Relationship Between Epistemological Beliefs, Self ... - Science Direct

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1160 – 1165

3rd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance (WCPCG-2012)

Relationship between epistemological beliefs, self-regulated learning strategies and academic achievement Azar Pakdaman Savoji a, *, Beheshteh Niusha b, Leila Boreiri c b

a Department of Educational Psychology, Payame Noor University, I.R of IRAN Department of Educational Psychology, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran c M.A. in Educational Psychology, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran

Abstract This study was investigated the relationship between epistemological beliefs and self-regulatory (cognitive-metacognitive) learning strategies with high school student's academic achievement. The sample comprised of 268 female students who were selected by cluster sampling. We used epistemological beliefs questionnaire of Schommer (1990), Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) of Pintrich (1991), and the average scores of school semester as academic achievement for data collection. The results of multiple regression showed that academic achievement can predicted by dimentions of epistemologica l beliefs and motivational strategies. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. ©Selection 2013 Published by Elsevier Selection of and peer under the responsibility of Dr.Demirok, Melehat Near HalatEast University, Cyprus and peer-review underLtd. responsibility Prof. Dr.review Huseyin Uzunboylu & Dr. Mukaddes Keywords: Epistemological Beliefs, Self-Regulated Learning Strategies, Academic Achievement;

1. Introduction al psychologists for the past two decades, because of their recognized importance in the learning process. Researchers have worked to identify how epistemological beliefs relate to learning stategies (Schommer, Crouse, & Rhodes, 1992), Motivation and other such variables. Academic achievement among students is one of the important evaluation indicators for education, discovery and study of the variables affecting academic achievement would results in better understanding and predicting the variables affecting school performance. Study of variables that are associated with academic achievement, is one of the main topics of research in educational systems. Over the past two decades, educational experts have brought attention to study the factors affecting academic achievement, especially the "cognition" more than before. One of the most important theories in this area is self-regulated learning theory. The main framework of this theory is based on how the students organize their learning (Linnenbrink and Pintrich, 2002). Pintrich (1999) defines the selfregulated learning as an active process that the learner set and control his learning activites, cognition, motivation and behavior. One interesting explanation given for different levels of self-regulation in learning, is epistemological beliefs. Epistemology is the area of philosophy that deals with the nature and formation of human knowledge (Hofer and Pintrich,1997). Since the early 1960, a line of research has drawn to study the relation between dimentions of *

Corresponding author name. Tel.: +989121961368 E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu & Dr. Mukaddes Demirok, Near East University, Cyprus doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.719

Azar Pakdaman Savoji et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 1160 – 1165

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epistemological beliefs and learning and the correlation between these dimentions and motivational and cognitive in this area. Schommer as one of the pioneers in this research line believed that the epistemological beliefs has different dimentions that are less and more independent. These dimentions includes knowledge structure, knowledge finality, knowledge source, and acquisition speed and ability to learn. Some researches has studied the relation between epistemological beliefs and using behaviorial and motivational strategies, and indicates that there is a relation between these components and the academic achievement (Paulsen and Feldman 2005, 2007). Despite the importance of epistemological beliefs and using self-regulatory learning strategies in academic achievement, no research has been studied the relationship between cognitive and meta cognitive components of self-regulated learning strategies and epistemological beliefs with academic achievement simultaneously. The present study intends to determine the predicting role of each aspect of epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies (cognitive- metacognitive) on academic achievement. 2. Method 2.1. Participants The sample comprised of 268 female students who were selected by cluster sampling from all first year female students (2394) of public high schools who were enrolled in 2011 in Karaj city. For selecting the sample, the multistage cluster sampling was used. First, the District 3 was selected from four districts of Karaj. Then, 7 schools were selected from 13 schools of the district 3. From each school 1 class with 50 people were selected and finally, 350questionnaires were given to subjects, some answer sheets were returned as incomplete. Thus eliminating the flawed and incomplete answer, ultimately, the number of the sample was reduced to 268 people. 2.2. Instruments Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ): The MSLQ was developed at the National Center for Research to improve postsecondary teaching and learning at the University of Michigan. The instrument has been under development since 1986 when the center was founded. It is a self report questionnair that was designed to Two sections comprise the MSLQ, a motivational section and a learning strategies section. The scales are modular and can be used to fit the needs of the instructor or researcher (Pintrich et al., 1991). Only the subscales of the learning strategies (cognitive and metacognitive) section are used in this study. Pintrich et al. (1993) mentioned that scale reliabilities are robust, and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated good factor structure. In addition, the instrument shows reasonable predictive validity to the actual course performance of students. Internal consistent r =.64 - .88 using a 7-point Likert type scale, from 1(not at all true of me) to 7 (very true of me). Scale scores are determined by summing the items and taking an average. Epistemological beliefs questionnaire: The high school students' Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (Schommer, 1990) was used. Participants respond to statements on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). Some questions related to and some to negative beliefs, so the reversed score of them should be considered. The questionnaire has four independent subscales including: structure of knowledge, stabilityof knowledge, speed of learning, and ability to learn. According to Schommer (1990) reliability coefficient of epistemological beliefs questionnaire was 0.74, and reliability of each subscales were in a range of 0.63-0.85.

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3. Results In order to investigate relationships between dimentions of epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies with academic achievement a series of multivariate regression analysis were used. The means, standard deviations and correlation matrix of dimentions of epistemological beliefs and learning strategies can be found in the tabe below: Table 1. Mean, Standard deviations and Correlation matrix of dimensions of epistemological beliefs and learning strategies Variables

M

Academic achievement 1. Knowledge Structure

2. Knowledge Stability 3.Knowledge aquisition 4.Speed of aquisition 5.Rehearsal 6.Elaboration 7.Organization 8.Critical thinking 9.Metacognition

* P = 0.05

14. 92 3.7 0 3.3 6 3.9 0 3.4 3 4.9 7 4.7 0 4.3 7 4.9 1 4.8 9

SD

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

3.1 0.38

1

0.38

0.198**

1

0.55

0.023

-0.024

1

0.39

0.261**

0.255**

0.107

1

1.09

0.07

0.003

0.108

0.015

1

1.20

0.149*

0.057

0.341**

0.099

0.401

1

1.31

-0.06

0.094

0.147*

-0.038

0.397

0.287**

1

1.10

0.102

0.082

0.224**

0.12*

0.368

0.551**

0.321**

1

0.90

0.07

0.023

0.273**

0.04

0.426

0.553**

0.434**

0.43**

** P = 0.01

In examining the assumptions of regression analysis, the independence of errors were studied using DurbinWatson statistic(8.1). In addition, the relationship between predictive variables with dependent variable was linear.

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Table 2. Regression model using step by step method Model

Predictive variables

Correlation

Coefficient Squared

Adjusted

correlation

correlation

0.501

0.251

0.248

0.251

0.579

0.335

0.330

0.084

0.01

0.628

0.395

0.338

0.06

0.01

0.652

0.425

0.416

0.03

0.01

0.666

0.443

0.433

0.018

0.01

entered in the model 1

Meta cognition

2

Meta cognition Knowledge stability

3

Sig

R2

0.01

Meta cognition Knowledge stability Elaboration

4

Meta cognition Knowledge stability Elaboration Acquisition speed

5

Meta cognition Knowledge stability Elaboration Acquisition speed Organization

Based on the above table, among the 9 variables, (4 variables related to epistemological beliefs, and 5 variables related to strategies of self-regulated learning), only 2 variables of epistemological beliefs (knowledge stability and acquisition speed) and the 3 variables of self-regulated learning strategies (metacognition, elaboration and organization) have entered into the model, so the "metacognition" alone, explain approximately 25.2% of the variation related to academic achievement of students (R2=0.252). When the " Knowledge stability" is added to the model, the amount of R2 increased to 0.335. Accordingly, the contribution of variables "elaboration", "Acquisition speed" and "organization" in prediction of "academic achievement" are respectively .06, .03 and .018 percent. Variables " knowledge structure", "inherent ability for learning", " rehearsal" and "critical thinking" had no role in predicting academic achievement. To test the hypothesis, how academic achievment is predicted by epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies, multiple regression analysis was used. Table 3 presents a summary of the regression analyses. Table 3. Multiple Regression of academic achievement on epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies Predictive variables entered in

B

Std.Error

the model Intercept

Standardized coefficients

t

Sig

of variables(Beta) 14.9

0.144

103.3

0.01

Metacognition

0.87

0.18

0.28

4.8

0.01

Knowledge stability

-0.89

0.15

-0.28

-5.9

0.01

Elaboration

0.917

0.17

0.29

5.3

0.01

Acquisition speed

-0.525

0.15

-0.17

-3.4

0.01

0.48

0.16

0.15

2.9

0.01

Organization

Table 2 illustrates the result of regression analysis. Based on the data exists in the table, the regression equation can be written by standardized coefficients as follows: academic achievement(Y) = 0.15 (organization) 0.17(Acquisition speed) +0.29(elaboration) - 0.28 (knowledge stability) +0.28 (Metacognition). Based on the above

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regression model can be said that by adding one unit to "meta cognition", "elaboration" and "organization", respectively 0.28, 0.29 and 0.15 units is added to " academic achievement" ,and by adding a unit to " knowledge stability" and "Acquisition speed " respectively 0.28 and 0.17 units is reduced from "academic achievement". As can be seen, the role of "metacognition," "organization" and "elaboration" in the "academic achievement" is increasing, and the role of variables of " Knowledge stability" and " Acquisition speed " is decreasing. 4. Discussion Findings of the present study support the prior studies indicating that student s learning strategies and beliefs are related to their academic achievement (Pintrich,1999; Boekarts, 1999; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). The findings are also consistent with Braten and Stromso, 2005, 2006; Stromso& Braten, 2010; Schommer, 1990; Paulsen and Feldman, 2005, 2007; Barnard, Lan, Crooks and Paton, 2008; Lodewyk, 2007 who showed the relations between epistemological beliefs and use of self-regulatory strateies. Also, some theoretical models and empirical studies (e.g., Braten and Stromso, 2006; Schommer, 1990;1993; Bromme, Pieschl and Stahl, 2010) shows that there is a significant relations between epistemological beliefs and . Among dimentions of epistemological beliefs, knowledge stability and acquisition speed were negative predictor of academic achievement. It means, if students believe that scientific issues and findings are separate, absolute, objective and unambiguous facts that there is no possibility of error in them, their academic achievement will be lower. Also, if students consider the learning ability inherent and unchangeable, and they believe that learning happens quickly and they should refrain from continuing activities and effort to learn, they will have lower academic achievement. The results of this research showed that there is a positive relation between self-regulated learning strategies (cognitive, meta cognitive) and academic achievement. These findings are consistent with Pintrich,1994, Zimmerman,1998 and Pintrich & De Groot, 1990, who indicate that self-regulated learning, facilitate academic achievement. Referring to the theory of Pintrich and De Groot (1990); Zimmerman (1990) and Zimmerman and Martinz - Pons (1986) self-regulated students have higher performance in learning. Pintrich & Schunk (2002) reported that high school students who have higher academic achievement are more successful in using selfregulated strategies in learning, they use more diverse strategies in dealing with situations, but the students who have less success, reported few strategies and expressed they have no certain methods for scientific studies. Students, who benefit from self-regulated strategies, are those who are aware of such strategie and use their ability to achieve desired goals or part of the objectives specified in learning activities, they monitor themselves in carrying out a task, they interpret their current level of progress and choose strategies which help them to be successful in their homeworks. These students try to give meaning to information and find a logial connection with the previous data, control this process and create a proper learning enviorment, learn the contens and enhance their academic achievement. In other words, they are aware of quality of their learning. They often use of cognitive strategies and in most cases consider the homework as a challange and use it as an apportunity for learning. The findings of this study suggest that by training self-regulatory strategies, students can reach and increase thier academic achievement. It suggest teachers in addition of teaching scientific materials, teach the students how they should learn. these results could guide teachers in designing their teaching plans so focus on both the content and because training self-regulated learning strategies reflects the long-


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