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Elements of the Academic Self-Management

Zimmerman & Risemberg (in Dembo, 2004) states that there are several components that can help of controlling the learning and academic self-management, namely:

Elements of ASM

Motivation
Motivation is an internal process that provides an energetic and purposeful behavior. Internal process includes individual goals, beliefs, perceptions, and expectations. Individual persistence on tasks is often related to how competent individual to complete the task. In addition, individual beliefs about the causes of success and failure on these tasks affect to individual motivation and behavior to overcome the tasks in the future.

One of the major differences from success students and unsuccessful students is in terms of motivation.  A successful student could motivate himself even though he is in inconvenient situation, while students who are not successful tend to be difficult to control their motivation. Being a success student should be able to concentrate and believe to his own potential and environmental effects. Another problem in motivation is persistence. Although students have motivated themselves, but they still cannot study well because there are something bothered them when the motivation is being built (Kuhl & Beckman in Dembo, 2004). Sometimes, a small disturbance can cause a decrease individual motivation. Students use many different processes to control aspects of behavior. A number of important techniques in motivational self-management, namely:

a. Goal setting.
Research shows that students who got good achievement often used goal setting and more consistent than students whose achievement is low (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons in Dembo, 2004).

b. Talking to your own self (self-talk).
Verbal reinforcement or praise can be used as a form of desired behavior. Talking to your own self (self-talk) can help individuals control the anxiety, mood, and other emotional responses (Butler, 1981; Ottens, in Dembo, 2004). It is based on the belief that what people say to themselves is an important factor in determining attitudes, feelings, emotions, and behavior.

c. Imagine the reward or punishment for success or failure in academic tasks.
A success student controlled their motivation by giving rewards and punishments against him than students who did not use control technique (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, in Dembo, 2004).

Learning Methods
Another term for a method of learning is learning strategies. Learning strategies is the method used by students to gain information. High-achieving learners use learning strategies more than students who have lower achievement (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons in Dembo, 2004). Learners can use different strategies in different learning conditions as well. Underlining, summarizing, and describing are technique in learning strategies. Success students should have a good learning strategy. It can be equipped things that may facilitate students in understanding something. Like making little notes when the teacher explained, so when the test will be held it will help in memorizing the material.

Using a Good Time
The students who have better time management ability tend to have on average higher scores than students whose time management skills are not good. Time management is needed because it affects the student self management. If a student had trouble getting along with time, he will not understand the part of the task should be prioritized. The problem of most students is that they do not have much time for that should need to be done, because he did not have ability to set the time. When a student can manage his time, then he can analyze the time and can use the time well without wasting time.

Physical and Social Environment
An important aspect of self-management is the ability of learners to restructure the social and physical environment to fulfill their needs. Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (in Dembo, 2004) found that high-achieving students do more restructuring environment and are more likely to seek help from others than low-achieving students. For the most part, environmental restructuring refers to the location of a place to study whether quiet or comfortable. Although this task maybe difficult to achieve, it caused a lot of problems for students who either choose an environment that is not right at the beginning or cannot control the disorder after they occur.
Self-management of the social environment relates to an individual's ability to determine when to work alone or with others, or when it's time to seek help from instructors, tutors, peers, or nonsocial resources (such as reference books). Knowing how and when to work with others is an important skill not often taught in schools.

Performance
The last factor that you can manage is academic achievement. By writing papers, completing the exam, or reading a book, individuals can learn how to use the self-management process to affect the quality of individual performance. One of the important functions of the destination (goal) is to provide an opportunity for individuals to analyze the performance of the individual. By the time the student can observe the work in different conditions, the student has the ability to change his behavior in learning. It is very good to succeed in education (Zimmerman & Martines-Pons in Dembo, 2004).
By the time students learn how to observe and control every performance (performance), the students can become mentors themselves. Students can practice the skills they have, the process of self-evaluation, and make changes so that the goal can be achieved.
According to Hamzah B. Uno (2005), Self-management in general consists of three main steps, namely to set goals, monitor and evaluate progress, and providing self-affirmation or reinforcement.

1. Goal Setting.
According to Adler as quoted by Uno, in his theory of fictitious purposes (fictional goal) states that a person's behavior directed toward future goals that are constructed by them. Good goals are goals set by person himself, while the other person or people nearby just guide him. So the students set the goals and their own parents or teachers just help and direct them. If the goal had known then the students act further action more stable and his life will be more meaningful.
At school, students have a goal of learning. Besides at school, students can also learn to be independent. Independent learning goal is to find a new competency either in the form of knowledge or skills to solve a problem. At the point in the learning process, it is very important for students to be able to compile their own goals. Instead the teacher should earnestly tries to guide the students in developing learning goals, so it can be used as guidelines for their daily behavior in the classroom and outside the classroom. The purpose which is compiled by the students will be more effective to improve the achievement of student concerned. The goals drawn up will be effective when:
  • The goal can be achieved in a short time, not a long-term goal
  • Specific
  • Challenging, difficult, but achievable, not too easy or too difficult.
2. Monitoring and evaluate progress.
Research conducted by Glynn & Thomas (1973) found that students who were guided in monitoring their learning and make check list about his behavior shows a good improvement on learning behavior and academic achievement. Some examples of appropriate behavior for the check list itself are how many tasks completed, the time spent on practice skills, how many books were read, and the frequency of leaving the classroom without permission, etc. The task which is done without the supervision of a teacher, such as homework, and self-learning, is also a good example to monitor them.
Self-evaluation and self-monitoring can be helped with periodic progress reports, or other tools that can help students to find out what they have been achieved on the goal based on the work that have been done. In this technique the responsibility for monitoring and management of student behavior is entirely according to students themselves.

3. Self Reinforcement
Reinforcement occurs when student attempts to extend his knowledge or improve his ability and then gives a gift or punishment for student himself because of successful achievement or performance that have been defined or for failing to achieve the feat. Self-regulation is very helpful to students who lack motivation or achievement and   was less accurate in determining the measure of success.
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