Globally, the number of university students engaged in employment has been rising consistently over the years. The growing pattern of working students has come under scrutiny, with some scholars indicating that the learners’ academic performance suffers due to the non-academic workloads. However, other people argue that both positive and negative connection between employment and educational accomplishments exists. Zhang et al. (2019) contend that the student’s age and their self-perception immensely influence the interplay between the grades and their working status. An interesting perspective in the article is the multi-dimensional effect of age and personal judgment on the students’ academic performance (Zhang et al., 2019). Although working imposes an additional burden on students and reduces the time available for studying, older students and optimistic learners effectively manage the imbalance and achieve better grades.
The student’s age and self-perception are major determiners for academic success, regardless of their working status. According to Zhang et al. (2019), learners aged above 31.5 years achieve better grades even when they are engaged in employment. It indicates that for the students above the age of 31.5 years, job engagements do not impact their education performance since they can effectively balance the dynamics of employment and studying. On the converse, there is a definite negative influence of working status on the academic accomplishments of the learners below 31.5 years. As a result, 31.5 years is a critically significant age threshold for employed learners (Zhang et al., 2019). Additionally, the student’s perception of their occupation’s effect on grades significantly influences their performance. Consequently, pessimistic students are highly likely to experience declining performance due to their working status. However, simple interventions such as encouraging more coursework can effectively overturn the perception and improve their grades. Therefore, student’s age and optimism are influential factors in their academic performance.
Conclusively, age and self-perception are critical factors which influence the academic performance of students. However, an interesting perspective is that the working status and age are not exclusive determiners of how well the students perform. Although the age of 31.5 years is a significant threshold, appropriate interventions can be implemented to enhance better educational outcomes for younger students. Additionally, appropriate strategies, such as encouraging the devotion of more hours in academics can also be initiated to mitigate the adverse impacts of pessimistic perceptions about employment and academic performance.
Reference
Zhang, G., Shao, C. Y., & Johnston, C. R. (2019). Working students and their academic performance – A decision tree analysis. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 19(7). Web.