Self-regulation of learning and performance among students enrolled in a disciplinary alternative school

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Highlights

  • Self-regulation is related to academic achievement.

  • Academic delay of gratification is associated with academic performance.

  • Self-efficacy mediates the effect of behavior and achievement.

  • There are individual differences in academic delay of gratification.

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that examined social and academic factors predicting academic performance among 180 high school students enrolled in a disciplinary alternative school. Social and self-regulatory factors are expected to explain students' academic performance in an alternative educational environment. Results indicate that study hours, self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy beliefs, academic delay of gratification, and grade level were significantly related to academic performance. These findings suggest that there are individual differences in the ways in which students respond to these alternative academic settings.

Introduction

Self-regulation of learning reflects an outgrowth of students' own behavior and thoughts pertaining to the realization of both their academic and social goals. (Zimmerman, 2013). At school, accomplished self-regulatory learners develop quality skills for optimizing their learning comprehension and academic proficiency (Bembenutty and Karabenick, 1998, DiBenedetto and Bembenutty, 2013, Zimmerman and Kitsantas, 2013). Whether it is their social environment (e.g., help-seeking), behavior (e.g., delay of gratification) or the student's cognitive ability (e.g., transformation), mastery of such techniques normally allow accomplished self-regulatory learners to demonstrate greater incidence of positive regulatory behavior, allowing them to more successfully stay on task towards their predetermined goals (Chen, Cleary, & Lui, 2015).

Research has suggested that students that are placed in a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) have a high likelihood towards negative maladaptive behavior (Carver et al., 2010, Losen and Martinez, 2013, Wehmeyer and Field, 2007). These students lack the motivation, focus or skill set to self-regulate their academic production or behavior, and have a stronger tendency to seek out negative peer groups that view academics as a lesser priority in lieu of risky alternatives that can generate negative results, such as suspension, expulsion, incarceration or dropping out. Today, a widely-used alternative is the placement of such students in a DAEP (Herndon & Bembenutty, 2014).

The intent of a DAEP is to promote social and educational values in order to reintegrate their students, interred for 45 days by the county or court for delinquent behavior, back into their traditional school settings. The placement is made with the expectation that the stricter environmental setting encourages enrolled students to engage in more responsible social behavior while accomplishing academic tasks in preparation for a second chance at their sending school. This paper presents the results of a study designed to assess social and academic factors predicting academic performance among high school students enrolled in a DAEP and to measure the contribution of demographic factors, study habits, motivational beliefs, self-regulatory behavior, self-efficacy, and after school preferred activities to their academic performance.

Bandura (1997) posits that individuals learn by observing others in a social context. Bandura believes that there is a triadic reciprocality between the environment, the person, and behavior. In this reciprocality, an individuals' behavior influences their environment and in turn, the environment influences their behavior; the person's cognition and beliefs; the person's beliefs and values influence the behavior and the environment. In a social cognitive context, schools are agencies for cultivating self-efficacy and are environments where students acquire a great deal of self-regulatory competencies and problem-solving skills in order to function effectively in society. As stated by Bandura (1997), “the school functions as the primary setting for the cultivation and social validation of cognitive capabilities” (p. 174).

In this era of heightened accountability in our schools, the necessity for self-regulation is especially problematic in students that exhibit disruptive, impulsive or otherwise dysfunctional behavior. There is a dwindling tolerance among educators for student misbehavior requiring classroom management that consumes valuable learning time (Lane, Menzies, Bruhn, & Crnorbori, 2010). Students who demonstrate seemingly minor behavioral issues such as aggressive noncompliance or lack of focus and productivity pose substantial challenges for educators struggling to adhere to ever stricter levels of accountability. This funnels these students and their peers that engage in even more deviant and felonious behavior into a more punitive form of education (Herndon & Bembenutty, 2014). Disciplinary alternative education programs are utilized more than any other form of dropout prevention in the United States (Carver et al., 2010, Losen and Martinez, 2013, Souza, 1999). Suh, Suh, & Houston, 2007) indicated that a significant factor in a pupils' likelihood to dropout or subsequent detainment in alternative programs is due to their academic deficiency. Wolfe and Johnson (1995) observed that self-discipline (e.g. self-regulation) was the sole variable (32 total) to have a more significant effect on student performance than standardized test scores.

Based on the social cognitive theory of Bandura (1997) and the self-regulation of learning theory of Zimmerman (2013), the literature suggests that social and self-regulatory factors could help to explain students' academic performance in a DAEP. Research findings suggest that there is an association between self-regulation, self-efficacy, academic performance, socially desirable behavior, and intrinsic motivation (Baumeister and Vohs, 2007, Bembenutty, 2010, Bembenutty et al., 2013, Boekaerts et al., 2000, Zimmerman, 2013). Behaviors such as gratification delay have also been linked to academic success (Herndon & Bembenutty, 2014).

From the theoretical notions and empirical findings discussed above, the three research objectives of the study are: 1) to examine the associations between students' study habits, after school activities, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, self-regulation, delay of gratification, and school grade level; 2) to examine what variables among students' self-efficacy beliefs, after school activities, intrinsic interest, self-efficacy, delay of gratification, and educational aspirations predict academic performance after controlling for the effect of each other; and 3) to examine the direct and indirect effect of the variables in the study on the standardized math test scores.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 180 high school adolescents chosen from a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP). The alternative school is comprised of a rotating population of students that attend for 45 school days, or one quarter, at which time they are reinstated back to their original schools. Students attend the DAEP as ordered by the county or the court as a result of their deviant behavior. Seventy-three percent of the participants were males, 27% were females; 47% Caucasians, 22%

Objective 1: correlations

As Table 1 shows, math test scores were positively associated with frequency of doing homework, intrinsic interest, self-efficacy, academic delay of gratification, and educational goal, suggesting that youth who obtained higher academic performance were those with higher educational aspirations, willingness to postpone immediate available rewards, were more confident about their capability to learn, spent time on homework and reported higher interest in the course materials. Additionally, delay

Discussion

This study builds upon Bandura's (1997) social cognitive theory and Zimmerman's (2013) self-regulation of learning theory. Consistent with Bandura, the study supports the notion that personal, environmental, and behavioral factors influence academic success. In the current study, we found that students who were placed in DAEPs given their deviant behavior were not responding equally to their new school environment; there were variations evident in their motivation and agency. Although all of

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