Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Scien ce s 127 ( 2014 ) 640 644 PSIWORLD 2013 Self-directed learning, personality traits and academic achievement Ana-Maria Cazan a *, Bianca-Andreea Schiopca b a, b University Transilvania of Brasov, Eroilor 29, 500036, Romania Abstract This study aims at analyzing the relations between self-directed learning, personality traits and academic achievement. The participants were 121 undergraduate students from a Romanian university. Self-rating scale of self-directed learning (SRSSDL) and IPIP 50 were used. Academic achievement was measured by the academic results collected for all the participants at the end of the academic year. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used in examining the relationship between Big Five personality traits and learner self-direction. The results revealed that self-directed learning and personality traits are correlated and that self-directed learning predicts academic achievement. 2014 The Elsevier Authors. Ltd. Published Open access by under Elsevier CC BY-NC-ND Ltd. license. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI Romanian WORLD Society 2013 of and Applied their Guest Experimental Editors: Dr Psychology. Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian Vasile and Dr Mihai Anitei Keywords: self-directed learning; personality traits; academic achievement; learning strategies; learning activties. 1. Problem statement Self-directed learning has become one of the primary aims of education in the last few decades. Self-direction is the basis of all type of learning (Williamson, 2007). All individuals are capable of self-directed learning but the degree of development varies due to their individual differences, including learning motivation, self-efficacy, selfesteem, conscientiousness, openness to experience, even intelligence. Self-directed learning contains three dimensions: motivation, metacognition, and self-regulation (Long, 2000). * Ana-Maria Cazan. Tel.: 0740065734 E-mail address: ana.cazan@unitbv.ro 1877-0428 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.327
Ana-Maria Cazan and Bianca-Andreea Schiopca / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 640 644 641 Self-directed learning can be viewed as a process by which individuals set goals, locate resources, choose the method and evaluate progress through critical reflection (Brookfield, 1995). The most frequently quoted definition of self-directed is the definition of Knowles: self-directed learning describes a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes (Knowles, 1975, p. 18). Self-directed learning can be viewed as a process or as a psychological aspect, mainly as an attribute of personality. From this perspective, the self-directed learner is an individual with a high degree of self-efficacy, intrinsically motivated, an individual who sets goals and chooses appropriate strategies to achieve those goals, and who is willing to meet new challenges (Garrison, 1997; Oddi, 1987). Self-directed learning tends to be associated with academic achievement (Lounsbury, Levy, Park, Gibson, & Smith, 2009) and with personality traits. Researchers have also noted that learners who are self-directed have higher levels of self-efficacy (Oliveira & Simões, 2006; Stockdale & Brockett, 2011). Personality traits explain the content of self-directed learning (Ponton, Derrick, & Paul, 2005). Roberson and Merriam (2005) also claimed that developmental processes of influencing self-directed learning are related to personality traits. This study investigates self-directed learning as a personality trait rather than as a process. Lounsbury and his colleagues (2009) highlighted that personality traits may influence or provide the foundation for learner selfdirection--development processes and that the Big Five model of personality represents an organizing scheme for understanding learner self-direction--personality trait relations. Self-directed learning has been associated with students academic performance. It was also considered a predictor of academic success in traditional learning settings or non-web-based distance learning (Long, 1991; Hsu & Shiue, 2005). Previous studies cited by Chou and Chen (2008) showed that self-directed learning and academic performance are related. The studies reported positive correlation between self-directed learning and GPA and between self-directed learning and course grade. They also reported that self-regulated learning predicts academic success. 2. Purpose of study This study aims at analyzing the relations between self-directed learning, personality traits and academic achievement. The main hypothesis is that self-directed learners have a high level of academic achievement. We also assume that self-directed learning and personality traits such as conscientiousness and openness to experience predict academic achievement. 3. Methods The participants were 121 undergraduate first year students (60 students) and third year students (61 students), from a Romanian university (90 female, 31 male). The research design is a correlational. We used the following questionnaires: Self-rating scale of self-directed learning (SRSSDL Williamson, 2007) - is a 60 items self-rating instrument developed for measuring the level of self-directedness in one s learning process. The 60 items are categorized under five broad areas of self-directed learning, each area comprising 12 items: Awareness (explores learners' understanding of the factors contributing to becoming self-directed learners), Learning strategies (measure the various self-directed learning strategies), Learning activities (measure the requisite learning activities learners should actively engage in order to become self-directed learners), Evaluation (measures learners' specific attributes in order to monitoring the learning activities, and Interpersonal skills (measure learners' skills in inter-personal relationships). Responses for each item are rated by using a five-point scale: 5 = always: 4 = often: 3 = sometimes: 2 = seldom: 1 = never. The SRSSDL was translated and adapted for the Romanian students, alfa Cronbach coefficients obtained for the translated version being acceptable, ranging between.80 for the Learning activities scale and.84 for the Awareness scale. IPIP 50 (Rusu et al., 2012) - is an instrument developed through the IPIP project, which measures the five dimensions of personality: Openness, Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness.
642 Ana-Maria Cazan and Bianca-Andreea Schiopca / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 640 644 International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) is a project aiming to develop measures of individual differences as part of the public domain. IPIP-50 was validated on a Romanian students sample and it comprises 50 items measured on a five point Likert scale (Rusu et al., 2012). Academic achievement was measured by the academic results collected for all the participants at the end of the academic year. 4. Findings and results Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used in examining the relationship between Big Five personality traits and learner self-direction. The results revealed that self-directed learning and personality traits are correlated. Openness to experience correlates with all other scales of SRSSDL, except awareness. Conscientiousness correlates with awareness. As expected, extraversion and agreeableness are significantly associated with interpersonal skills; extraversion also correlates with learning strategies. The only personality trait which is not associated with self-directed learning is emotional stability. The main hypothesis is confirmed (Table 1). Table 1. Pearson correlation coefficients between self-directed learning and personality traits Conscientiousness Extraversion Openness Emotional stability Agreeableness Awareness.180*.007.145.079.034 Learning strategies.093.245**.206*.077.168 Learning activities.102.072.184*.057.059 Evaluation.074.057.194*.006.177 Interpersonal skills.165.382**.336**.122.207* Self-directed learning.139.177.243**.077.149 *p<.05, **p<.001, N=121 The significant, positive relationships between Big Five personality traits and learner self-direction are consistent with Lounsbury, Levy, Park, Gibson, & Smith (2009) findings. Self-directed learners are more conscientious, more extravert and more agreeable. Contrary to the cited study, emotional stability in relation to learner self-direction seems to be insignificant. The personality trait most characteristic of self-directed learners is openness. The association between extraversion and different areas of self-directed learning was explored also in other studies, revealing contradictory findings: Lounsbury et al. (2009) obtained positive associations while Kirwan, Lounsbury, & Gibson (2010) report non-significant findings. A possible explanation is that self-directed learners can function efficiently as well alone or in group settings. Despite the significant correlations obtained between personality traits and self-directed learning, the personality traits explain only 10% of the total variance of self-directed learning, the prediction model being significant: F(5,120)=2.33, p=.04. The only significant predictor is openness: t(120)=2.08, p=.04. The results show that selfdirected learning cannot be readily assigned to the Big Five traits. It is possible that personality traits in combination to other aspects such as achievement learning goals, learning motivation, self-determination would explain a larger amount of shared variance between the traits. The second hypothesis is that self-directed learning and personality traits such as conscientiousness and openness to experience predict academic achievement. The Pearson coefficients between academic achievement and all areas of self-directed learning revealed significant associations ranging from.21 to.23, at a significance level p<.05. In order to test this hypothesis we used multiple regression analysis. We tested several models. The first model included only self-directed learning as predictor, the second model added study year and the third model included two personality traits, conscientiousness and openness to experience as predictors. Table 2. Hierarchic multiple linear regression for the prediction of academic achievement
Ana-Maria Cazan and Bianca-Andreea Schiopca / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 640 644 643 Model R R 2 F df Sig Predictors Constant Unstandardized t sig coefficients 1.262.069 8.730 1,119.004 5.235 SRSSDL_total.012 2.955.004 2.380.145 9.888 2,119.000 4.527 SRSSDL_total.010 2.539.012 Study year.774 3.218.002 3.401.161 5.497 4,119.000 4.367 SRSSDL_total Study year.819 3.381.001 3.381 Conscientiousness.026 1.402.164 1.402 Openness -.021 -.827.410 -.827 Dependent variable: Academic performance; Model 1: Predictors: SRSSDL_Total; Model 2: Predictors: SRSSDL_Total, Study year; Model 3: Predictors: (Constant), SRSSDL_Total, Study year, Conscientiousness, Openness The results revealed that self-directed learning predicts academic achievement, the predictive value being more efficient when the study year is added as predictor. The personality traits seem not to be significant predictors. The study year is an efficient predictor; self-directed learners from the third year have higher academic performances that first year students. Thus, the second model is the best, although it predicts poorly academic achievement, only 14% of the variance. An explanation can be the existence of a mediation relation between personality traits, selfdirected learning and academic achievement. Clancy and Dollinger (1993) also focused on the causality direction of the personality learner self-direction relationship. 5. Conclusions and recommendations The findings of the present study affirm the importance of the self-directed learning construct and can prove its role as a personality trait (Lounsbury et al., 2009). Self-directed learning has multiple connections to personality traits; it is not linked to one personality trait. The findings are consistent with the diverse factors linked to the learner self-direction in the theoretical literature (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). The results also showed that SRSSDL can be a useful tool in the diagnosis of student learning needs in order to improve their academic adjustment. It is important that both educators and learners have a clear understanding of the concept and nature of self-directed learning skills for its further development (Williamson, 2007). Further research in the field must take into account also other aspects such as, achievement motivation, independence, and self-efficacy. Another possibility is to extend the study to other personality traits that go beyond the Big Five model. The current study focused at personality learner self-direction relationships at a single point in time. A longitudinal study would evaluate the stability of this relationship over time. A longitudinal design would also demonstrate the causal direction of the personality learner self-direction relationship. Other issues remain unsolved, such as the analysis of social interactions and specific learning environments which can affect selfdirected learning. Recent research recognize the importance of the learning context for self-directed learning (Candy, 1991; Confessore & Cops, 1998), learners may exhibit different levels of self-direction in different learning situations. According to this perspective, self-directed learning can be evaluated not only from a general view, but also from a domain specific view. Further studies will also focus on the psychometric properties and the validation of the Romanian version of SRSSDL.
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