Vai trò của môi trường xã hội và học thuật đối với học tập và sự hài lòng của sinh viên: Một nghiên cứu điển mẫu tại trường Đại học Hà Nội

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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 319 VAI TRÒ CỦA MÔI TRƯỜNG XÃ HỘI VÀ HỌC THUẬT ĐỐI VỚI HỌC TẬP VÀ SỰ HÀI LÒNG CỦA SINH VIÊN: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN MẪU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI Lng Ngc Minh, Hoàng Gia Th, Nguyn Th Minh Ti
n, Trn Quang Anh* Trường Đại học Hà Nội * Tác giả liên hệ, e-mail: anhtq@hanu.edu.vn Tóm t t: Trong giáo dục đại học, sinh viên được xem là khách hàng chính sử dụng dịch vụ giáo dục của nhà trường. Nghiên cứu về sự hài lòng của sinh viên trong môi trường giáo dục đại học Việt Nam có ý nghĩa quan trọng trong việc nâng cao chất lượng dịch vụ giáo dục đại học của Việt Nam. Bài viết này trình bày một nghiên cứu điển mẫu về vai trò của môi trường xã hội và học thuật đối với học tập và sự hài lòng của sinh viên tại Trường Đại học Hà Nội. Bài viết đưa ra một mô hình sự hài lòng của sinh viên và đánh giá mô hình này bằng số liệu điều tra khảo sát thực tế tại Trường Đại học Hà Nội. Mô hình này được áp dụng để phân tích những nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến kết quả học tập và mức độ hài lòng của sinh viên, từ đó đưa ra một số kiến nghị nhằm nâng cao chất lượng dịch vụ đào tạo của nhà trường. Thông qua phân tích kết quả khảo sát, bài báo cũng đã vẽ nên một bức tranh toàn cảnh về đánh giá của sinh viên đối với các hoạt động của Trường Đại học Hà Nội, phân tích các điểm mạnh, điểm yếu trong hệ thống đào tạo của nhà trường. Đây là những thông tin quan trọng giúp nhà trường cải tiến chất lượng giảng dạy trong thời gian tới. T khóa: Sự hài lòng của sinh viên, mô hình phương trình cấu trúc, hành vi của sinh viên, môi trường học thuật, môi trường xã hội. Abstract: In higher education, students are often viewed as the main customers who use training services; therefore research on student satisfaction model in higher education plays a meaningful and important role in improving quality of training services in Vietnam. This study aims to present a case study of the role of social and academic environment on student learning and satisfaction at Hanoi University. A student satisfaction model is proposed and confirmed based on the survey data and statistic from Hanoi University students. The model was applied to identify and analyze factors which affect the final results as well as graduates’ satisfaction. Practical recommendations are then submitted to Hanoi University to improve student satisfaction. A descriptive analysis of experiment survey results has portrayed an overall picture of student evaluation of Hanoi University’s activities, pointing out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in the training system of the university. This is significantly important information to support the university administrators in upgrading and improving teaching quality in the near future. Keywords: student satisfaction, structural equation modeling, student behavior, academic environment. THE ROLE OF SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT ON STUDENT LEARNING AND SATISFACTION: A CASE STUDY AT HANOI UNIVERSITY 1. Introduction After a long period of highly centrally-planned economy, Vietnam has changed to a socialist- oriented market economy through a ‘doi moi’ (renewal policy) since the 1980s. The national educational system has been starting to transform itself in the new direction where education is to satisfy not only government organizations' demands but also other economic components'. In 2005, the Vietnamese Government issued a resolution on “Innovative, fundamental and comprehensive reform of the higher education for the period of 2006-2020" (Resolution No. 05/NQ- CP dated 02 November, 2005). One of the most important directions in the higher education Tiu ban 2: Đào to chuyên ngành bng ngoi ng 320 reform plan is a shift from elite education to mass education. Previously, the number of universities in Vietnam was small, mainly public universities with limited training courses. Therefore, attracting learners or training to meet the needs of the society has not been paid due attention to in tertiary education in Vietnam. Currently, the number of universities in Vietnam has increased; and the educational programs in each university are also varied. From 1990-2012 more than 200 new universities were established in Vietnam and also the number of joint training programs with foreign University has been rapidly increasing. The competition among the universities in improving the quality of education and attracting students become more evident. Investigating the role of social and academic environment on student learning and satisfaction is an important activity in modern higher education. The level of student satisfaction as well as its impact factors is always considered as important information to the management board for making decisions. Adee (1997) analyzed the relationship between customer satisfaction and perceived quality in higher education, he also pointed out the importance of this relationship in higher education environment. Adee proposed a model in which student satisfaction depends on the disconfirmation of student expectation when they use the education service. Also, student satisfaction has an impact on student’s decision of re-use of this service after graduation. In his research, Voss C et al (2005) proposed a customer satisfaction model, in which activities of human resource management and production process have an impact on employee satisfaction and service quality; at the same time, employee satisfaction and service quality have positive impacts on customer satisfaction. The paper confirmed that this relationship exists in higher education environment. Helgesen and Nesset (2007) studied the factors which influence student loyalty in higher education. This research proposed a structural model which illustrates the relationship between service quality, facilities, university image, student satisfaction and student loyalty. Alves and Raposo (2007) proposed a student satisfaction model, in which they emphasized there exists a relationship between student expectation, university image, student satisfaction and student loyalty. They also pointed out that student loyalty has an impact on student behavior after their graduation, such as promoting the university or introducing the university to their friends (words of mouth). One of the problems of this model is that it draws too many relationships between model’s components. This leads to the difficulty of using this model in practice, such as difficult to give suggestions to the university upon this model. Lin C-P, Tsai YH (2008) analyzed data from a private school in Taiwan and confirmed a student loyalty model, in which student loyalty is influenced by perceived quality of teaching services, perceived quality of administrative services and perceived signal of retention. This work uses the perceived quality made by students as the representation of the quality of that service. This work used a procedure of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for data analysis (Anderson, 1988). In this model focuses on student loyalty; therefore, the student satisfaction model is not mentioned in the model. Until now, the research on the role of social and academic environment on student learning and satisfaction in the real environment of Vietnam's tertiary education is still very limited. The above satisfaction models can not be applied directly to the Vietnam higher education environment because the organizational structure in Vietnam higher education is different. We need a student satisfaction model that matches with the organizational structure of university in Vietnam, so that the model can be practically used in Vietnam. This study aims to present a case study of the role of social and academic environment on student learning and satisfaction at Hanoi University. The major contributions of this paper are three- fold. Firstly, it proposes a relevant student satisfaction model with respective hypotheses. Chi
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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 321 Then, thanks to experiment survey data from Hanoi University students, the model is confirmed to be appropriate. Secondly, the model was applied to analyze factors affecting students’ academic results as well as satisfaction of graduates. This is the basis to submit recommendations to the University to improve student satisfaction effectively. Thirdly, the survey results have portrayed an overall picture about student evaluation of Hanoi University’s activities, revealing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in the training system of Hanoi University. They are significantly important to support university administrators in upgrading and improving teaching quality in the near future. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents research design, including proposed hypotheses and modeling and research methodology. Section 3 analyzes descriptive statistics of the factors in the proposed model. Section 4 discusses the model confirmation analysis. Section 5 concludes the paper and discusses the direction for the future work. 2. Research Design 2.1. Hypotheses Higher education is a service, in which the university provides education services and students who are customers take advantages from these services. In the process of using education services, students have the direct interaction with teachers. Thus, the experience with teachers such as student - teacher interaction and teaching methodology used in classes result in student achievements, including knowledge and skill development. As a result, the following hypothesis is proposed: H1: Experience with teacher has a positive impact on student achievement. The education programs describe the knowledge and skill structure that teachers want to transfer to the students. Students take one of the education programs at university under the instruction of teachers. Therefore, the education program design and structure, as well as lesson plans and learning activities will affect student achievement of knowledge and skill development. This leads to hypothesis 2: H2: Education program has a positive impact on student achievement. Beside the classroom learning hours, students must also communicate with administrators in university to register the course, inquire or consult the program. Moreover, facilities including classrooms, learning device is one of the important elements of the higher education environment. The facilities help teachers interact with students more effectively. Therefore, supportive environment such as facilities, administration social interaction in campus environment will affect student achievement, resulting in hypothesis 3: H3: Supportive environment has a positive impact on student achievement. Customer satisfaction is created during the customer experience of using the products or services. In higher education, student satisfaction is obtained when student feel that they achieve new knowledge and skill and personal development during their time in the university. Hypothesis 4 is presented below: H4: Student achievement has a positive impact on student satisfaction. Customer satisfaction may lead to whether customer will continue to use this product or service or not. In higher education environment, although students are one-time customers, their satisfaction of education service maybe an important reason that they continue to promote the university, introduce to their relatives and friends to study in the university or establish cooperation between students and the university after graduation such as providing job opportunities, scholarships or research. So, there comes hypothesis 5: H5: Student satisfaction has a positive impact on student behavior of promoting and cooperation with the university after graduation. Tiu ban 2: Đào to chuyên ngành bng ngoi ng 322 When student feel that they learn a lot during their study in the university, they probably tend to promote the university, introduce their relatives and friends to study in the university or establish cooperation between student and the university too. So, hypothesis 6 is made: H6: Student achievement has a positive impact on student behavior of promoting and cooperation with the university after graduation. The above hypotheses are presented in the following student satisfaction model in Figure 1: Figure 1. Student satisfaction model 2.2. Structural Equation Modeling Figure 2. Structural equation modeling for student satisfaction model To test these hypotheses, this paper plans to use the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach to analyze how real data fit the proposed model. SEM is a generally statistical modeling technique which is widely used in the science of behavioral research. It can be seen as a combination of factor analysis, regression and path analysis. The SEM is considered to work well with structural theory, which is presented by the hidden elements (Anderson, 1988). Based on the model, this paper designs student satisfaction model with added observed variables in the form of SEM as shown in Figure 2. The factors Teacher, Program and Support are represented by the variables ξ1, ξ2 and ξ3, respectively. These variables are latent variables, their values and the parameters λ and δ decide the value of the observed variable X using the following equation (1). δξ +Λ= xX (1) The factors Achievement, Satisfaction and Behavior are represented by the variables η1, η2 and η3. These variables are also latent variables, their values and the parameters λ and ε make the value of the observed variable Y using the equation (2). εη +Λ= yY (2) Moreover, the variables ξ1, ξ2 and ξ3 are exogenous variables, while the variables η1, η2 and η3 are endogenous variables. The cause-effect relationship between these exogenous variables Chi
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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 323 and endogenous variables are represented by the parameters γ and ζ, and the relationships among endogenous variables are represented by the parameters β and ζ. These relationships form the following equation (3). ςξηη +Γ+Β= (3) Given the observed variables X, Y measured by a survey data, the SEM will find all the parameters which make the equations (1), (2) and (3) best fit the survey data. 2.3. Student Perceived Experience and Satisfaction Survey Hanoi University has conducted surveys on graduates from all teaching in English programs. The questionnaire has been selected from list of examining queries National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This is a testing tool to assess participation level related to academic in universities, colleges in Canada and the United States. Results of survey supporting administrative and supervisor teachers are measures to evaluate their own student participants. The first NSSE was experimented in 1999 and there are more 1.400 universities and colleagues in Canada and the United Stated who have accepted to take part in since NSSE was first run in 2000 (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2012) The survey questionnaire list NSSE 2013 has 19 query groups related to experience and satisfaction of student during training course in university. In each questionnaire group, there are about 4 to 10 multiple choice questions. Quantities of answer options for each question are 4 or 7. After researching and considering typical features of specialized major in Hanoi University, 9 question groups which are the most appropriate to condition and environment of Hanoi University are selected, covering 51 single questions. Description of questions is shown in Table 1 below. Table 1. Groups of questions in the survey questionnaire Type Description # of questions # of answers 1 Higher Order Learning (HOL) 5 4 2 Reflective and Integrative Learning (RIL) 7 4 3 Program Design and Structure (PDS) 4 4 4 Student Faculty Interaction (SFI) 4 4 5 Effective Teaching Practice (ETP) 5 4 6 Quality of Social Interaction (QSI) 4 7 7 Supportive Environment (SEN) 9 4 8 Knowledge, Skills, Ability, and other characteristics (KSAO) development 10 4 9 Satisfaction (SAT) 3 4 Total 51 3. Descriptive Analysis 3.1. Data Collection and Processing The authors have conducted a survey on graduate students of 6 main majors which are instructed in English including Faculty of Information and Technology, Business Administration, Tourism Management, Accounting, Financial Banking and International Studies Department in Hanoi University. 439 samples were collected. Quantity of collected response of each major is presented in Table 2. Tiu ban 2: Đào to chuyên ngành bng ngoi ng 324 Table 2. Number of collected responses of each major/studies No Major/ Studies Number 1 Information and Technology 50 2 Business Administration 67 3 Financial Banking 143 4 Accounting 110 5 Tourism Management 36 6 International Studies 29 7 Unidentified Studies/ Major 4 Total 439 In Hanoi University, Financial Banking and Accounting are the most crowded departments. In contrast, Tourism Management and International Studies are the least crowded faculties. In 439 collected responses, there are 94 ones which were conducted by male and 345 ones by female. Also, this is typical gender ratio in Hanoi University. All collected responses are imported into Excel file, where each column is labeled by a question. Each row contains an answer result of a student. Each question is notated by group of question and its order in this group. For example, in Higher Order Learning (HOL) group, there are 5 questions, whose notation is respectively HOL1, HOL2, HOL3, HOL4, and HOL5. Due to answer result of question group, Quality of Social Interaction (QSI) has 7 values where as in other group, there are only 4 answers. To unify outcomes of each question group, the research has normalized value of QST queries from 1 to 7 into 1 to 4, normalization formula is as below: ( ) 1 2 1 + − = QSIQSI (4) SPSS and LISREL statistical tools are used to compute the descriptive statistics, variable correlation and solving the SEM problem. 3.2. Descriptive Statistics To compute the descriptive statistics of all factors in our model, the authors replaced the values of questions in a group by the mean value of that group. For the case of KSAO, we grouped the 10 survey questions into smaller group including: English (ENG), Knowledge (KNL) and Skill (SKI), as shown in Table 3. Table 3. The groups of questions in KSAO Group Questions in KSAO English (ENG) KSAO1, KSAO2 Knowledge (KNL) KSAO3, KSAO4, KSAO8, KSAO9 Skill (SKI) KSAO5, KSAO6, KSAO7, KSAO10 This activity can reduce the number of factors from 51 to 11. The author then assigned the groups to each factor in the model. The assignment is shown in Table 4. Table 4. Assignment of questions to each factor Teacher (TCH) Program (PRG) Support (SUP) Achievement (ACH) Satisfaction (SAT) Behavior (BHV) SFI, ETP HOL, RIL, PDS SEN, QSI ENG, KNL, SKI SAT1 SAT2, SAT3 Let the variables TCH, PRG, SUP, ACH, SAT and BHV respectively represent for the factors Teacher, Program, Support, Achievement, Satisfaction and Behavior in our model. These variables were computed as the mean of t