual factors, but “it is an effect of multiple adaptive, behavioural and psychopathological variables” (De Guzman, Calderón y Cassaretto, 2003).

The overall aim of our work is to analyse the effect of our students’ personal characteristics on the results obtained in the subject “Principles of Business Administration”. Thus, we analyse the effect of the individual’s internal control, the achievement and power need, the individual ability to take risks, its personal autonomy, the level of optimism and its ability for experimentation and innovation.
To carry out our empirical study, we have analysed the results obtained in a group of first year students in the Business Administration Degree at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. To this end, we have realized an ANOVA analysis to compare the academic performance among students who show high and low levels for each of the personal characteristics analysed.

The results show the heterogeneity in the effect of personal characteristics on the students’ overall academic performance. Thus, students who have high levels in their ability for experimentation and innovation and in their level of internal control, show a greater academic performance. However, regarding the other personal characteristics -the achievement and power need, the individual ability to take risks, its personal autonomy and the level of optimism- we have not obtained significant differences in the overall academic performance.

Finally, we have also observed differences in the relationship between personal characteristics and academic performance in terms of part of the academic performance assessment in which we have divided it: continuous assessment through several individual cases and group works, and an overall assessment through a final test of the subject content. Then, on one hand, we have noted students who have a higher achievement need and higher autonomy have obtained a better performance in continuous assessment practices. On the other hand, students who have a lower power need achieve a greater performance in continuous assessment. Finally, for the final test, those students with a higher ability for innovation and internal control, have showed a better performance in this test.

Keywords:

Academic performance, personal characteristics, European Higher Education Area.