The learning potential and problem solving skills of first-year university students have increased: achievement gaps mounting up to years among students

Abstract

There is a growing demand for easy-to-use assessment instruments moving beyond traditional performance tests describing the development of students’ cognitive development in higher education. Since dynamic problem solving skills are adequate measures of students’ learning potentials and the extent to which they are capable of applying recently acquired knowledge, it has become a potential assessment domain in an assessment system responding to the above mentioned demands launched in 2015 at the University of Szeged. The analysis encompassing results of a four-year research show that we managed to set up and run an objective and reliable assessment system that moves beyond traditional domains and provides immediate feedback on the developmental level of students’ learning potential and problem solving skills at the beginning of higher education. Results of a data collection involving nearly 7000 students show that first-year university students’ learning potential and problem solving skills have increased since 2015. Results also reveal that there are considerable differences among students mounting up to years in development. There are students whose average achievement corresponds to that of a primary school student. In 2018 data gained from the assessment of first-year students’ competencies yielded firm evidence for the fourth time that students’ final exam results are not reliable indicators of higher education aptitude. Additionally, the strength of correlational values between test scores and students’ final exam results at medium and advanced level varies. Students’ achievement at the different levels of the final exam cannot be compared and the level of knowledge characterized by the final exam changes year by year.