الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed at finding the amount of variance explained by general secondary school average in predicting the university academic achievement. The study also aimed at examining factors affecting the mount of variance explained by the general secondary school average in predicting the university academic achievement. A descriptive research methodology was followed using meta-analysis. The sample included 226 correlation coefficients extracted from 26 studies. The coefficients were categorized according to administration context, gender of the sample, academic level of the sample, sample size, major in the secondary school, and major in the university.
The correlation coefficients were transferred to z-scores using Fisher transfer and weighted by the sample size. An aggregate effect size was computed and transferred to Pearson correlation coefficient. Then, it was compared to Cohen's criteria for effect sizes. A Q test was used to examine homogeneity of effect size across the studies. One-way analysis of variance was used to examine differences in the effect size between the studies with respect their characteristics.
Results showed that the secondary school average collectively explained 11.56% of the variance in the university academic achievement. There was statistcally significant heterogeneity in the effect size across the studies. Statiscally significant differences in the effect size were found between the studies with respect to academic level of the sample favoring first year students, sample size favoring studies with small sample size, gender of the sample favoring females, adminidtration context favoring foreign contexts, major in the secondary school favoring art majors, and major in the university favoring science majors. A number of implications and recommendations were made for researchers, students, parents, and decision makers.
