The Roles of Social Support in Promoting Adolescents' Classroom Cognitive Engagement Through Academic Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Purpose – The main aim of the present investigation was to examine the role of teacher, peer, and parental academic and emotional support in predicting adolescent cognitive engagement, especially within the context of ESL classrooms. Method – The present study examined the availability of academic and emotional support from teachers, classmates and parents as perceived by adolescents, via instruments which were adapted from a number of established measures. This cross-sectional study utilized the survey method, and a total of 450 adolescents from 11 secondary schools in Malaysia, representing early and middle adolescence, took part in the survey. The study assessed each source of support namely teacher, peers and parents within one model. Findings – Findings from the structural equation modelling suggest that both teacher and parental support are significantly related to adolescent cognitive engagement through their academic efficacy, thus lending support for a full mediation model while peer support was directly related to cognitive engagement. Significance – Even though parents and teachers played important roles in influencing adolescent cognitive engagement (as suggested by previous studies), this study suggests that the relationship was through academic efficacy, which had served as a mediating variable. One of the contributions of this study is that its findings supported the inclusion of student motivational beliefs in explaining the relationship between support factors and engagement. This study had also examined the unique contribution of emotional support. Additionally, it was found that research should not disregard the importance of peers in promoting cognitive engagement directly.

School adjustment, engagement and academic self-concept: family, child, and school factors

“…Furthermore, adolescents are reported to experience higher academic self-concept when they perceive maternal psychological control as providing satisfaction for the adolescent's needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence (Lu, Walsh, White, & Shield, 2017). Sahil and Hashim (2011) concluded that parents' social support for children affects their levels of school engagement through the mediating role of academic self-concept. In a recent study, teachers' higher expectations were associated with higher academic self-concept in students, which in turn predicted their higher achievement (Szumski & Karwowski, 2019).…”

Rethinking the Potentiality of Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Foreign Language Learning in Saudi Arabia

“…This is assumed because unless the knowledge and skills are accompanied by empowering self-efficacy beliefs, they are unlikely to take learners far: Bandura [7] warned that "skills can be easily overruled by selfdoubts, so that even highly talented individuals make poor use of their capabilities under circumstances that undermine their beliefs in themselves". Indeed, Sahil and Hashim [16] indicated that educational institute outcomes are enhanced when learners feel supported and have faith in their capabilities. Ordinary students can achieve amazing results when their knowledge and talent are accompanied by strong faith in their own abilities.…”

Percepção de Autoeficácia Acadêmica e Contexto Escolar: O Que Dizem os Estudantes do Ensino Médio?

“…No entanto, não se pode ignorar que a percepção dos estudantes aponta que não têm apoio nem abertura da escola para que possam pôr em prática as ações que acreditam ser capazes de realizar e que podem contribuir com a melhoria do ambiente. O que tem sido encontrado é a divergência entre o que os estudantes acreditam e precisam e os recursos disponibilizados pelo contexto, pois, geralmente, os adolescentes tentam envolver-se nas tomadas de decisões com base em relações e ações adotadas por adultos, entretanto, como as escolas têm exercido um controle social, não abrem espaço para o protagonismo de seus estudantes (Sahil & Hashim, 2011;Krauss, Kornbluh, & Zeldin, 2017).…”