Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Characteristics as Determinants of Success in Professional Courses at Undergraduate Stage

Abstract

Problem statement: Professional education is the principle means of the developing the human resource. Students who do not perform well in professional courses are not in any way better than those who do not have professional knowledge, because their chances of employment and efficient working are bleak. The present study attempted to examine success in different professional courses at undergraduate level in relation to cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. Approach: The sample of 450 students (girls and boys) was selected from medical, engineering, law, library science and teacher education of AMU Aligarh India. The population was taken to be reasonably homogenous from the socio economic point of view. It also caters students from the whole country. Suitable Psychological tests were administered on the subjects of the present study to obtain scores on cognitive (intelligence and creativity) and non-cognitive (personality characteristics and socio-economic status) variables. The final achievement scores (at the completion of their respective courses) of the students were considered to be criterion variable. Attempts were made to see that scores obtained satisfy the basic assumption of correlational techniques. Results: The engineering students were at the highest intellectual level while the group of medicine students stands second. The other groups, in descending order were library science and teacher education. Significant relationships between creativity with academic achievement irrespective of professional courses were studied. The personality factors such as-reservedness, impulsiveness, dominance, expediency, harshness and perseverance were found to be the best predictors of success in above professional courses. Socio-economic Status was measured in terms of scores and it was found that socio-economic status had a significant and positive correlation with successful achievement in the professional courses viz engineering, medicine, library science and teacher education. Conclusion: The efficiency of a person depended not only on education and training received by him/her but also on his/her cognitive as well as non-cognitive factors. These factors determined the attitude, interests and the degree of motivation of the students for professional studies.