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The Effect of Psychological Capital on Academic Success of College Students Mediated Through Student Engagement
64-80Views:664Although psychological capital is theorized to enhance academic success of college students, there is a lack of sufficient empirical evidence supporting this claim. Given this gap, the present study was conducted to explore the role of psychological capital in academic success of college students, mediated through student engagement. Undergraduate and postgraduate diploma students (N=502) were selected using a convenience sampling technique. The participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing their psychological capital, student engagement, and academic success. To determine the statistical significance of the prediction, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. PROCESS macro for SPSS was utilized for analyzing the mediation effect. Results obtained from the regression analyses revealed that psychological capital was positively and significantly related to both engagement and academic success. Notably, the mediation results also demonstrated that student engagement partially mediated the relationship between psychological capital and academic success. The results of the present study might contribute to the existing literature related to the importance of positive psychology in education by providing insight into the complicated relationship between psychological capital, student engagement, and academic success.
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A dimension of well-being among talented students – An empirical study at the University of Debrecen
87–100Views:14Talent management in higher education remains a key issue, as university students are inherently talented when pursuing academic studies. Beyond this, many students engage in extracurricular activities, reflecting deeper personal motivations. This examines participants' future career orientation in a university Talent Management Program by examining their life goals. While many students lack clear aims during their studies, we hypothesize that talented students show stronger self-acceptance, autonomy, and a commitment to continuous development and growth. The Ryff-18 questionnaire assessed students’ psychological well-being across six dimensions: self-acceptance, quality of relationships, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. The research is part of a longitudinal study, launched in the 2016/2017 academic year and repeated in 2023/2024, allowing for generational comparison between Generation Z and Millennials. All Talent Program students were invited to participate. In 2016/2017, 359 of 489 students responded (73.41%), and in 2023/2024, 201 of 671 (16.69%). Students rated “living day by day” highly in both years, and acquiring new experiences was low. Despite this, results indicate that participants are generally goal-oriented and prioritize long-term aims over novelty-seeking. These findings highlight consistent traits among talented students across generations.
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“Student success is not an individual achievement” – Motivation and teacher education in the digital age
133–142Views:6The motivation of student teachers is a key issue in contemporary teacher education, typically examined through psychological theories focusing on individual learning processes. This paper does not aim to provide a comprehensive literature review; instead, it offers a conceptual reflection that pays tribute to the work of Gabriella Pusztai, whose research highlights the social embeddedness of student achievement, integration, and persistence. Building on her approach, the study integrates psychological, pedagogical, and sociological perspectives to reinterpret motivation in pedagogical courses. It proposes a three-dimensional framework consisting of integration, relevance, and identity, emphasising that motivation is a context-dependent and dynamically changing phenomenon. The paper also examines how digital learning environments reshape motivational conditions by influencing autonomy, relatedness, engagement, and perceived relevance. The findings suggest that understanding student motivation requires moving beyond individual-level explanations and recognising the decisive role of relational, institutional, and technological contexts.
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The role of higher education socialization in shaping students' future-oriented work ethic
111–118Views:8Research on higher education clearly indicates that the institutional environment, as well as the relationships formed with faculty and peers, not only influence academic achievement and the risk of dropout, but also have a significant long-term effect on students' life trajectories, future outlook, future orientation, and even their decisions to remain in a given geographic location (Pusztai, 2011; Bess & Dee, 2012; Sütő, 2021; Sütő, 2025; Demeter-Karászi, 2025). This suggests that higher education institutions do not operate merely as knowledge-transfer organizations, but also as socializing environments that shape students' relationship with work, achievement, and long-term goals. The theoretical framework of our research is therefore grounded in approaches that interpret future-oriented work ethic not exclusively as an individual psychological trait, but as a phenomenon embedded in social relationships and institutional contexts (Berger, 2001; Kuh & Umbach, 2004). Our research seeks to answer what associations can be identified between the characteristics of the social and institutional environment of higher education institutions — in particular, institutional culture, relationships with faculty and peers, and institutional trust — and students' future-oriented work ethic. Our empirical data are drawn from the 2023–2024 survey of the MTA–DE Public Education Development Research Program, a large-scale international database comprising 1,336 respondents. The results indicate that trust-based relationships with both faculty and peers, as well as the perception of a transparent and fair institutional atmosphere, are significantly associated with higher levels of future-oriented work ethic, with perceived supportive institutional culture emerging as the strongest predictor (β = 0.252; p < 0.001). It is particularly noteworthy that the effect of institutional and relational factors persisted even after controlling for social background variables. Our findings thereby corroborate the theoretical stance that future-oriented work ethic is not solely derived from individual attributes, but can be understood as an orientation shaped during higher education socialization through institutional and social environments. This is an especially important finding in light of the growing heterogeneity of the student body, as it suggests that a supportive institutional culture may contribute to strengthening the future orientation and long-term academic success of students from diverse social backgrounds.
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The Effectiveness of Indigenous African Values in Building the Resilience of Out-Of-School Suspended Learners
Views:176This study explores the effectiveness of indigenous African values in building the resilience of suspended learners in South African township schools. Schools often impose suspensions in response to a wide range of behaviour challenges established by legislators and officials to address problems related to school interruptions. Nevertheless, despite the established disciplinary procedures, students still exhibit difficult behaviour. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of African Indigenous values in building the resilience of suspended learners. The study comes from larger research that focuses on the experiences of suspended learners in the context of township secondary schools. This research study is qualitative in nature to provide a rich description of the parents' experiences in their natural setting. I used a purposive sample of parents of suspended learners based on the characteristics of the population and the objective of the study. I collected data using face-to-face interviews, field notes, and documents. The collected data was organised, organized, prepared systematically, and classified into themes and categories. The findings showed that given the increasing number of suspended learners in township schools, parents and the school community recognised the need to understand the risk factors that contribute to behaviour problems as a stepping stone to building the resilience of adolescents.