远程开放教育英语专业学生辍学现象追踪调查(二)——本科辍学生课程注册与学业成绩报告

A Follow-up Study of the Dropouts from the English Program of Open and Distance Learning

对远程开放教育辍学给予关注，将提高远程教育机构的办学效益，也将帮助更多的远程学习者完成学业，更好地实现教育公平的社会目标。2010－2012年，研究者所在课题组对中国广播电视大学系统14所省级电大英语专业2010年春季入学的新生开展了连续三学期的辍学追踪调查。第一期研究成果揭示了远程开放教育英语专业学生学习半年后发生的辍学现象及其影响因素。本文是第二期研究成果，即本科辍学生课程注册与学业成绩报告。研究结果显示，第一学期，在学生对英语本科专业课程学习难度缺少充分了解的情况下，学生往往不能合理地控制选修的课程门数，多数倾向于注册多门专业课程;课业负担重，加之英语专业本身的学习难度大，部分学生的专科专业是非英语专业，学生提前选修某些后续学期开设的课程则进一步提高了学习难度，多种不利因素叠加，学生专业课考试易失利而引发辍学。有考试失利，但整体课程通过率稍高、基础也相对较好的学生坚持进入第二学期，专业学习难度随学期自然攀升，此时，如果学生没有适时地调整、减少注册课程门数，没有停止选修本应在后续学期学习的难度较高的课程，学生的不利处境在累加和加剧。当学生学期末发现不及格课程数又有所增加，课程通过率相比第一学期降低，整体学业成绩不但没有改善反而更加不利时，则容易引发在第二学期辍学。部分心中仍怀揣希望的学生坚持注册了第三学期的课程，但在该学期，课程不及格的消极影响进一步蔓延扩大，学生终于无望进而辍学。本研究的启示是，远程教育机构应加强专业教师对学生的课程注册指导，包括控制第一学期选课数量，对专科为非英语专业的学生提供个性指导，按课程的先修后续关系进行选课，后续学期选课应考虑前几个学期的学业状况等。

The significance of studying the dropouts in open and distance learning(ODL) is two-fold: to increase the operational benefits of distance education institutions and to help more ODL students complete their program successfully. This study started in the spring semester of 2010 and lasted three semesters. The subjects are from English major students in 14 provincial open universities in China. The first research report analyzed the reasons behind the dropouts' unsatisfactory learning experiences. This paper is the second research report, which aims to take a close look at the course registration and academic performance of the dropouts. The results showed that the unreasonable registration of courses might result in the dropouts of students. Detailed analysis was conducted on the student dropouts in three different semesters. In the first semester, as students were lack of sufficient understanding of the English program, they intended to register more courses or more professional courses or the follow-up courses in advance. The heavy workload, their poor prior knowledge, and the unpredictable difficulties might have led to their dropouts. Although some students continued their studies in the second semester, they failed to adapt their learning progress and still register courses in an unreasonable way. The situation seemed more serious in which they could not deal with more difficult learning tasks nor pass more courses. As a result, they were inclined to give up their studies. In the third semester, the failure in exams seemed to become the main reason for students to stop their learning. This study suggested that distance education institutions should strengthen the tutors爷guidance on instructing students to select the right courses, especially the proper number of courses chosen by students in the first semester. Moreover, the tutors should help students identify the sequence of professional courses, provide individual support for students with poor learning basis, so as to better manage the influence of students爷achievements from the previous semester on the following semester.