Examining the relationship between metacognitive instruction, self-efficacy, attribution style, and strategy use in first-year college students

Examining the relationship between metacognitive instruction, self-efficacy, attribution style, and strategy use in first-year college students

Academic achievement

Attribution (Social psychology)

College freshmen -- Psychology

Metacognition

Rosetta, Melissa Ruth

2008

Habel, John

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf

manuscripts (documents)

Text

61798

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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of metacognitive strategy instruction on second semester first-year students' academic self-efficacy, attribution style, and strategy use. Research indicates that increased academic self-efficacy contributes significantly to college students' ability to accurately predict future grades, academic persistence, and their overall academic performance (Lent, Brown, & Larkin,1984) Also, students who hold a more incremental view of intelligence, realizing that their performance can improve with increased effort and persistence, obtain higher grades, and feel more confident in their academic endeavors compared to students who hold a more entity view of ability (Hall, Hladkyj, Perry, & Ruthig, 2004). This study also uses the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-II to determine the impact of metacognitive strategy instruction on students' attitude, motivation, time management, anxiety, concentration, information processing, selecting main ideas, use of study aids, self-testing, and test strategies. It was hypothesized that each of these variables would increase with metacognitive strategy instruction. Participants in this study include 40 second semester first-year students who earned a grade point average within the 1.0 to 1.99 range. These students were required to attend a probationary course designed to provide academic support, intervention, and counseling. At the start of the course, students completed pre-intervention questionnaires assessing self-efficacy, attribution style, and strategy use. Students were then divided into four groups, two experimental groups and two control groups. The experimental groups received 20 minutes of instruction on metacognitive strategies each class period provided by the researcher. The researcher did not provide the control group with specific metacognitive instruction. Instead, the researcher provided 20 minutes of instruction based on the course text book and syllabus. After the 14-week course session, students completed post-intervention questionnaires. Also, students' weekly journal entries, required by the probationary course, were collected. After the 14-week course session, completed data from 31 students were analyzed. Data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. ANCOVAs were conducted to determine if a significant difference resulted between pre- and post-intervention scores on all variables assessed. Results from the pre- and post- intervention questionnaires do not conclusively indicate significant differences between pre- and post-intervention scores for any of the variables assessed. Pair sampled t-tests, however, suggest that attending the course, regardless of metacognitive strategy instruction, resulted in improved concentration and ability to select main topics and ideas from reading passages. Pearson product-moment correlations indicate that self-efficacy and attribution style are significantly positively correlated with several of the LASSI components. These results present several implications for future studies and intervention designs. The weekly journal entries were analyzed using qualitative data analysis based on Holliday's (2002) methodology to determine emerging themes across students. Analysis reveals several factors that impede the performance of students participating in this study. Themes include time management; conflicting commitments; emotional relationship with friends, family, and significant others; and effective strategy use. Analysis of weekly journal entries indicates that these social and personal factors significantly affect students' academic performance. These factors overshadow the intervention designed to improve students' academic self- confidence, sense of control over academic endeavors, and use of effective learning and study strategies. Close examination of the journal entries suggests that several students, when they did practice effective time management skills and utilize metacognitive strategies, felt increasingly confident and in control of their academic performance.

2015-06-08

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