Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps, Essays (high school) of Environmental science

Download Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps and more Essays (high school) Environmental science in PDF only on Docsity! Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual Learning: A Review https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i06.20627 Azham Hussain () Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia azhain.1991@yandex.com Emmanuel O.C. Mkpojiogu Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria Celestina Chinenye Ezekwudo Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria Abstract—There are several literatures pertaining to the self-efficacy of stu- dent, and educational mobile apps, but no work has been done yet on the improv- ing the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps. This study therefore employed systematic review methodology to ascertain the factors necessary to be considered while using educational mobile apps in order to im- prove the academic self-efficacy of students. Hence, this paper attempts to review available literatures with the aim of capturing means of improving the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps. To achieve the stated re- search objective, the study applied systematic literature review methodology. Fifty (50) papers relating to academic self-efficacy of students using mobile ed- ucational apps were downloaded. Out of these papers, nineteen (19) most relevant studies were selected for review in order to extract the appropriate information needed for the analysis. The results from the review revealed that the major causes of students’ low academic self-efficacy are: lack of confidence with 22.73% and others include: low self-esteem (21.05%) and inferiority complex (10.53%). Also, the review was able to show the three most important factors necessary for improving the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile ed- ucational apps included: teachers’ message (21.05%) and success and failure of others (15.79%). Keywords—Education, educational mobile app, self-efficacy 1 Introduction Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capability of doing or achieving a particular goal. According to social cognitive psychologist, Bandura, self-efficacy is the concept of one’s belief in performing a task. [3] views self-efficacy as a major component of [8] social-cognitive theory, which contends that behavior is strongly stimulated by self- iJIM ‒ Vol. 15, No. 06, 2021 149 Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… influence. Self-efficacy belief as a vital personal resource has been amply documented in the meta-analyses of findings relating to different spheres of functioning, achieved under laboratory and natural conditions [7]. The construct of self-efficacy reflects an optimistic self-belief. This is the belief that one can perform unique or difficult tasks, or cope with adversity, in various domains of human functioning [8]. It is clear that Bandura’s view of self-efficacy relates to the explication of self-efficacy in specific domains, rather than a global sense of competence. Academic self-efficacy therefore concentrates on the self-belief of students that they can achieve their academic or learn- ing goals. It refers to a student's perception of their ability to engage and successfully complete academic tasks. It can be concluded that self-efficacy makes a person believe in their capability to overcome obstacle that hinders the achievement of their goals. Self-efficacy enables a student to reach their goals and dreams. [10] argues that education is a key factor for sustainable development. The use of mobile phones, online application as tool in teaching and learning has become the inte- gral part of the educational system. The challenges for educators and researchers are to explore how mobile technologies might be used to support learning [14]. Mobile apps are those application that are used either for pleasure or study purposes. It can take various forms and shapes e.g., games, e-learning etc. Educational mobile apps therefore are those mobile applications that facilitate teaching and learning. Mobile educational apps are introduced in educational system to enhance learning experiences and learners’ self-efficacy. According to [35], the reasons for introducing mobile devices to learning outside the classroom is to enable new learning experiences as it improves learners’ self-efficacy and motivates learning. According to [7], there are four main sources of self-efficacy beliefs, these include: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional and physiological states. Mastery experiences refer to the experiences we gain when we take on a new challenge and succeed. The best way to learn a skill or improve our performance is practice, and part of the reason this works so well is because we are teaching ourselves that we are capable. Vicarious experience is simply the experience of having a role model to observe and emulate. When we have positive role models who display a healthy level of self-efficacy, we are likely to absorb some of those positive beliefs to ourselves. Vicarious experiences can come from a wide range of sources, including parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings, teachers and administrative staff, coaches, mentors, and counselors. The verbal persua- sion factor describes the positive impact that our words can have on someone’s self- efficacy; telling a child that she is capable and up to facing any challenge ahead of her can encourage and motivate her, as well as adding to her growing belief in her own ability to succeed. The emotional and psychological states refer to the impacts of criti- cism, both positive and negative, on the mental state which could either encourage or discourage self-efficacy. The emotional stage of a student during the learning process determines how open he or she is to learning. To enhance self-efficacy, learners should focus on ensuring that they have the op- portunities they need to master difficult skills and complete challenging tasks, finding positive role models, listening to encouraging and motivating people, and taking care of their mental health. Teachers in ensuring self-efficacy in their students should ensure they have a good sense of efficacy themselves. Teaching is one such profession in 150 http://www.i-jim.org Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… about how these mobile applications can enhance education. Mobile devices are com- monly used among higher education students and are becoming the daily culture of almost every student. Mobile apps are one of the applications used in teaching and learning via mobile devices. However, it is important that students should have positive attitudes towards adopting these mobile devices in learning [2]. More so, [17] found that the incorporation of mobile devices into an elementary botany class contributed to slightly higher post-test scores than for those students who completed the same activity with a book. Therefore, by implication this means that the use of mobile application can enhance students’ performance and as a result improve their academic self-efficacy. Studies have shown that the use of mobile applications blend teaching styles with the learning styles of students making learning a new experience for the students [33] and students are also highly motivated by the use of mobile devices and applications in learning as the relationship between students and student-teacher relationship im- proved. [25] Defined academic self-efficacy as the student’s perception of their ability to engage and successfully complete academic tasks. Self-efficacy affects students’ be- havioral choices, motivation, thought patterns and responses, perception of control, and academic productivity. Success is the greatest factor affecting a student’s self-efficacy and gifted elementary school students are regularly successful academically in main- stream classrooms. In previous study, he emphasized the ways to develop, identify, validate, and find the reliability of item composition of ASES (academic self-efficacy) for Filipino junior high school students, emphasizing new factors associated with aca- demic self-efficacy. Also, [26] reported in [16] conducted a study with 252 students at a university in Northern Portugal, they found that self-efficacy and environmental sup- port were predictive of goal progress and academic adjustment. Students reported gains in their academic functioning when they possess stronger self-efficacy and environ- mental support. Therefore, students with poor environmental support perform badly in any assessment, with a consequent low self-efficacy. Individual with low sense of effi- cacy when exposed to chronic occupational stressors will increase vulnerability to burn- out because they cannot manage job demands with pessimistic attitude [34]. Therefore, it can be deduced that one of the reasons for students’ low academic self- efficacy is fear and inferiority complex. An effective mechanism for improving self-efficacy, motivation and achievement may induce the students to acquire and develop self-regulating learning strategies [32]. [37] concludes that students who believe that intelligence is changeable and may be modified by effort have high self-efficacy and confidence in their academic perfor- mance. Similar findings suggest that self-efficacy can be enhanced and developed [15]. Thus, enlightening students about developing their self-efficacy and also strengthening their belief that their performance can be improved may ensue in additional effort and hard work. Academic goals such as being open to new experiences, getting superior grades, surpassing other students, proving intelligence through school work are em- braced by students who possess self-efficacy. Against this back drop, there are students with lower self-efficacy who assume that intelligence is an entity that offers no possi- bility of improvement, who feel they would not be able to succeed in university, and therefore are less likely to target any kind of goal, mastery or performance. Thus, there iJIM ‒ Vol. 15, No. 06, 2021 153 Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… is an intriguing relationship between the level of self-efficacy of students, their implicit beliefs, and their inclinations in choosing a target, mastery or performance. Bandura’s social cognitive theory supports this study. As opined by [9], “personality theories focus on the Social Cognitive Theory of Bandura. It is a learning theory based on the ideas that people learn by watching what others do, and that human thought processes are central to understanding personality. This theory provides a framework for understanding, predicting and changing human behavior which includes: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Imitating a role model motivates learners. Ban- dura states a number of motives which includes: past reinforcement, promised rein- forcement and vicarious reinforcement. Albert Bandura’s framework had a large impact on personality theory and therapy. His action-oriented, problem-solving approach ap- peals to those who want to make changes, rather than simply philosophize. 3 Methodology In order to find out existing literature that discussed the improvement of self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps in virtual learning, this study used systematic literature review approach to search for the relevant journals and conference proceed- ings on academic self-efficacy of students, educational mobile apps and mobile apps respectively. This systematic review was carried out based on the restrictions defined by [24] (see also [23]). The activities in the systematic review are in phases and include: planning the review as a first phase, conducting the review as a second phase and presentation of results as the third phase. At the completion of the three phases, the result of the analysis would have been presented. The aim of the study was to find important, relevant and appropriate materials related to the improvement of self-effi- cacy of students via the use of mobile educational apps in virtual learning. This research employs primary and secondary search. The primary search was done using Internet databases for highly ranked journal and conference papers centered on the area of im- proving the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps in virtual learning. The secondary search was carried out through citation and references gotten in the course of the primary search. However, prominent emphasis was given to relevant studies ranging from the year 2005 to 2019. This provided current issues on the im- provement of the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps in virtual learning. Literatures on improvement of academic self-efficacy of students are however, very limited. Table 1 below describes the selected journals and conference proceedings. The papers selected for the review were gotten from the following journal: 154 http://www.i-jim.org Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… Table 1. Selected Journals and Conference Proceedings, Number of Papers and year Journals/ Conference papers Number of papers Year Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 1 2009 Proceedings of the European Conference on Game Based Learning 1 2008 ZDM 1 2010 Journal of International Cooperation in Education 1 2005 Journal of Frontiers in Education 1 2018 International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) 1 2015 School of Education and Counseling Psychology (SECP) conference papers 1 2012 International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 1 2017 Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology 1 2013 Journal of Education and Practice 1 2015 IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) 1 2017 International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 1 2017 International Journal for the Scholarship of Technology Enhanced Learning 1 2017 European Journal of Open Education and E-learning Studies 1 2019 4th International Conference on Advanced Education and Management (ICAEM) 1 2017 International Journal of Information Studies & Libraries 1 2017 Journal of Social Sciences 1 2010 Proceedings of ICERI 2015 Conference 1 2015 Journal of computer and education 1 2015 Total 19 The selection of appropriate papers was from both journals and conference proceed- ings centered on the area of improving the academic self-efficacy of students using mobile educational apps in virtual learning. However, the search and data capture was based on the following key words: self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, mobile educa- tional apps and a review of empirical papers. In conducting the review, papers selected were downloaded and the abstract of each was carefully read together with the intro- duction in other to know its significance to the study. Fifty papers were downloaded from both journals and conference proceedings. However, only relevant papers with important contributions were selected for further reading, as such only nineteen (19) papers was eventually used. Table 1 shows the number of papers selected according to Journals and Conference proceedings. In addition, Table 2 displays the number of pa- pers selected per journal or conference proceedings. One article was selected from each journal. iJIM ‒ Vol. 15, No. 06, 2021 155 Paper—Improving the Academic Self-Efficacy of Students Using Mobile Educational Apps in Virtual… 18.18% goes to verbal persuasion, physiological factors, vicarious experience and en- active attainment respectively. 6 References [1] Abdur R., Yulia T. S., & Muhammad A. (2018). Smartphone Habits and Behaviors in Sup- porting Students Self-Efficacy. iJET, 13(2). [2] Ahmad F. M. A, Syaza H. Z., Wong S. L., & Wan M. W. (2017). The Influence of Mobile Self-efficacy, Personal Innovativeness and Readiness towards Students’ Attitudes towards the use of Mobile Apps in Learning and Teaching. International Journal of Academic Re- search in Business and Social Sciences, 7. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i14/3673 [3] Alay A., (2013). Effects of Self-Efficacy on Students’ Academic Performance. Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology, 2(1). [4] Angelo R.D. (2018). 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[42] Mohd Shoaib Ansari, Aditya Tripathi. (2017). An Investigation of Effectiveness of Mobile Learning Apps in Higher Education in India. International Journal of Information Studies & Libraries. 2(1): 33-41. 7 Authors Azham Hussain is the Associate Professor of Software Engineering at School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia,06010 UUM, Kedah, Malaysia. He is the founder of Human-Centered Computing Research Group, which is affiliated with the Software Technology Research Platform Center at School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia. Azham Hussain is a member of the US-based Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and actively involved in both IEEE Communications and IEEE Computer societies. azhain.1991@yandex.com Emmanuel O.C. Mkpojiogu is a Lecturer at Department of Computer and Infor- mation Technology, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria. Currently, he is a PhD student at School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia. The research area is User Experi- ence, Human Computer Interaction and Software Engineering. He has published many articles in reputable Scopus indexed journals. emelnuel@hotmail.com Celestina Chinenye Ezekwudo is a researcher with the Department of Science Ed- ucation, Faculty of Education, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria. celestinachy- chy@gmail.com Article submitted 2020-12-18. Resubmitted 2021-01-26. Final acceptance 2021-01-28. Final version pub- lished as submitted by the authors. 160 http://www.i-jim.org