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Rethinking student participation in the college classroom: Can commitment and self‐affirmation enhance oral participation?
Author(s) -
Sereno Ken,
Walter Nathan,
Brooks John J.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12664
Subject(s) - optimism , psychology , social psychology , self esteem , class (philosophy) , computer science , artificial intelligence
The literature suggests that in‐class oral participation is associated with various positive outcomes that directly contribute to academic success. The goal of the current study was to investigate the role played by psychological barriers to oral participation, focusing on commitment and self‐affirmation as methods to bypass barriers to participation. The results of the semester‐long experiment ( N = 157) demonstrate that committed individuals who had an opportunity to self‐affirm outperformed both committed students and affirmed students, as well as members of the control group. Interestingly, the interplay between self‐affirmation and commitment increased oral participation, irrespective of whether students had high or low self‐esteem and high or low self‐efficacy. The current results offer some room for cautious optimism, as they highlight the importance of self‐affirmation and commitment as a route to academic success.