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Self-Efficacy, Academic Motivation, and Self-Regulation: How Do They Predict Academic Achievement for Medical Students?

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Abstract

Purpose

Self-efficacy, academic motivation, and self-regulation have been identified as important factors contributing to students’ learning success in general education. In the field of medical education, however, few studies have examined these variables or their interrelationships as predictors of undergraduate medical students’ learning outcomes, especially in the context of flipped learning.

Methods

Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study explored the impact of self-efficacy on 146 first- and second-year medical students’ academic achievement in a flipped-learning environment, and whether such impact (if any) was mediated by academic motivation and self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies.

Results

On average, students scored highest on self-efficacy (mean = 5 out of a possible 7), followed by intrinsic motivation (mean = 4.59), resource-management strategies (mean = 4.48), metacognitive strategies (mean = 4.46), extrinsic motivation (mean = 4.24), and cognitive strategies (mean = 4.17). Our SEM results suggest that, while there was a direct effect of self-efficacy on learning outcomes, academic motivation and SRL strategies did not mediate it.

Conclusions

By unpacking the structural relationships among self-efficacy, academic motivation, SRL strategies, and learning outcomes, this study provides evidence-based support for the importance of promoting students’ self-efficacy in undergraduate medical flipped-learning environments. Strategies for increasing students’ self-efficacy are also discussed.

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Data Availability

Upon request

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Medical Education Research and Development, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, A214B, 965 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Binbin Zheng & Chi Chang

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Chin-Hsi Lin

  3. Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yining Zhang

Authors
  1. Binbin Zheng
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  2. Chi Chang
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  3. Chin-Hsi Lin
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  4. Yining Zhang
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Contributions

BZ has contributed to study design, data collection, data analysis, drafting, and finalization of the manuscript. CC contributed to data analysis, drafting, and finalization of the manuscript. CL contributed to data analysis, drafting, and finalization of the manuscript. YZ contributed to data collection, drafting, and finalization of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Binbin Zheng.

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Zheng, B., Chang, C., Lin, CH. et al. Self-Efficacy, Academic Motivation, and Self-Regulation: How Do They Predict Academic Achievement for Medical Students?. Med.Sci.Educ. 31, 125–130 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01143-4

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