Dr Johanna Nieuwoudt

A major concern for universities is to ensure that students do well and progress through their undergraduate degrees. But what can be done to help students be successful in their science studies? Research indicates that two aspects are worthy of further investigation within science courses. The first is related to attitudes and beliefs about science and the second related to components of self-regulation such as time management skills. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role students' attitudes toward science and time management skills may play in predicting their academic performance, as measured by the end of session grade in enabling and sub-degree science units. If academic success can be predicted by time management and/or attitudes toward science, then improvements in these factors may lead to an increase in final grades. The proposed research will make use of two survey tools to gauge students' attitudes and time management skills. Attitudes towards science will be assessed using the My Attitudes Towards Science instrument (MATS), with the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) used to assess time management.