The relationships among academic self-concept, academic achievement, and persistence with self-attribution, study habits, and perceived school environment

Darlene Gordon, Purdue University

Abstract

Based upon an unidimensional, global model of academic self-concept and nineteen years of public school teaching experience, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among the constructs of academic self-concept, academic achievement, persistence, self-attribution, study habits, and perceived school environment. The participants in this study were seventh- and eighth-grade students (N = 214), in a rural mid-western school. It was hypothesized that participants who have a high academic self-concept and high achievement would tend to persist at tasks. Moreover, this type of student would tend to attribute their successes to hard work and effort, have good study habits, and have a favorable perception of the school environment. Student volunteers were administered two questionnaires, using a Likert-type format, in order to ascertain their perceptions of the school environment, study habits, self-attributions, persistence, and academic self-concept. Grade-point-average was used as the criterion variable. The two instrument contained items from the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (Piers-Harris, 1964), the Survey of Achievement Responsibility (Ryckman, et al. 1990), the Locus of Control Scale (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973), the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (Brown and Holtzman, 1967), and the Classroom Environment Scale (Moos, 1979). The results of this study indicated that academic self-concept, academic achievement, and persistence are related significantly to academic self-concept and academic achievement. Further analysis, using LISREL, indicated that the data fit the reduced model that used self-attributions to explain the relationships among academic self-concept, academic achievement, and persistence, the best. It has long been a theme in education that a student needs a good academic self-concept in order to be successful academically. To achieve this success, schools can impact their students' academic self-concept by developing an organized, orderly, supportive environment. Classroom teachers should teach students' good student habits and self-management skills together with appropriate self-attribution strategies. The results of the present study suggest that these teaching strategies could influence students' persistence and academic self-concept that, in turn, would promote academic achievement.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Linden, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Educational psychology|Teacher education|Secondary education

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