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GOAL system for online self-direction practice: exploring students’ behavioral patterns and the impact on academic achievement in the high school EFL context

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Abstract

Self-directed learning requires students to take the initiative to learn and control their learning process. Scholars have provided evidence for the positive effect of self-directed learning on academic achievement, and they emphasize the importance of self-direction for lifelong learning. Yet, a limited study has been conducted in K-12 education. Additionally, most research investigated students’ perceived competence in self-directed learning, but little has studied students’ behavior in self-direction practice. To fill the gap, we propose a technology-based approach to facilitate self-direction practice in the K-12 context. A GOAL system was developed to support several self-direction tasks: conduct Collection-Reflection step with self-data and Analysis-Evaluation step with accumulated self-data from two learning aspects of learning outcome and learning effort. We explored their behavioral patterns based on the interaction logs generated by 122 EFL high school students while performing those tasks across one semester. Four clusters were found to have different behavioral patterns in those tasks. Further analysis suggested a positive correlation between self-direction behavior and academic achievement. And we found that students who not only collected and reflected on self-data but also analyzed and evaluated their learning status got higher academic achievement than those who only collected and reflected on self-data or rarely engaged in any tasks. This study contributes to a technology-based approach that helps to track students’ self-direction behavior. This study extends self-direction research to the K-12 context and provides evidence for the positive impact of self-directed learning on academic achievement from a new perspective.

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Funding

This work was supported by JSPS [Grant No. 22H03902, 20K20131], NEDO Special Innovation Program on AI and Big Data [grant number JPNP18013].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yuanyuan Yang

  2. Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Huiyong Li, Rwitajit Majumdar & Hiroaki Ogata

Authors
  1. Yuanyuan Yang
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  2. Huiyong Li
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  3. Rwitajit Majumdar
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  4. Hiroaki Ogata
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Contributions

YY drafted the initial manuscript and data analysis. HL and RM provided insights. RM designed the architecture of the system. YY and HL implemented the software system and supporting algorithms, and performed the experiments. HO, RM secured funding to support this project. HO provided supervision of the research. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rwitajit Majumdar.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the school committee of the particular public school in Kyoto city.

Consent to participate

All the participants and their parents were explained about the GOAL system and the data that is collected for the research. The participants had consent for the study.

Consent for publication

All the participants had given the consent to use the data collected in GOAL for research and academic reporting.

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Yang, Y., Li, H., Majumdar, R. et al. GOAL system for online self-direction practice: exploring students’ behavioral patterns and the impact on academic achievement in the high school EFL context. J. Comput. Educ. 11, 595–614 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-023-00272-0

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