Perspectives on university students' self-regulated learning, task-avoidance, time management and achievement in a flipped classroom context

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that self-regulation plays a major role in learning in academic contexts. The ability to regulate one's behaviors guides us towards goals that we are trying to achieve. The theoretical background includes perspectives to self-regulation. The aim of the study was to investigate university students' self-regulation in relation to their academic achievement in a Flipped Classroom learning context. A total of 230 university students of a multidisciplinary research university participated in this study. The students were asked to complete an on-line questionnaire. The questionnaire included various items on self-regulation of learning, time-management, lack of regulation, and task-avoidance. The various perspectives related to students' self-regulation of learning seemed to form reliable dimensions and a functional structure in accordance with the composite variable from earlier studies. The students were divided into three statistically significant profile groups: Students with high self-regulation skills, Students with low self-regulation skills and Students with low self-regulation skills and high task-avoidance. The results showed that the students' self-regulation profile was related to academic achievement in Flipped Classroom courses. Especially students with low self-regulation skills and high task-avoidance were struggling. Self-regulation plays a major role in academic achievement and the choices that students make at universities.