Prior Academic Achievements in Mathematics and English and University Academic Outcomes: A Case of a Business Teacher Education Programme in Jamaica
Tom M. Amonde and Stephen R. Wallder
Institute for Educational Administration & Leadership – Jamaica
Abstract
This paper utilises narrative description supported by Logit regression technique to evaluate the importance of prior academic achievements on student trainee teachers’ success in business education courses at a university in Jamaica. Its main contributions include an exploration of the nature of the relationship between the entry points and academic performance in university courses; an analysis of the importance of students’ high school (HS) Mathematics and English grades in predicting the probability of success of a student in the business teacher education programme and finally, an exploration of the predictive power of first year academic performance on the academic outcomes of years 2-4 courses. It has five main findings: first and second, HS Mathematics and HS English, respectively, strongly predict the success of a student in year one and years 2-4 business education courses; third, a combined HS Mathematics and English score strongly predicts the probability of student success in year one courses; fourth, academic performance in year one is powerful in predicting the probability of success of a student in year 2-4 courses and fifth, region (or location of school a student last attended) is statistically significant in predicting success of a student in year one courses. The first four findings suggest that prior academic achievements are important in the academic outcomes of trainee teachers at university level.
Keywords: Business teacher education; university academic performance; urban-rural academic attainment gap; Jamaica.
6AmondeWallder2015SEAugust2015
CC-BY-NC-ND
The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice 