Methodology and methods
Context of the study
The University of the West Indies is an autonomous regional university serving
17 English-speaking Caribbean countries and territories. The university has three
physical campuses located in Jamaica (Mona campus), Barbados (Cave Hill campus)
and Trinidad and Tobago, (St. Augustine campus) and one virtual campus, the
Open Campus. This study was carried out in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture
at the St. Augustine campus. The faculty has several departments, including the An analysis of some factors affecting student academic performance in 85
an introductory biochemistry course at the University of the West Indies
Department of Food Production which offers AGRI 1013 to first year students
majoring in general agriculture, environmental science, geography, chemistry and
human nutrition. Admission criteria into these majors varies widely, ranging from
diplomas in relevant disciplines, Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination
(CAPE), General Certificate in Education (GCE) Advanced level, Caribbean
Examinations Council (CXC), and associate degrees in relevant disciplines. The
AGRI 1013 course is a prerequisite to a number of second and third year courses,
meaning that a student who fails AGRI 1013 will find their choice of courses limited
in subsequent years and may be unable to graduate on time.
Population and sample
The target population for this study was all students taking the introductory
biochemistry (AGRI 1013) course in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, at
the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. According to the University’s
records of registered students, there were 165 registered students for the 2010/2011
academic year. The list of these students was downloaded from Banner® (a student
administration software) into an Excel file and used as a sampling frame from
which a random sample was drawn with a sampling fraction of 40%. Random
numbers between 0 and 1 were generated in the Excel file against the list of students
using the = RAND () function in Microsoft Excel 2010.
Data collection and analysis
The survey instrument was in two parts. The first part consisted of 18 questions
based on factors that influence academic performance. These factors included
students’ demographics, effort and attendance, entry qualifications, and high school
achievements. The second part of the instrument was the VARK® questionnaire
used to measure students’ learning preferences. A detailed description of the
VARK® approach to establishing learning preferences was given in the literature
review. Students’ learning preferences were initially classified into four groups:
visual, aural, read/write, and kinaesthetic. Upon completion of the VARK® the
group with the highest score was designated as the preferred learning style for each
respondent. Where two or more groups had equal scores, the learning preference
was classified as multimodal, which became the fifth group. The survey instrument
was pre-tested on a group of veterinary students that were not part of the study
for readability and clarity. Upon completion of the pre-test, a few statements were
reworded for clarity and readability. The survey instrument was handed out to the
66 randomly selected students during lecture and tutorial sessions during the last
two weeks of the semester. Students were informed in a cover letter accompanying
the survey instrument and also verbally, during class, that participation in the
survey was voluntary and that their anonymity was guaranteed. Students were
not required to supply identifying information on the survey instrument thus
guaranteeing anonymity. The objectives of the survey, as well as a note on how the
collected data would be used were also included in the cover letter and explained 86 Victor Mlambo
verbally. The students were allowed to carry the instrument away, complete it in
their own spare time and return the completed questionnaires using an unmanned
collection box. This collection procedure was designed to assure students that
declining to participate in the survey (i.e. failure to return questionnaire) would
not lead to victimisation by tutors and lecturers.