The effect of metacognitive skills training of study strategies on academic self-efficacy and academic engagement and performance of female students in Taybad

Abstract

Academic failure is one of the most important concerns of teachers, education officials, and families, and is one of the most common problems in the current education system is that it wastes tens of millions of dollars a year from the country’s budget. As a result, the potential forces and assets of society, which are human resources, remain ineffective. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of study skills on self-efficacy, academic eagerness, and academic performance. This research was quasi-experimental having pre-test and post-test design with the unequal control group. The population included all-female high school students of Taybad schools in the academic year of 2017–2018. Using the non-probability (targeted) sampling method, 30 people were selected as a sample and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). For data collection, we used the Academic Self-efficacy scale of Sherer et al. (1982) and the academic engagement of Schaufeli et al. (2002) and academic performance (GPA point). The data were analyzed using covariance analysis (ANCOVA). The experimental group received 8 study skills training sessions during which the control group did not receive any training. The results showed that study skills training significantly increased the academic self-efficacy and its components, including the ability to manage homework, family and school, and academic engagement and its components among the participants in the post-test (p < 0/001). Based on the results, it can be concluded that by implementing study skills training, students’ self-efficacy, academic engagement, and academic performance can be improved.