Relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic performance in Japanese physical therapy students: an exploratory study.
Kazuto Yamaguchi, Fumiya Inagaki
Among 30 first-year PT students, metacognitive knowledge and professional identity showed weak positive correlations with grades in specialized courses.
Self-control, grit perseverance, and most motivation measures showed no significant link to performance.
Key findings
1In both academic years, metacognitive knowledge and professional identity showed weak-to-moderate positive correlations with specialized course GPA (first year: r/ρ = 0.376–0.411; second year: ρ = 0.437–0.442).
2Second-year overall GPA (all courses) showed no significant correlations with any of the non-cognitive skills measured.
3Self-control, metacognitive monitoring, metacognitive control, and grit perseverance showed no significant correlations with either year's GPA.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Thirty students from a single institution; the authors note that causal relationships cannot be inferred and unmeasured confounding may explain the associations. All significant correlations were weak to moderate (r/ρ = 0.37–0.47), meaning the measured skills account for a small share of the variation in grades. The significant links were only with specialized-course GPA, not with overall GPA, limiting how broadly the findings apply. Self-report questionnaires for all non-cognitive skills; no objective performance measure was used. Only first-year students were assessed for skills, so the measures reflect a single point in time rather than a stable trait.
Declared interests
No external funding was received. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the weak correlations (r or ρ around 0.37 to 0.47) as evidence that teaching metacognition or building professional identity will improve student grades. The study is correlational, involves 30 students from one program, and the significant links were only with specialized course grades, not overall performance. The authors themselves state that causal relationships cannot be inferred.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →