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Izel Marie B. Guatno, De La Salle University, PhilippinesAbstract
A common complaint among first-year law students is that they spend a significant amount of time and effort studying, yet this does not always translate into academic success. Empirical research suggests that this may be due to learning strategies adopted during their undergraduate years that do not correlate with improvement of law school grade point averages (GPA). Other studies highlight the adoption of self-regulated learning strategies for law students to help them succeed in school. However, law schools lack accessible diagnostic instruments to help students identify deficits in their study habits. This study presents the development and preliminary validation of a diagnostic tool to measure the cognitive and metacognitive study habits of first-year law students, specifically for a law school based in the Philippines. The design is grounded in the HowULearn Framework of the University of Helsinki (Parpala & Lindblom-Ylanne, 2012) and Schwartz's Expert Learning Cycle (2008). The diagnostic tool used a 5-point Likert scale. Legal education faculty and high-performing upper-level law students were engaged for content validity. The tool was piloted with a cohort (n = 50) to assess internal consistency using Cronbach’s Alpha, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The results show a valid and reliable diagnostic tool that can also be used for empowering students. The process can help first-year law students improve their learning strategies and provide educators with a data-driven framework for early academic support in higher education contexts.
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Conference: ACEID2026Stream: Higher education
This paper is part of the ACEID2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Guatno I. (2026) Study Smarter, Not Harder: Development and Preliminary Validation of a Diagnostic Tool to Support Academic Success ISSN: 2189-101X – The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 571-578) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2026.46
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2026.46
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