Al-Rawahi, N. M., & Al-Balushi, S. M. (2015) The Effect of Reflective Science Journal Writing on Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Strategies. International Journal of Environmental And Science Education, 10(3), 367-379.
The authors and reseachers at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman investigated the effectiveness of reflective science journal writing on self-regulated learning strategies. Researchers sampled 62 grade 10 students, who were divided into an experimental and control group. Students in the experimental group were provided a model to write reflective journal entries after each science lesson on the content, activities, teacher and their peers. They were also told to reflect on their process of learning: their understanding, achievement of learning objectives, and feelings toward the content. The control group did not write in journals, but received the same level of instruction Analysis of results showed that students who participated in journal writing significantly outperformed those who did not with regards to self-regulation strategies (motivation and learning strategies). The authors recommend that teachers incorporate reflective journals into classrooms that focus on reflection of learning goals, learning strategies, self-efficacy, and relationships with peers. They also recommended digital methods of journaling to allow students to augment their writing with media, and then even implement into their notes.
Hwang, M. H., Choi, H. C., Lee, A., Culver, J. D., & Hutchison, B. (2016). The relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement: A 5-year panel analysis. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 25(1), 89-98.
The authors investigated the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement in a longitudinal study of Korean high school students from grade 8 to grade 12. The main finding in the study was that a reciprocal causal relationship between self-efficacy an academic achievement from grade 8 to 12 existed. This means that past academic performance predicts self-efficacy positively, and that self-efficacy beliefs positively predict future academic achievement. Both findings support previous research, but these were executed at a post-secondary level. The effect of past academic achievement on self-efficacy beliefs was higher than that of self-efficacy beliefs on academic achievement. This indicates that past performance will determine a student’s self-efficacy, which can influence their future academic performance. Educators should encourage students with past high achievement to reflect on their practices to promote their self-efficacy. Educators should also encourage students with low academic performance to reflect as well but in a manner to not cause the student to feel defeated. Students should be able to identify moments of strengths, areas to improve and arose hope. Intervention should target self-efficacy as well as academic achievement rather than one aspect as they are mutually reinforcing.
Ross, J. A. (2006). The reliability, validity and utility of self-assessment. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 11(10), 1-13.
The authors, John Ross, Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, wrote an extensive review on self-assessment as a means of formative assessment. Ross summarized his findings into four main categories, focusing self-assessments reliability, validity, improvements to student achievement and behavior, and the implementation of self-assessment. Ross indicates that self-assessment encompasses three aspects of self-regulation: self-observation, self-judgement, and self-reaction. He indicated that through training students on how to properly self-assess, they were more likely to see their performance as mastery – an important source of self-efficacy for students. Ross claims that self-assessment contributes to self-efficacy, but did not source any data to imply that the correlation is present. An important note is that self-assessment increases student responsibility (in their assessment); the perception that teachers see students as responsible is also a source of positive efficacy information. Overall, Ross indicates that self-assessment is a vital tool that has many benefits for both students and teachers.
Zepeda, C. D., & Richey, J. E. (2015). Direct instruction of metacognition benefits adolescent science learning, transfer, and motivation: An in vivo study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(4), 954-970.
The authors and researchers at the University of Pittsburg investigated how an intervention to teach the self-regulated learning skills of planning, monitoring and evaluation to middle school science students would affect student metacognition, motivation, and learning. The intervention design was such that the experimental group received individual packages that taught them self-regulation skills in addition to practice problems, whereas the control only received practice problems. The results of the study found that students who participated in the experimental group reported an increased student declarative knowledge of metacognition, an increase in self-efficacy, and higher achievement in practice problems and further application of metacognitive skills.