THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOAL SETTING AND MEMORY STRATEGIES OF SELF-REGULATED LEARNING AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA

This study investigated the relationship between goal setting and memory strategies of Self-regulated learning on academic achievement of students of colleges of education in Zamfara State, Nigeria. Correlation research design was used for the study. The population of the study was 9,839whereas 312 students were selected by means of proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instruments used for the study was Academic Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (ASRLQ) and students Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). Data collected were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Findings revealed that, significant relationship exists between goal setting and memory strategies of Self-regulated learning on academic achievement of students of colleges of education in Zamfara State. The researchers recommended that students of colleges of education should always set learning goals and aspire toward achieving them. Such goals should not only focus on passing examinations through rote learning but through active participation in the learning process which will enable them comprehend knowledge and necessary teaching skills that they can apply in their own teaching experience. Keyword: Academic achievement, Goal setting, Memory strategy, Self-regulated learning INTRODUCTION Educators as well as social scientists have always been interested in exploring and understanding how human beings learn and acquire new knowledge. Educators have also variously examined ways by which learning and acquisition of knowledge can be maximized particularly in formal educational settings. Such a quest for the exploration of learning processes has led researchers and practitioners in education to examine a variety of cognitive strategies, personal background variables, motivation, and other variables that affect learning and account for individual and group differences in learning and acquisition of new information. Consequently, this led current educational psychology researchers to focus on International Journal of Educational Studies Volume 2, Issue 1 221 intrinsic and autonomous learning variables; among these variables is self-regulated learning as a means of raising student academic achievement. Self-regulated learning (SRL) implies learning regulated by the students themselves, and is not motivated and regulated by external factors. To Garba (2016), self-regulated learning refers to student’s capability to actively participate in their learning process by using different learning strategies with little guidance from lecturers or any agent of instruction, it involves memory strategy, goal setting, selfevaluation, seeking assistance, environmental structuring, learning responsibility and planning and organizing of one’s own learning in order to maximize it. The students’ management of their own learning, the steering and directing of cognitive activities and motivation to the attainment of learning goals, are the main features of SRL (Boekaerts & Cascallar, 2006). Berk (2003) views self-regulated learning as the process of taking control of and evaluating one’s own learning and behaviour. It is the process of continuously monitoring progress toward a goal, checking outcomes, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts. Goal setting as a strategy of self-regulated learning entails analysing the learning task, setting specific learning goals, and planning the strategy to use to attain the goals. Goal setting can be thought of as the standards that regulate an individual’s actions (Schunk, 2001). In the classroom, goals setting may be as simple as earning a good grade on an exam, or as detailed as gaining a broad understanding of a topic. Short-term attainable goals often are used to reach long-term aspirations. For example, if a student sets a long-term goal to do well in an examination, then he or she also may set attainable goals such as studying for a set amount of time and using specific study strategies to help ensure success on the exam. Research also suggests that encouraging students to set short-term goals for their learning can be an effective way to help students track their progress (Zimmerman, 2008). Research equally shows that you are more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down. Having a Learning Plan allows you to write down your goals, and track your learning activities and outcomes, all in one place. Goals and sub goals, combined with positive attributional feedback, will increase student’s persistence toward the greater goal (Schunk, 2001) as they feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from applying effective learning strategies. The setting of learning targets, or goal-setting, is an intrinsic part of the iterative nature of self-regulation. Students’ learning as far as the teacher is concerned, begins with setting learning goals, identifying what a learner wants to learn, proceeds through the production of work that aims to achieve those targets, to the assessment of the work to see if it does in fact meet the targets and then, finally, to the setting of new targets or revising ones that were not achieved (Garba, 2016). Ideally, students will increasingly assume responsibility for the setting of their learning targets and are set to monitor or track those targets. In practice, of course, International Journal of Educational Studies Volume 2, Issue 1 222 student’s ability to do this will vary, and teacher assistance will be more important to some students than others. As with other aspects of instruction, the use of modelling and explicit teaching is of relevance here. Teachers commonly use the SMART acronym as a way of guiding students in the design of a learning goal. In this acronym: S = Specific, M=Measurable, A=Achievable or Attainable, R =Relevant T = Time-bound Specific: A specific goal is detailed, focused and clearly stated. Everyone reading the goal should know exactly what you want to learn. Measurable: A measurable goal is quantifiable, meaning it can yield results. It must be possible to know whether the learning goal has been accomplished, so there needs to be some way of measuring this. Achievable/attainable: Goals can be achieved based on a student’s skill, resources and area of practice. The achievement of the learning goal must be something the student is capable of attaining. The setting of unachievable learning goal will inevitably lead to lack of motivation and low self-esteem. Relevant: The learning goal needs to be significant and relevant to the student’s present learning. If students are left to set learning goals without any guidance, at least initially, there is a danger that such targets will be less relevant than if they are set in the context of understanding. Time-bound: A time-bound goal has specific timelines and a deadline. This will help motivate student to move toward achieving goal and to evaluate progress. Time-bound learning goals are easier to evaluate and track than those which have no particular time period attached to their achievement. Memory strategies are ways used for the regulation of academic cognition. Cognitive regulation includes the types of cognitive and metacognitive activities that individuals engage in to adapt and change their cognition (Garba, 2016). In research on self-regulated learning, the various cognitive strategies that individuals use to help them understand and learn the material involves the various rehearsal, elaboration, and organizational strategies and general metacognitive self-regulation that learners can use to control their cognition and learning (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990). These strategies include the use of imagery to help encoding of information on a memory task as well as imagery to help one visualize correct implementation of a strategy, for example visualization in sports activities as well as academic ones (Zimmerman, 2008). The use of mnemonics would also be included in this cell as well as various strategies like paraphrasing, summarizing, outlining, networking, constructing tree diagrams, and note taking (Weinstein & Mayer, 1986). International Journal of Educational Studies Volume 2, Issue 1 223 Rehearsal strategies as a form of cognitive strategy, are important for simple tasks, and entail reciting and naming items from a list to be learned. It includes attempts to memorize material by repeating it over and over or other types of more “shallow” processing. Rehearsal is one of the best strategies to organize information in the short-term memory rather than in the long-term memory. Rehearsal strategies do not help students to relate or to integrate new information with existing information. Instead, by rehearsing the material, the students try to memorize keywords. However, they rarely identify the essential terms that are used in a course (Baharom, Idos & Razak, 2003). Rehearsal strategies are also important in learning complex information when it is used beyond repeating information. Among the rehearsal procedures that help complex learning are the underlining and summarizing of facts (oral or written) (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2003). Elaboration strategies refers to actively making connections between new and already existing material and structuring this information in order to facilitate the storage of this knowledge in the long-term memory. It reflects a “deeper” approach to learning, by attempting to summarize the material and put the material into your own words. Elaboration strategies refer to the strategies that are helpful to organise information in the long-term memory by relating items that are going to be learned to each other (Baharom, et al, 2003). This means that the strategies are essential to integrate and relate new information to the previous information, and thus for making a connection with the information they have already learned (Weinstein, Jung & Acee, 2011). Some of the elaboration strategies that are used are imagery, mnemonics and questioning (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2003). Organ