Examining Correlation Between Academic Procrastination And Academic Self-efficacy Of EFL MEd Student Teachers

Academic procrastination is a common phenomenon among university students that has negative influences on students’academic performance.For postgraduates,procrastination can affect their completion of academic study and progress of their research work.As a specific self-efficacy performed in the learning field,academic self-efficacy is confirmed as an important influencing factor of learners’ academic achievement.Regarded as future English teachers,M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination behavior and their academic self-efficacy beliefs will have an impact on the development of their prospective students’ learning ability as well as habit formation.In recent years,many studies have been conducted at home and abroad regarding academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy of middle school students and undergraduates.However,there is scant research exploring M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy.In view of this research gap,an investigation examining the status quo and reasons for M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination and the relationship between their academic self-efficacy is of vital importance.The current study aims to examine the following three research questions:1.What is the level of M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination?What are the factors contributing to it?2.What is the status quo of M.Ed.students’ academic self-efficacy?3.Is there a correlation between academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy?What is the correlation between M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination and their academic self-efficacy beliefs?This study was conducted in Central China Normal University.The participants were 52 M.Ed.students.A mixed research approach was employed,including questionnaire and semi-structured interview so as to fulfill the objectives.The major findings are summarized as follows:1.A moderate academic procrastination is found in seven academic activities(weekly assignments,term paper/research presentation,exam preparation,academic reading,attendance tasks,dissertation writing and practicum).Specifically,M.Ed.students are more likely to postpone academic reading and writing,but seldom procrastinate during education practicum.The reasons revealed can be divided into internal and external ones,which are mainly concerned with their lack of interest and inner motivation,their deficiency of research knowledge and ability,poor self-discipline,the difficulty of the assignments,unclear instructions and limited help from the teacher.2.The level of M.Ed.students’ academic self-efficacy is at a moderate level.Their academic self-efficacy to learning behavior(SELB)is higher than academic self-efficacy to learning ability(SELA),meaning that they feel more confident in their performance compared to their learning ability.It is because they have developed their own learning strategies that can help them achieve good results.And due to the lack of research knowledge and academic ability,some students are uncertain of their learning ability to some degree.3.There is a moderate negative correlation between M.Ed.students’ academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy.However,the relation between M.Ed.students’academic self-efficacy and their postponement on dissertation writing is rather low and there is no significant correlation with their procrastination during practicum.Pedagogical implications are drawn from this study for M.Ed.students,teacher educators and the M.Ed.programs in order to improve M.Ed.students’ academic self-efficacy and overcome their academic procrastination.