A Study of the Attitude, Self-efficacy, Effort and Academic Achievement of CityU Students towards Research Methods and Statistics

The present research aims to study the relationship between social science students’ attitude towards research methods and statistics, self-efficacy, effort and academic achievement. Self-administered questionnaire was chosen as the primary data collection method and a sample of 153 students from Department of Applied Social Studies in the City University of Hong Kong were invited to complete the survey. After analyzing the data collected, Pearson’s correlation coefficient reflected that there was a positive correlation between all the four variables – attitude towards research methods and statistics, self-efficacy, effort and academic achievement. Also, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to estimate the prediction power of attitude and self-efficacy on effort. The result showed that both attitude and self-efficacy could significantly predict effort. However, when another multiple regression analysis was conducted to estimate the prediction power of attitude, self-efficacy and effort on academic achievement, it was found that effort failed to predict academic achievement. To conclude, in the present study, effort could only be regarded as an indirect factor but not a necessary factor in bridging the relationship between attitude, selfefficacy and academic achievement. Introduction The title of the current research is “A study of the attitude, self-efficacy, effort and academic achievement of CityU students towards research methods and statistics”. It is known that all of the students coming from the Department of Applied Social Studies (namely the departments of Psychology, Applied Sociology, Criminology and Social Work) are required to take a basic research methods and statistics course. However, many of the students do not know they are required to study research methodology and statistics beforehand and the emphasis placed on statistics and research-related skills has indeed surprised them. Some of the students even develop a “phobia” towards this academic subject that they tend to feel nervous and uncomfortable when they are required to deal with statistics and research-related problems. In order to get an in-depth understanding about CityU students’ views towards research methods and statistics, the current research aims at investigating the relationship between their attitude, self-efficacy, and effort they put into studying research methods and statistics as well as their academic achievement. Research objectives and research questions In the present study, there are primarily two objectives. First, the current research intends to test whether “effort” is significantly related to “attitude” and “self-efficacy”. Second, the study aims to test whether “effort” serves as a mediated factor between attitude, self-efficacy and academic achievement. Being correspondent with the stated two research objectives, four research questions are derived: 1. Does attitude play a role in affecting students’ academic effort? Discovery – SS Student E-Journal Vol. 1, 2012, 154-183 155 2. Does self-efficacy play a role in affecting students’ academic effort? 3. Does students’ academic effort play a role in affecting their academic achievement? 4. Does effort play a mediating role between attitude, self-efficacy and academic achievement? Research hypotheses There are four main hypotheses in the present study, which are listed as follows: H1: The more positive one’s attitude towards research methods, the more effort he/she will put into the subject. H2: The more positive one’s attitude towards statistics, the more effort he/she will put into the subject. H3: The higher one’s academic self-efficacy, the more effort he/she will put into the subject. H4: The more effort one puts into the subject, the higher he/she will achieve academically. Literature review The relationship between attitude, self-efficacy and academic achievement has always been a topic of interest in social sciences, particularly in the fields of educational and social-psychological researches. However, little researches were conducted on studying the relationship between attitude, self-efficacy and effort. Therefore, it is hoped that the present research can provide further insights on the phenomenon. Relationship between attitude and effort As aforementioned, most of the existing literature focused on studying the relationship between attitude, self-efficacy and academic achievement. Even though there were very few researches studying the relationship between attitude and effort, one study did prove that there was a significant relationship between the two variables. In an Australian study, the researchers would like to explore the relationship between students’ attitude towards mathematics and the amount of effort they would put into studying the subject (Hemmings and Kay 2010, p. 48). A sample of 56 Australian secondary school students were recruited to fill out a questionnaire, and the results indicated that their mathematics attitude was significantly associated with the amount of effort they would expend in the subject. Relationship between self-efficacy and effort From past literature, very few researches focused on investigating the relationship between self-efficacy and effort. However, one research suggested that a positive relationship could be observed between the two variables. For example, in a study conducted in Spain (Valle et al. 2009, p. 101), the researchers aimed at studying the relationship between university students’ self-efficacy for performance and learning and their effort regulation. It was found that when students possessed a higher selfefficacy, they were more likely to put more effort into their academic studies. Relationship between effort and academic achievement After reviewing past literature, it was found that there was no general consensus about the relationship between effort and academic achievement. Some of the studies suggested that there was a positive relationship between the two variables, while some Discovery – SS Student E-Journal Vol. 1, 2012, 154-183 156 other studies suggested that there was a negative relationship between the two variables. In a study conducted in America, the researcher was interested in studying how both individual factors (like effort) and structural factors (like school environment) could affect students’ academic performance (Stewart 2008, p. 185). It was found that the amount of effort that students exerted in their studies was positively associated with their academic performance. Even though most studies stated that there was a positive relationship between effort and academic achievement, there were few studies arguing the opposite. For example, in a study conducted by Chassie et al. (2004), they studied the relationship between university students’ effort (in term of the time they spent in learning) and their academic performance (in term of the grades they achieved). After controlling some external variables like learning ability and prior academic achievement, the results indicated that effort was significantly and negatively correlated with academic performance. Relationship between attitude and academic achievement From past literature, it was found some scholars developed a theory that could be used to explain the relationship between attitude and academic achievement. According to Fishbein, he constructed the value-expectancy model by arguing that a person’s attitude determined his/her intended behavior, which could ultimately affect the outcome. Based on the model, he stated that a person would hold certain attitudes towards an object by evaluating it. After going through this process, the person then decided whether to hold a favorable or unfavorable view towards it. Indeed, such a positive or negative attitude could further influence the person’s intentions to engage in various behaviors with regard to that particular object (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975, p. 14). Based on the person’s intended behavior, this could be regarded as a significant predictor of the final outcome. In addition to the theoretical arguments, there were indeed numerous researches conducted on testing the relationship between attitude and academic achievement. Based on the past literature, there was a general consensus that attitude could be regarded as a significant predictor of one’s academic achievement. Most of these researches illustrated the more positive one’s attitude towards an academic subject, the higher the possibility for him/her to perform well academically. In a research conducted in the U.S., the researchers studied the relationship between students’ attitudes and academic achievement in college mathematics by inviting 218 freshmen to complete a set of questionnaire. The result indicated that students’ attitudes were highly correlated with their achievement in college calculus (House 1995, p. 112). In another longitudinal study also conducted in the U.S., the researchers assessed the relationship between attitude towards mathematics and achievement in mathematics. It was found that attitude had a powerful influence on students’ academic achievement (Reynolds and Walberg 1992, p. 307). Even though most of the studies suggested that there was a positive relationship between attitude and academic achievement, there were other researchers arguing that students’ attitude might not be a significant predictor of their academic achievement. In a study conducted by Mickelson (1990), he stated that whether attitude could significantly predict one’s academic achievement depended on a number of variables, particularly the ethnic background and social class (p. 44). Correspondingly, Ma and Kishor (1997) also argued that the statement “attitude was a significant predictor of academic achievement” was indeed a paradox. Attitude might not necessarily predict one’s academic achievement as it also depended on different Discovery – SS Student E-Journal Vol. 1, 2012, 154-183 157 factors, like race, samp