The (mis)understood image of the Korean students: how do high-achieving college students navigate their college experiences?

Abstract

In higher education research, it is critical to identify and explore factors, experiences, and institutional environments influencing students’ academic performance and success. Korean students have the international image as higher achievers and a model minority in their academic performance, and several studies have explained that the characteristics of Confucian heritage culture widely influence students’ passive learning approach in Korea and other regions of Asia. While previous research on high-achieving Korean students in higher education highlighted the narrow side of learning strategies inside the classroom, this study explored how high-achieving college students navigate their college experience inside and outside of the campus in a top elite Korean university by applying a convergent parallel mixed-method approach. In the quantitative analysis results, there were statistically significant differences between the high-GPA group and middle- and low-GPA groups. The high-achieving college students not only focused more on research and academic activities but also put more academic effort into their college courses, connected learning experiences, and applied knowledge in various disciplines. Furthermore, in the qualitative analysis findings, the high-achieving students were deeply academic oriented in navigating college experiences. They were not only mobilizing knowledge resources and spaces but also maximizing individual viability to accomplish goals. These findings expanded our perspectives on understanding the college experiences of high-achieving students in-depth and explained the process of how a student who entered a university as a knowledge receiver becomes an independent knowledge agent through college experiences.