چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
As Skinner, Kindermann, Connell and Wellborn (2009) believe,
academic engagement is one of the main predictors of academic
achievement, and it is quite significant the extent to which learners are
interested in and committed to their academic activities and how well they
are engaged in learning their various courses. In another definition of
academic engagement, Schechty (2005) believes that students’
engagement in the school assignments means that assignments should
attract the students so that thay gathers all their energy to accomplish the
assignment and sustain their energy to the end of the task.
Academic engagement is influenced by various factors such as
cognition, classroom structure, learners' ability, teacher training, and
environmental conditions (Covington, 1999). It seems one of the effective
motivational factors on academic engagement is achievement goal.
Pintrich (2000) states that the learners’ attempts to do their assignment
are influenced by the goals they select for their education and for
accomplishing the assignment. In this regard, the achievement goals theory
proposes a framework for understanding the reasons why people display
certain achievement behaviors (Barron, Evans, Baranik, Serpell &
Buvinger, 2006).
Another potentially influential factor on academic engagement is
teacher’ feedback. Providing proper feedback by teachers helps the
students to identify the main reasons for their success and failure. On the
other hand, students use their intrinsic statement and thoughts, referred to
as self-talk, when they engage in their academic activities. Depending on
their age and position, such self-talks may be long or short, and may
involve lips movements, or might be just in the form of a mind-passing
thought. One of these self-talks is motivational self-talk. According to
McCann and Garcia (1999), motivational self-talk increases the
individual’s attempt and resistance in obtaining their goals. Motivational
goals policies focus on adjusting the motivational beliefs and include the
student’s attempt to remember the reason for completing assignments and
ensure they have the abilities to accomplish the assignment successfully
(Wolters & Benzon, 2013). Therefore, it seems the motivational self-talk
is related to academic engagement.
Hypotheses
1. Aspects of achievement goals predict the students' academic
engagement.
2. Dimensions of teacher feedback predict the students' academic
engagement.
3. Motivational self-talk mediates the relationship between
achievement goals, teacher feedback, and academic engagement.
Method
The study adopted a descriptive (correlational) design. It examined the
relationships between the research variables as a model. The aspects of the
achievement goals and teacher feedback functioned as the independent
variables, motivational self-talk was the mediator variable, and academic
engagement served as the dependent variable in the model. The statistical
population of this research included all female and male high school
students (grades 10-12) in 2017-2018 academic year in Yazd (N = 15000).
Cochran formula was used to determine the number of participants in the
sample group. Accordingly, 400 students (211 females and 189 males)
were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method so that
district 2 from the two districts, and 3 schools out of all schools of this
district, and 15 classes of these schools were randomly selected. The
learners in the selected classes were provided with a consent letter and
were allowed the opportunity to decide whether or not they wanted to
participate in the research. Using the information about their latest classes,
the participants filled in paper-and-pencil questionnaires related to the
specified variables in the study.
Results
The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested that, of
the various dimensions of achievement goals, mastery goals positively
predicted academic engagement both directly and indirectly, through the
mediation of motivational self-talk. Performance approach goals, on the
other hand, had a positive but indirect correlation with academic
engagement. Nevertheless, no significant relationship was found between
performance avoidance goals and academic engagement. The findings, on
the other hand, revealed that the various dimensions of teacher feedback
positively predicted academic engagement both directly and indirectly
through the mediation of motivational self-talk.
Discussion
The results of data analysis using SEM showed that mastery goals can
predict academic engagement both directly and indirectly. It can be
claimed that students with mastery goals greatly respect understanding and
seek learning even when they have a poor performance. On the other hand,
the orientation of these goals guides the students’ self-talk toward mastery
self-talk that is one aspect of the motivational self-talk. In addition,
students with mastery goals emphasized trying more with perseverance to
achieve their goals and succeed in their academic assignments using
mastery self-talk.
In addition, the obtained results from data analysis using SEM indicated
that performance-approach goals indirectly predict academic engagement.
Students with performance-approach goals more emphasize extrinsic goals
while comparing their performance to that of others. Thus, the students’
learning activities and their engagement in academic assignments are
determined by their extrinsic and relative ability self-talks in which they
remind themselves respectively of the importance of getting good marks,
the teacher’s confirmation, and their peers’ acceptance, and of the
importance of putting in a performance that is superior to that of their
classmates.
The findings further revealed that positive feedback can predict
academic engagement both directly and indirectly. The direct effect
indicates that positive feedback enhances the students’ academic
performance. The indirect effect, on the other hand, can be explained as
“when a teacher has a positive feedback to the student, his/her feedback
shows how much the student has approached the pre-determined goals and
what gaps must be filled.
Another finding of the present research was that negative feedback
predicts academic engagement directly and indirectly. Students become
disappointed when they receive the negative feedback from their teachers
and gradually feel that do not have any control on their performance.
Moreover, students make this feedback intrinsic. Therefore, through this
negative self-talk, they make a negative perception about themselves and
their attempts, which correspondingly brings emotions of shamefulness,
humiliation, reject, and demoralization and thus reduces their academic
engagement.
