In the knowledge-based society, the situation in which society, organization, and individual face are becoming increasingly complex. In order to cope with these changes and to lead change, there is a growing demand for talented people who are actively...
In the knowledge-based society, the situation in which society, organization, and individual face are becoming increasingly complex. In order to cope with these changes and to lead change, there is a growing demand for talented people who are actively adapting to the situation, learning what is needed, and constantly developing themselves (Yun, Cox, & Sims, 2006).
In response to the demands of society, universities also have a responsibility to produce excellent human resources with self-directed competence. However, the educational environment up to high school has an aspect that impedes the growth of autonomous and diverse talents due to excessive achievement pressure, which also affects the university education to prepare for employment. In addition, the learning environment, which is not tolerated by academic failure and has a high interest in quantitative achievement, causes students to experience negative academic emotions, to lower learning motivation, and to lose autonomy. Several studies have suggested that the learning outcomes of higher education can be understood by using various indicators besides academic achievement. In this context, learning satisfaction and learning flow are used as learning outcome variables in various studies and have a significant effect on academic achievement(Choi & Lim, 2012). Therefore, in university, it is important for learners to prevent excessive academic achievement stress or declining motivation, and to provide learners with satisfying education to set challenging and positive academic experiences. In this regard, it is necessary to study what factors lead to learner 's flow and satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the learner characteristics related to learning flow and learning satisfaction of undergraduate students.
The undergraduate students who are the subject of this study have the characteristic of the lifelong development that should be able to form self-identity through the reflection of themselves and the external environment and prepare to strike out into the world. The university period is a paradigm shift from the education for the entrance examination to adult learning. Through this period, learners should take the initiative to choose the learning they need and to develop their ability to manage themselves. In addition, undergraduates challenge various opportunities, experience trial and error, and develop career paths. In this process, they can grow by overcoming adversity without frustrating or giving up on the negative.
In this regard, self-leadership which is managing oneself to set goals and achieve them, is an important competency for successful university life and social advancement of undergraduates. Self-leadership consists of specific behavioral strategies and cognitive strategies that individuals can immediately implement to become self-leaders. Self-leadership has been actively studied from the standpoint of leadership research in business administration. In accordance with these studies, self-leadership has a significant effect on organizational performance, personal performance, organizational flow, and job satisfaction(Kim & Kim, 2014; Yang & Choi, 2012). These characteristics and effects of self-leadership suggest that it may be related to experience flow or satisfaction in learning situations.
On the other hand, psychological capital, which is being discussed as a leading factor of learner's self-directed learning, engagement, and satisfaction, is also necessary competence for students. Psychological capital is a positive psychological state of an individual that leads to organizational and individual development, consisting of four factors: self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience. In the previous study, it was found that psychological capital is related to self-leadership and learning flow, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. However, empirical studies on the relationship between psychological capital, self-leadership, and learning satisfaction in the context of school are inactive. Nevertheless, it is expected that there is a significant relationship between self-leadership, psychological capital, and learning satisfaction based on preceding studies, which found a positive relationship between learning satisfaction and sub-factors of psychological capital such as self-efficacy, or a significant relationship between self-leadership and psychological capital(Kim et al., 2012; Hong, 2015). Therefore, this study intends to investigate not only the relationship between self-leadership, psychological capital, and learning flow, but also the relation with learning satisfaction.
Learners who have high level self-Leadership and psychological can set their own learning objectives and appropriately apply their own strategies to achieve them. Furthermore, they can find ways to solve problems, overcome failures, and challenge again, even if their goals are frustrated. It is expected that they experience flow and satisfaction while choosing the proper learning for self-development and challenging tasks which are suitable to their ability in the system of higher education that offers a wide choice of courses and requires personal initiative. If self-leadership and psychological capital have a significant relationship with learning flow and satisfaction, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of the development of self-leadership or psychology. In addition, if self-leadership and psychological capital enhancement leads to increased learning flow and satisfaction, it will make learners have the interest and motivation for learning again. And ultimately it is expected to form a virtuous circle of learning by having a positive impact on academic self-efficacy, hope, and self-control.
The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between self - leadership, psychological capital, and learning flow as factors influencing learning satisfaction of students. Specific research problems are as follows:
1. Do self-leadership, psychological capital, and learning flow of undergraduate predict learning satisfaction?
2. Does psychological capital mediate between self-leadership and learning satisfaction?
3. Does learning flow mediate between self-leadership and learning satisfaction?
4. Do psychological capital and learning satisfaction causally mediate between self-leadership and learning satisfaction?
To investigate these research questions, data were collected from 211 undergraduate students, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, multiple mediation analysis using the bootstrapping method are conducted. The result of the analysis and conclusions are as follows.
First, as a result of multiple regression analysis to verify variables that predict learning satisfaction, both psychological capital and learning flow predicted learning satisfaction significantly. However, the power of prediction of self-leadership on learning satisfaction was not significant in multiple regression analysis. Though, in simple regression analysis, self-leadership predicted learning satisfaction significantly.
Second, to analyze the mediating effects of psychological capital in the relationship between self-leadership and learning satisfaction, mediation analysis was conducted. Thus, psychological capital was found to fully mediate the relationship between self-leadership and learning satisfaction.
Third, learning flow was fully mediate the relationship between self-leadership and learning satisfaction.
Forth, psychological capital and learning flow causal mediated between self-leadership and learning satisfaction. The direct effect of self-leadership on learning satisfaction was not significant. Thus, psychological capital and learning flow were fully mediated. It means that self-leadership had effects on learning satisfaction only through psychological capital and learning flow serially.
Higher education can prove the achievement of the learning by meeting the personal needs of the learner, and the learning satisfaction can be used as an indicator of this achievement. In this study, it is revealed that self-leadership and psychological capital are learner 's individual competence which have significant predictive power for learning satisfaction, and these variables had significant influence on learning satisfaction through learning flow. The implications of the study are as follows.
First, self-leadership is a leadership that sets a goal and apply self-management strategies. It is a necessary skill for learners who suddenly gain high autonomy in learning by entering the university. Neck and Manz (1996) suggested that self-leadership could be developed through interventions such as education and training. Therefore, universities can promote students’self-leadership by providing them with seminars or training programs to understand self-leadership and apply the strategies in real-life situations. Furthermore, even in the context of general class, instructor can introduce self-leadership strategies, then provide guidance and chances to apply the strategies in learning activities such as team project or discussion. In order that, it is required to provide instructors with education and supports for teaching strategies that enable learners to demonstrate self-leadership in the university level.
Second, psychological capital consists of self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience had significant predictive power on learning satisfaction and mediated the relationship between self-leadership, learning flow and learning satisfaction. Psychological capital is a state-like capability that can be developed through education and empirically psychological capital capacity is improved through intervention. Luthans and colleagues (Luthans et al., 2006) present strategic elements that can promote the four sub-factors of psychological capital. So, based on these studies, universities can provide educational programs or counseling programs. It is also possible to intervene to develop psychological capital in group-based learning situations, such as team projects, since the interventions to develop psychological capital were primarily at the collective level in the study (Luthans et al., 2006). During the project work, it will be possible activities or strategies to improve psychological capital in actual learning situations: analyzing the process of a successful project, designing clear goals and paths, anticipating interferences, finding ways to cope with them, and encouraging team mates’ strengths each other.
Based on the conclusions of this study, suggestions for future research are as follows.
First, in this study, learning flow was measured by self-report questionnaire. In addition to the questionnaires, the flow can be measured by methods such as the Experiences Sampling Method (ESM), interviews, or story questionnaires(Kim, Tack, & Lee, 2010). In the follow-up study, it is proposed to measure the flow in various ways. In particularly, it will be possible to inquire into flow in depth if using the method of recording the class scene and interviewing with the record.
Second, because the sample of this study is a convenience sample, it is not enough to generalize the study results to the whole university students. Therefore, in the follow-up study, it is suggested to diversify the sex, region of the subject.
Third, the lessons that were the subject of this study were limited to lecture based class. It is suggested to confirm that the same results are obtained in the context of various types of teaching.
Fourth, the bootstrapping analysis was performed for the analysis of the multiple mediation effect. This method has no significant difference in the results of the structural equation modeling based on the maximum-likelihood method unless the number of samples is small (Hayes, Montoya, & Rockwood, 2017). However, the structural equation model has an advantage that it can be analyzed considering the measurement error. Therefore, in the subsequent study, it is suggested to confirm whether there is a significant difference from the results of this study when analyzed by the structural equation model.
Fifth, in this study, it was confirmed that self-leadership and psychological capital which in learner variables have significant predictive power on learning satisfaction. However, there are various factors affecting learning satisfaction besides learner, such as teacher, learning environment, or institutional support. Therefore, in the subsequent study, it is suggested that the integrative model is assumed considering various variables influencing the learning satisfaction, and the comparative analysis of the relationship and influence between the variables.
Lastly, this study is an empirical study that examines the relationships among variables, the importance of self-leadership and psychological capital was confirmed. Therefore, in future research, it would be meaningful to investigate whether there is a significant effect on satisfaction after applying educational programs or intervention to promote self-leadership or psychological capital.
This study has academic meaning in that it explores the ability of undergraduate students to manage themselves and maintain a positive psychological state influences on the flow and satisfaction in learning and to understand these relationships in an integrated view. In addition, it is a meaningful discovery that identified the multiple mediating effect of psychological capital and learning flow, while previous studies have examined the simple mediation of them. This study will hopefully aid to extend to the autonomy of learners in higher education and to promote psychological competence to positively cope with challenging learning situations.