Self-efficacy influencing student’s academic success
Discuss About The Engagement On Students Academic Success.
The present study provides an overview on the influence of self- efficacy, motivation and engagement on the academic success of students. Academic success is described as the individual’s constant development whilst concurrently striving to achieve educational target. Academic success directly influences the development of students (Busse & Walter, 2013). There are several internal as well as external factors that influence various levels of academic performance of the students. Internal factors are those which are mainly attributable to characteristics of students such as – learning’s, expectations, feelings etc. On the other hand, external factors are those which impact student’s academic abilities through different circumstances including- social issues, extracurricular activities and environment of educational institutions. Three of the most vital elements that influence the academic performance of students are self-efficacy, motivation and students engagement. This research also aims to investigate the relationship among these variables in accordance with student’s academic success.
Self efficacy is mainly defined as the self- evaluation of individual’s competence to effectively execute certain set of action that is required for reaching desired results. Self efficacy expectations are generally proposed for influencing initiating behavior of students and the persistence level applied to task in difficulties phase and setbacks. Shkullaku, (2013) opines that there is a huge difference in a way students feel and act mainly between those having low- self efficacy and high –self efficacy. It has been described by Yusuf, (2011) that, self efficacy is a motivational orientation which arouse grit during difficulties, motivates long term view and fosters self – regulation whenever required. Yusuf, (2011) found out perceived self efficacy enhances academic success in both indirect and direct way by influencing the goals of individuals. Moreover, self- efficacy along with a specific target impacts the academic performance of students. A student with higher degree of self-efficacy usually assign high target to themselves and exercise huge effort for accomplishing the academic goals. According to Social cognitive theory, it is one of the major variables which influence academic performance and success. The students with higher self-efficacy level have the ability to cope with the challenging situation and perform activities in effective way.
Yusuf, (2011) cites that mastery experience is the interpreted outcome of student’s previous performance. Students usually engages in different task as well as activities, interpret outcomes of their own actions and also apply these interpretations for developing beliefs about their ability to involve in these tasks. Students interpreting their previous experience might have dramatic effect on self- efficacy. However, if they belief that their academic success is the outcome of their developed skills and hard work, they becomes more confident about their future success. Inactive mastery experiences are mainly authentic successes to deal with specific circumstances. These experiences are highly influential source to create sense of self-efficacy as they gives students proper evidence about their ability to succeed in a task.
Mastery experiences
It is another source that facilitates students to develop self- efficacy beliefs. Influential communication is effective when the individuals who provide data are usually viewed by students as authentic and realistic. Although positive feedback heightens self-efficacy, verbal persuasion aids to create strong self-efficacy sense.
Figure 1: Framework of self- efficacy
Source: (Shkullaku, 2012)
Motivation is another vital element that plays huge role in academic success of the students. It involves both internal as well as external factors which enhances desire of students for focusing more on studies and making effort to achieve the target. It has been opined by Busse & Walter (2013) that, the students having optimum motivation mainly have edge since they have responsive strategies, which includes- target setting, self- monitoring and intrinsic interest. In addition to this, motivational belief is vital to student’s academic success as it facilitates to determine that extent to which students will put their effort for achieving the target. This element also leads the student’s attitude basically towards the learning procedure. Recent evidences reflect that motivation aids to determine whether the students will be successful in future. Furthermore, this element helps to direct as well as inspire student’s ability such that they become able to absorb knowledge which will be helpful for future use. From the cognitive psychological viewpoint, researcher’s points out that motivation refers to the process where target directed activity is maintained as well as instigated. There are various kinds of motivation that affects the academic performance of students, such as – intrinsic, extrinsic, mastery goals and performance goals.
As per Busse & Walter (2013), intrinsic motivation basically yields internal satisfaction and individuals growth. This kind of motivation arises without prediction of rewards and also provides experience which is achieved as outcome of this. Some researchers have found out that intrinsic motivation helps the students to achieve higher academic success. Extrinsic motivation relates to students who are basically motivated by the external stimuli for obtaining reward or avoid difficult impact. Niehaus, Rudasil., & Adelson, (2012) found out that the students who are being extrinsically motivated are less satisfied with results rather than those who are motivated intrinsically. Extrinsic motivation also has adverse impact on individual’s ability to affiliate with various kinds of people and relate socially with others. Mastery goals helps the students to develop new knowledge as well as skills. Few experimental studies have found out that students with mastery goals are more willing to take challenging task and provide huge effort in learning procedure. On the contrary, performance goals are usually concerned with the focus of students in obtaining better target or avoid failure. As per Niehaus, Rudasill & Adelson, (2012), performance goals correlates less on strategies and deep learning.
Verbal persuasion
Student’s engagement is another multidimensional concept that refers to the condition where the individual is motivated for developing meaning for their experience and also willingness to make effort in attaining target. High student engagement level also involves combination of effort and motivation in the learning environment. Christenson, Reschly & Wylie (2012) opines that students engagement indicates the time spent by the students in their educational activities for contributing to desired results and as quality of efforts. Student’s engagement leads to better quality in the learning outcomes. Students active engagement enhances school awareness whilst motivating students for putting forth effort as well as energy into learning. It has been noted by Guthrie, Wigfield & Klauda (2012) that, engagement also permit the students to make investment in future learning processes. Few evidences supports that this student engagement definitely leads to positive results and also fosters resilience within students. Engagement also mediate the impact of socioeconomic ethnicity, status and other determinants that might impact various levels of students academic success. Moreover, the students also apt to underperform when individual priorities as well as expectation do not coincide with engagement level of students (Saeed &Zyngier, 2012). There are three main aspect of students engagement , such as- cognitive, emotional , behavioral.
Behavioral engagement is mainly defined as one of the efforts that students makes for using study skills involving environment management, metacognitrive strategies etc. It is the vital predictor of the academic success. Emotional engagement also termed as effective engagement is defined as the ability of students to maintain awareness about the individual’s ability regarding academics (Christenson, Reschly & Wylie, 2012) Cognitive engagement mainly requires huge effort that is channeled towards setting target and makes investment in learning. It usually relates to desire of individuals for committing as well as succeeding relating to personal obligations.
Figure 2: Engagement influencing academic success
Source: (Guthrie, Wigfield & Klauda, 2012)
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that all the above mentioned factors such as self- efficacy, motivation and engagement positively affects the student academic performance. It also helps the students to attain effective learning and success in academics. This study has pointed out that students with high levels of self- efficacy, engagement and motivation helps them to obtain good quality learning results. Recent facts also show that students now days adopts these skill for improving their performance in academic field.
References
Busse, V., & Walter, C. (2013). Foreign Language Learning Motivation in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Study of Motivational Changes and Their Causes. Modern Language Journal, 97(2), 435–456. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12004.x
Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., & Wylie, C. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of research on student engagement. Springer Science & Business Media.
Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., & Klauda, S. L. (2012). Adolescents’ engagement in academic literacy. Adolescents’ engagement in academic literacy. Sharjah: UAE: Bentham Science Publishers.
Niehaus, K., Rudasill, K. M., & Adelson, J. L. (2012). Self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and academic outcomes among Latino middle school students participating in an after-school program. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 34(1), 118-136.
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Saeed, S. &Zyngier, D. (2012). How motivation ?nfluences student engagement: A
Shkullaku, R. U. D. I. N. A. (2013). The relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance in the context of gender among Albanian students. European Academic Research, 1(4), 467-478.
Yusuf, M. (2011). The impact of self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and self-regulated learning strategies on students’ academic achievement. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 2623-2626.