In one of our recent faculty discussions the usual subject of student quality raised its ugly head. However, the conversation took an interesting turn when we started to discuss the qualities that we would like to see in a student. Obviously academic ability plays a part but faculty were more interested in teaching students who were motivated to learn.
At RRU, we have been fortunate, given our model of older students and blended learning to have attracted highly motivated students but it became clear during the conversation that in our younger undergrad classes this may not be the case. Of course this got us talking about screening for the highly motivated student. A recent article from Academic Impressions discussing the importance of “resilience and grit” on student success showed that many universities and colleges are taking non-cognitive markers seriously. Many universities are taking a more holistic approach to admissions than simply academic grades.
Grit, resilience and perseverance all seems like different sides of the same coin (effort). The other screen I would suggest would be intellectual curiosity. In “The Hungry Mind: Intellectual Curiosity is the Third Pillar of Academic Performance, Von Stumm, Hell and Chamarro-Premuzic (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2011, 6(6), 574-588) point out that intellectual curiosity and effort are additively equivalent to intelligence when looking at student academic performance.
Screening for these factors is probably best done through guided questioning or interviewing. The literature is rich with examples of how this may be done but care would need to be taken to make it simple and scalable.