A synthesis of key concepts and literature

3.1. Academic success

Educational researchers have long maintained that a well-established SoB is “key to academic success and persistence” in face-to-face learning in higher education (Vaccaro et al., 2015: 670). Strayhorn (2012) reported studies of disadvantaged STEM students in the US, in which those who testified to having developed a strong SoB had achieved better grades than those who did not; moreover, Strayhorn also found that more than half of those students who had self-declared as having or experiencing a poor SoB had failed at least one of their classes.