Abstract:

School failure is an international problem. Students exposed to an academic environment go through a process of self-appraisal. Research on how students learn distinguishes between the acquisition of knowledge and the development of understanding. Emerging from the body of research on causes of student failure factors such as personal problems, fear of examinations, learning difficulties and family problems have been identified. Failing students however have their own perceptions of the reasons for their failure. This paper discusses the use of the Perception of Learning Problems Inventory in a cross-cultural study involving Turkish, South African and Romanian students. The purpose of the study is to examine whether there are any differences in the perceptions of learning problems by students from these cultural groups. A profile of causes of failure as perceived by the students is presented. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among culture, gender and the culture by gender interaction and that the culture explained variance the most. It was also found that male students perceived teacher behavior and lack of motivation to be causes of failure more than female students did across cultures. Results are discussed in terms of developing remedial support programmes in school settings.

Keywords: student failure, perception, culture