Self - Concept, Learning Styles, Study Habits and Academic Achievement of Adolescents in Kashmir

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CHAPTER 1: Introduction:

The latest concept about the influences exerted on the child starts right from the neonatal stage. This is an established fact that outer environment plays a dominant role in the formation of the body and the make-up of neonate's mind. However, at later stage a person, to some extent, shapes the pattern of his life by the choices and decisions he makes at successive stages of life. The choice and decisions taken are usually based on the inputs that he/she has received during the preceding years, be it from family, peers or school. So far as the school influence is concerned a teacher assumes pivotal position. A teacher's main concern in the classroom is all-round development of the child. It is a time tested adage as is the teacher so is the taught and as is the taught so is the society. A teacher dedicated in educating a child in a balanced and integrated manner has to understand the characteristics, proclivity of a child at various stages of life. Therefore, it is essential for a teacher to study the growth and development of different stages of life.
Growth refers to quantitative changes in physical development, i.e. increase in size, height and weight. Growth refers to the structural and physiological changes, i.e. growth in height and weight or it may be change in the particular aspects of the body or some part of the body. The term development refers to change in structure, form or shape and improvement in functioning. When qualitative changes occur in behavioral characteristics of the child, it is called development. Development means the whole sequence of life from conception to death. It may imply the change in the organism as a whole. Hurlock says that it is 'progressive series of changes in an orderly coherent pattern'. The changes are directional leading to vertical and horizontal mobility and resulting in new characteristics and new abilities on the part of the individual. Development is comprehensive which includes physical, social, and emotional and many more aspects of an individual. With the onset of adolescence, physiological changes accelerate, sexual maturity arrives, social relationships become more intense and new cognitive capacities emerge. Although psychological maturity does not occur so rapidly because teenage is a stage of transition accelerated by development. When we speak of the adolescent as 'growing up,' we mean that the youth has left behind the phase of protective childhood and is becoming independent, capable of going out to fend for him/her.
Early adolescence extends roughly from 13-16 and late adolescence covers the period from 16 until 18, the age of legal maturity. Adolescent is the most crucial period in the life of a human being. It is the stage when the surge of life reaches to ist highest peak. The adolescent's life is, or might be, full of hopes. The adolescents are eager to interact with new experiences, to find new relationships, to examine resources of inner strength and fathom the strength of their inner abilities. The adolescent tries to have freedom to think and set his own goals and discover means to achieve them. Adolescence is considered as a transitional phase, a 'status passage' between childhood and adulthood (Fend, 2000; Flammer and Alsaker, 2002; Hurrelmann, Rosewitz and Wolf, 1994; Maggs, Schulenberg and Hurrelmann, 1997). In this transition phase, bodily, emotional, and social changes occur and these changes fully occupy the attention of the adolescents. The main questions that are stated to the self are concentrated on emotions ('How am I?'), social development ('What am I able to do?'), and identity ('Who am I?'). The adolescent way of thinking is rather egocentric (Elkind, 1978) and adolescents are quite concerned about their appearance, their impression on others, and their abilities. Also, they tend to feel that they are the focus of attention of others. Development of Self is an important phase of this stage. It refers to the image which adolescents hold about themselves. Attitudes of right and wrong may also become part of their psychological self. Self may involve, after certain stages of psychological growth, concepts like I, we, mine and yours. The growing adolescent's ability and the concept of self, is influenced by the way in which they accept others. Closely associated with the problem of self is the quest for meaning and purpose which constantly occupies adolescent's thinking. This is so because they are constantly in search of selfhood.
Early in the History of Psychology, Self was considered as an important topic of interest. For example, in the times of James (1890), the self played a central role in psychological thinking and to a good extent; ist study was pursued by introspection (Calvin, 1915). Self-concept is hence self-percepts, which have acquired meaning and which have been related to the other self-percepts. The self-percepts are observed facts, the impressions of raw material of self which individual receives via several senses. Since the person cannot subscribe the meaning to himself in a vacuum, the concept of self is generally a picture of the self; in some role a certain situation, in some position, performing a certain set of functions, or in some relationship. The whole idea of concept and percepts has been beautifully knitted by Roger in his publication. To quote him, 'the self-concept or self-structure may be thought of as an organized configuration of perception of the self which are admissible to awareness. It is composed of such elements as the perceptions of one's characteristics and abilities, the percepts and the concept of the other self in relation to the other and to the environment, the value-qualities which are perceived as associated with experiences and objects and the goals and ideas which are perceived as having positive or negative valence'.
Self-concept is the way people think about themselves. It is unique, dynamic, and always evolving. This mental image of oneself influences a person's identity, self-esteem, body image. As a global understanding of oneself, self-concept shapes and defines who we are, the decisions we make, and the relationships we form. Self-concept is perhaps the basis for all motivated behaviour (Franken, 1994). Three basic components of self-concept are the ideal self, the public self, and the real self.
Cooley (1902) developed the concept of the 'Looking-glass-self'. He defines it 'as we see our face, figure and dress in the glass and are interested in them because they are ours and pleased or otherwise with them'. As in imagination we perceive in others mind, some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends and so on and we are variously affected by it'. According to Rogers, an accurate and positive self-concept is necessary for full functioning (Meador and Rogers, 1974; Rogers, (1983) Damon and Hart (1982) have proposed that an important distinction (first made by William James) is necessary for understanding self-concept. The distinction is between 'I' and 'Me.' Damon and Hart (1982) have proposed that the 'Me' includes four aspects of the self: the physical self, the active self, the social self and the psychological self. Although all aspects of the self are important, the emphasis among them changes during development.
Behaviour is consistent with self-concept, experiences that are inconsistent with the self-concept and are viewed as threatening, the self-concept changes as a result of learning. Learning is one of the fundamental areas in psychology. The theorists named already Pavlov, Toleman, Watson, and Skinner are some of the most influential in this discipline. The history of learning theory is, in many ways, the history of psychology. Some of the earliest psychological research came from studies in animal learning conducted by Edward Lee Thorndike in the 1890's Edwin R. Gurthrie in the early 1900's and from Toleman, Pavlov, and others. One of the most important movements in psychology, Behaviourism, was largely a learning-based approach. Watson founded this school of thought, and described it in his book Behaviourism (1925), in an effort to make psychology an objective and scientific field of research. He believed that all behaviour could be explained by learning principles. Skinner extended and continued this field of thought beginning in the 1930's and behaviourism dominated psychology for the next few decades.
We can categorize an individual's strength and weaknesses about the processes of learning from a number of different factors which affect the way we learn. It is possible to refer to someone as a 'visual learner' or a person who prefers 'step-by-step' directions. By assessing and then planning for each student's individual learning style, a teacher can improve the chances of each student to learn. Another element of diversity in the classroom may be the learning style. Learning styles appear to be biological and perhaps socialized differences that influence class-room learning, in particular and lifelong learning in general. They reflect qualitative differences or preferences and do not reflect how young students are or how well the students are developed cognitively. How the student feels about himself/herself and how self-esteem is developed are also linked to learning. There are consistent ways to facilitate learning through the use of the senses or environmental stimuli, hemisphere specialization (i.e. right or left brain) auditory, visual. Kinesthetic olfactory preferences or preferences for environmental conditions e.g. light, noise are examples of physiological styles. There are consistent ways of responding and using stimuli in the environment, how things are perceived and made sense of, the most comfortable, expedient and pleasurable way to process information e.g. student may utilize field dependent or independent impulsive or reflective cognitive styles. The more students grow, the more sophisticated they become, but each has preferred styles or ways of learning. A Student's preferred style of learning influences his/her achievement.
A great variety of learning styles have been identified. Many are applicable to special education (Dunn, 1983), while others are more appropriately applied to higher education (Gregoric, 1979). Different theorists have taken different theoretical and applied approaches to the study of learning styles. Ausburn and Ausburn (1978) have emphasized the study of learning styles as cognitive styles, and vice versa. Gregoric (1979) has conceptualized learning styles on the basis of student's preferences for particular learning sources and whether students prefer to learn through concrete or abstract means. He thus has been able to distinguish among abstract-sequential, abstract-random, and concrete-random learners. Hunt (1974) has proposed a conceptual level (CL) learning style model embodying dimensions of cognitive complexity, maturity, independence, and adaptability to social environments.
Dunn and Dunn, whose work has been particularly school and classroom oriented (1975, 1977, and 1979), have identified four major categories of learning-style variables: (1) environmental, (2) emotional, (3) sociological, and (4) physical. Dunn's environmental category involves learning style elements relating to student's preferences for learning under different conditions of light, sound, temperature, and design (the last involving preferences for studying under formal or less structured learning conditions). Dunn's emotional category concerns a student's motivation, persistence, responsibility, and the need for structure. Their sociological category relates to student's preferences so as to learn by himself/herself or with others. The physical needs category involves modality preferences in learning, which Dunn and Dunn stress heavily, and other physical needs variables they believe are important to learning.
In the process of learning, a learner's habitual ways of exercising and practicing their abilities for learning are considered as study habits of learners. The pattern of behavior adopted by students in the pursuit of their studies is considered under the caption of their 'study habits'. Learner's learning character is characterized by his study habits. Habits are true indicators of individuality in a person so study habits are the behavior of an individual related to studies which is adjudged from his study habits. Study habits serve as a vehicle of learning. It may be seen as both means and ends of learning. Study habits play a very pivotal role in the life of students. The Success or failure of each student depends upon his/her own study habits. Of course, study is an art and as such it requires practice. Some students study more but they fail to achieve more. Others study less but achieve more. Success of each student definitely depends upon ability, intelligence and the effort of students. No doubt, regular study habits bring their own reward in the sense of the achievement of success. Study habits refer to the activities carried out by learners during the learning process of improving learning. Study habits are intended to elicit and guide one's cognitive processes during learning. According to Patel (1976) study habits include. (1) Home environment and planning of work (2) Reading and note taking habits (3) Planning of subjects (4) Habits of concentration (5) Preparation for examination (6) General habits and attitudes (7) School environment.
Study habits are influenced by teaching methods adopted and the material they are to learn. So, it is the effort of teachers to develop good study habits among students. Such habits are the best equipments with which they can live and lead their lives with confidence. If the habits are developed at a young age, they will definitely cherish the joy of ist fruits in the rest of their lives, because grown up children are already habituated to certain things. So they find it difficult to modify their habits and behavior. Therefore, it is better to develop study habits in the initial stage of life. It is the proper time and age to cultivate study habits.
Many students do not study just for the sake of studying. Study is hard work. A great number of motivational interest; work habits and personality characteristics combine in various ways to determine school achievement. Many studies have shown that among the many variables that affect academic achievement, motivation is obviously an important one. Whether a student will work at a task to pursue excellence at any given time during the day depend on his consummators needs (hunger, thirst etc) being met; his hierarchical structure of internal motives to achieve success in various activities and his tendencies to avoid failure.
Grades are the most universally accepted indicators of achievement in educational settings that focus on the student (Anaya, 1999; Biggs, 1989; Goberna 1987; Harackiewicz, Barron, and Elliot, 1998; Pardo and Olea, 1993). Academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the studying and learning process. Good (1973), has defined, academic achievement as knowledge attitude or skills developed in the school subject usually designed by test scores or by marks assigned by a teacher or by both. Consequently, academic achievement could be defined as self perception and self evaluation of one's objective success. Academic achievement is defined by Crow and Crow (1969) as the extent to which a learner is profiting from instructions in a given area of learning i.e., achievement is reflected by the extent to which skill and knowledge has been imparted to him. Academic achievement also denotes the knowledge attained and skill developed in the school subject, usually designated by test scores.
Academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one's total potentialities and capabilities. Therefore, it is more pressing for the individuals/students to have high academic achievement. The term 'achievement' refers to the degree or the level of success attainted in some specific school tasks especially scholastic performance. In this sense, academic achievement means the attained ability to perform school tasks, which can be general or specific to a given subject matter. Academic achievement could be defined as self-perception and self-evaluation of one's objective academic success. Academic achievement generally indicates the learning outcomes of a pupil. Achievement of those learning outcomes requires a series of planned and organized experiences.