Document Type : Original Article (Quantified)
Authors
1 Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Tonkabon Branch, Islamic Azad University of Tonkabon, Iran
2 Master of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran
3 Master of Science, Department of Psychology, Tankabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tankabon, Iran
Abstract
Abstract
The present study was conducted with the aim of the relationship between study approaches and academic identity with the self-concept in second year high school students in Kalachai city. The research method was descriptive, and a correlative type. The statistical population of the research included 981 secondary school students of Kalachai city, of which 274 were selected as a statistical sample by cluster random method. Library and field methods were used to collect data. The data collection tools were the standard questionnaires of Tate et al.'s study approaches (1998), Rogers' self-concept (1938), and Vaz and Isaacson's academic identity (2008). The validity of the questionnaires was investigated based on the experts' ideas, according to the viewpoint of some of the statistical population and structure, and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis method. The reliability of the questionnaires was estimated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient method for study approaches 0.88, self-concept 0.80 and academic identity 0.78 respectively. Analysis and Data analysis was done at two levels of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Thus, in order to test the research hypotheses, first of all, the Kolmogorov Smirnov test to check the normality of the data distribution and the structural equation technique to check the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable using Lisrel statistical software was used. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between study approaches and students' self-concept with an impact factor of 0.67 and between academic identity and students' self-concept with an impact factor of 0.73.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Today, new approaches have been created in determining educational goals and the education process, which move the goal of education from reading and writing to more important goals such as creative thinking, problem solving, lifelong learning, information literacy, and familiarity with information and communication technology. In this regard, paying attention to the way of receiving and processing information requires deep thinking of the processes, study approaches and fields of receiving and processing information, which ultimately manifests in the form of learning, educational progress (Soleymani et al, 2019). One of the basic topics about people's lives is their self-concept. The main axis of self-concept is a person's name, his feelings towards his body, the idea of the whole body, gender and age. The central core of self-concept includes other characteristics that are more indirect, such as socio-economic class, religion, individual advancements or any other factor that separates him from others (Clayton et al, 2021). The image that a person has of himself is vital for him. This self-concept is learnable and everything a person knows about himself originates from his past experiences, among which social experiences are more important. This self-concept changes due to the person's relationship with the environment. Environmental failures cause negative self-concept and positive environmental facilities cause positive self-concept in a person (Shirani Bidabadi, 2016).
Another presupposition that can affect students' self-concept is their academic identity. Findlow (2012) considers academic identity to be the most important factor in academic performance and motivation to progress. Academic identity can be considered one of the effective individual factors in the future of academic procrastination (Schnitzler et al, 2021). Academic identity is the process of each person's conscious response to their academic situation, whether they should study or not.
The main question of the research is whether there is a significant relationship between the study approaches and academic identity with the self-concept of second year high school students in Kalachai city?
Theoretical foundations
Based on their understanding of the concept of learning, people choose different strategies to study and learn course materials. The studies that are conducted on how students deal with course materials have their roots in the studies of Martin (1988) and Saljo (1978). They called the way students deal with course materials "study approaches" (Traner et al, 2021).
Self-concept is a cognitive framework through which we organize what we know about ourselves. Adolescence begins with the starting of sexual maturity and ends with his permanent commitment to an adult role. Therefore, adolescence should be both a determinant of social psychology and a determinant of well-being (Faraji & et al, 2021).
Academic identity is a reflection of all kinds of competences, autonomy, purposefulness, efficiency beliefs, and the experience of common emotions that teenagers have in classrooms with their peers and teachers, and its characteristic is how to act in academic fields. Negative academic identity is associated with poor achievement, misbehavior and class dropouts, withdrawal, and disrespectful relationships with the teacher (Abbasi & Shehni Yailagh, 2017).
Richter et al, (2022) investigated the multiple relationships between self-concept and students' learning strategies in their research. The target sample was 395 students of public schools in Nigeria who were analyzed by means of the cluster sampling method and analytical-applied research method. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the personality and academic self-concept of the students and their adopted learning strategies.
Thaba & Baharuddin (2022) also investigated the effect of parents' attention, self-concept and independent learning strategies on the learning progress of secondary school students in Yemen, and 211 people were selected as a statistical sample using a relative cluster random sampling method. The results of the research showed that parents' attention to the way students study and their interest in guiding them along with correct learning strategies can have a significant impact on students' academic progress.
Research Methodology
The current research is applicable in terms of purpose, and descriptive in terms of data analysis of correlation type (structural equation modeling). The statistical population of the present research was made up of 981 students of the second year secondary school in Kalachai city. 274 people were selected as a statistical sample by cluster random sampling. In order to collect data related to the variable of study approaches, the questionnaire of Tate et al. (1998), and the questionnaire of Carl Rogers from 1938 to 1957for the variable of self-concept, and the questionnaire of Vaz and Isaacson (2008) for the variable of academic identity were used.
Research Findings
In order to investigate the hypothesis of the research, the modeling of structural equations, the method of structural equation modeling with the help of spss software was used to test the hypotheses from inferential statistics. Then, the 8th edition of Lisrel statistical software was used to measure the effects of independent and mediating variables with the dependent variable; and the results related to the first hypothesis showed that the strength of the relationship between study approaches and self-concept was calculated to be equal to (0.67), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test has also been obtained (7.65), which is more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96) and shows that the observed correlation is significant. Therefore, it can be said that the study approaches have a positive and meaningful relationship with self-concept. The results related to the second hypothesis showed that the strength of the relationship between academic identity and self-concept was calculated equal to (0.73), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (8.71), which is more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96) and shows that the observed correlation is significant.
Conclusion and Discussion
The present study was conducted with the aim of the relationship between study approaches and academic identity with the self-concept of second year high school students. The results of this research are consistent with the results of Richter et al, (2022), Thaba & Baharuddin (2022), Moosavi Bideleh (2021), Jung (2021), and Rezakhani, Khodadadian Someeh (2019); School teachers should try to guide the students from one learning activity to the next and also continuously monitor the students' work during the learning activity (Sayadi & et al, 2015). This makes students motivated and they will do their homework more willingly. On the other hand, when the students themselves determine the daily activities of the class and have continuous practice with them in learning the classroom lessons, it is possible to motivate the students better. (Purohit et al., 2022). In such a situation, when the students know themselves in their academic tasks with sufficient and autonomous knowledge, they understand themselves better and engage themselves with the goals and assignments, and as a result, they succeed in education. In addition, in this case, they get the necessary satisfaction about their learning. In fact, when students consider themselves efficient and put their homework under their control, their internal motivation for academic homework increases.
According to the results of the present research, it is suggested that the school administrators and teachers determine the students' study approach with appropriate evaluation, in order to incline the students to a deep approach and improve them, with appropriate educational interventions and correct planning, such as holding workshops for students. On the other hand, useful steps can be taken by activating the student counseling center and carrying out comprehensive planning in order to provide academic counseling services and to implement regular and continuous academic counseling programs in order to improve students' study approaches.
Keywords
)