Improvement of academic performance and individual growth in students in University Education on the basis of knowledge and development of strengths and the attainment of their own objectives

Abstract

This action research project aims to support the university student, through six personalised individual coaching sessions, in the development of strengths and competences relating to personal leadership and entrepreneurship, and to analyse the importance of these factors in attaining the objectives that students set themselves at the beginning of the process, and to verify in what way these actions lead to an improvement in their academic performance. This study was carried out at the University of Alicante with a sample of 30 students from different degree courses and with different academic levels. The age of the students is varied, ranging from 17 to 51 years of age. The methodology employed consists of the use of various tools, which include the VIA-IS (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), a model of twenty-four strengths that will allow us to identify which of these strengths predominate in the students and which need to be reinforced. In addition to the strengths, emotional intelligence training is also considered to be crucial for the achievement of individual goals, which is why we performed the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) test (Salovey, Mayer, 1995) before beginning the process of establishing the starting point, and again afterwards, in order to check if there has been a tangible improvement in the items analysed. We consider that the management of emotional intelligence is a determinant for self-knowledge, and that it correlates directly with the perception of general well-being, as well as with the identification of individual aims and the commitment towards concrete objectives that allow the personal and professional development of students in university education. In addition, the two students participating in this team have designed and conducted a valuation survey to establish whether participants in the project have achieved the initial objectives and if the coaching process has proved useful.