Desempenho acadêmico: Influências de Garra, Autoeficácia e Estratégias de aprendizagem

Abstract

The pursuit for access to Higher Education is associated with stress and competitiveness. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching and learning process was impacted by the consequences of social isolation, and health, economic and social insecurity, in addition to the change from face-to-face to remote teaching. In this scenario, socio-emotional and cognitivebehavioral variables are necessary so that students can continue their efforts towards their academic and professional goals. In this opportunity, grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, has proved to be a reliable predictor of successful performance, especially with regard to challenging tasks. In order to better understand the impact of grit on academic performance, two studies were carried out in this work. Study 1 aimed to verify validity evidence for the Brazilian context of two versions of the Grit Scale (complete – Grit-O, with 12 items, and the short version – Grit-S, with 8 items). An online survey was carried out with 225 adult Brazilians which answered the translated and adapted version of Grit-O for Brazilian Portuguese. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the short version had higher fit rates than the full version, which is consistent with international findings. As in the original version, the Brazilian grit scale presented two factors, entitled consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. It is concluded that both the full version and the short version presented acceptable or satisfactory fit and reliability indices. Study 2, in turn, was configured as longitudinal research that aimed to analyze the impact of grit on academic performance, moderated by self-efficacy and learning strategies. Academic performance was measured from four simulated exams carried out during the year 2020, by a sample made of students from a pre-university entrance course, as well as from the participants' approval (n=255) in an official entrance exam of a federal university. From the linear regression analysis, it was found that grit had a marginal impact on the average performance of the simulated exams, a relationship strengthened by cognitive learning strategies. Perceived general self-efficacy and selfregulatory learning strategies dampened the relationship between grit and performance. When taking the average results of the simulated exams before and after the suspension of in-person classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, grit was only able to predict performance of the tests taken after the suspension of classes. With regard to performance in the entrance exam, the logistical analysis did not show a significant impact of grit on performance. It is concluded that grit is a construct of interest for the investigation of individual factors linked to better performance, especially in challenging contexts such as the pandemic. However, more research is needed to bring a conceptual and empirical improvement to the construct.