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Doctorate Thesis
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Back to Doctorate Index
| Author |
Chong, Wan Har |
| Title | The role of self-regulatory and motivational processes in the academic and social functioning of secondary one students. |
| Institute | Thesis (Ph.D.) National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University |
| Year | (2003) |
| Supervisor | Smith, Ian D. ; Lim, Kam Ming |
| Call no. | LB1065 Cho |
Summary
This study examines the academic and social self-regulatory functioning of thirteen-year old secondary one students from different academic streams, and the role personal agency beliefs plays in facilitating such functioning. The thesis assumes that both academic and social self-regulation, and the self-beliefs of academic and social efficacy, specific aspects of self-concept and affiliation-based motivation are important in enhancing strategic learning and successful school engagement. It questions the validity of Western conceptualized and individualistically-oriented motivational concepts, and argues for a role for affiliation-based motives in supporting students' academic and social initiatives in a largely collectivistic context like Singapore. It also examines whether both academic and social self-regulation share common underlying processes, so that by reinforcing these processes, it may be possible to strengthen both academic and social functioning. An intervention programme was designed to test out the conceptual model involving the postulated relations between self-regulatory processes and motivational variables with low achieving students. Unlike many cognitive interventions that were specifically designed to teach strategies to enhance learning, this training aimed at strengthening the students' self-regulatory functioning and underlying motivational beliefs that come to influence educational outcomes.
Relationships between academic and social self-regulation, and various motivational constructs were examined with a self-report questionnaire involving 1304 secondary one students from the four different ability streams in seven schools. Students from the different ability streams obtained average to above average mean scores on most measures of self-regulatory and motivational constructs, suggesting a reasonably adequate level of functioning. The evidence further suggested that students with higher perceived efficacy beliefs not only held higher self-concepts in most specific domains, but displayed equally high affiliation-based motivation, particularly in their fear of academic failure. Of the various aspects of self-concept, moral and family self-concepts were noted to have consistently higher correlations with both self-regulatory constructs and the other motivational variables. The analyses also yielded some stream differences in the use of specific academic and social self-regulatory strategies, levels of perceived social efficacy, affiliation-based motivation, intellectual and general self-concepts.
A series of Multiple Regressions was performed to provide further understanding of the extent to which self-beliefs enter into the prediction of both self-regulatory processes in general and in the different ability streams. Academic efficacy played a significant role in explaining the regulation of academic processes in all streams. Moral self-concept emerged as the best relative predictor for social self-regulation and in the Special, Express and Normal Academic streams. Affiliation-based Motivation offered the best relative prediction for social self-regulation with the Normal Technical. Further analyses through ANOVAs suggested that academic and social regulation varied with different levels (High/Low) of academic efficacy, moral self-concept and affiliation-based motivation respectively for the general sample and with the four streams.
The analyses on the relationships between the self-regulatory and motivational variables with academic and social outcome measures yielded relatively few associations and where they were significant, were rather low in strength. Most correlations were however in the expected directions, that is, higher levels of the self-regulatory and motivational variables were often associated with higher year-end examination results and lower levels of reported school-related problems in the students. The salient predictors that emerged from Multiple Regression analyses were quite varied across the streams, and the computations indicated that there was relatively low variance accounted by the variables of importance.
The intervention programme was evaluated with a Nonequivalent Pretest-Posttest Control Group design, with MANCOVA performed in the analyses of pre- and post-tests on both the Control and Experimental groups. Eighty-nine secondary one Normal Academic students participated in this study, with an almost equal number in either group conditions. Students in the Experimental group reported a positive shift in their academic self-regulatory functioning and academic self-efficacy. Qualitative analyses with the students and trainers were obtained to provide further validation of the training programme.
The conclusions drawn from this study suggest that a self-regulatory perspective provides a useful theoretical framework in conceptualizing the various social and cognitive characteristics that can be expected to relate to effective management of academic and social behaviours in the classroom. It underscores the importance of different cognitive and social motivational processes that may be valued across cultures, suggesting the usefulness in relating personal agency beliefs to academic and social self-regulatory processes in thirteen-year-old students' learning. Interpretation of the findings, the policy implications and limitations of the research were discussed in the light of current empirical research, both local and from the West. This research should provide an impetus for future local research efforts to adapt these concepts in classrooms with different contextual characteristics.
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