الفهرس 
BACKGROUND OF THE PROBELMOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The current study problem was that fourth-year EFL students at Ain Shams Faculty of Women for Sciences, Arts, and Education were suffering from weakness in their creative writing and self-efficacy. To cope with this problem, the study aimed at exploring the effect of self-regulated learning using learning management system tools on developing EFL student teachers’ creative writing and self-efficacy and sought to answer the following question:
What is the effect of a proposed program based on self-regulated learning using learning management systems on developing fourth-year EFL student teachers’ creative writing and self-efficacy?
Other aims for the study were to: a) cope with recent pedagogical trends that emphasize the importance of integrating learning management systems with 21st teaching; b) show the feasibility of using modern technology in teaching, learning, and assessing creative writing as well as self-efficacy; c) attract EFL educators’ attention to building more student-centered learning environments that respect students’ needs, individuality, and pace; d) provide EFL educators with a practical and theoretical framework in which they can use self-regulated learning with learning management system tools in higher education; e) encourage EFL educators to emerge available useful digital technologies as learning management systems to save themselves time and effort and to increase their EFL students’ engagement; f) activate the role of students in the learning process by giving them the chance to regulate their learning and be responsible for identifying their needs, setting their goals, working towards achieving them, and assessing their progress; and g) test the efficiency of some new online teaching methods that might help EFL educators correspond with the latest updates on the Coronavirus pandemic.
To achieve these aims, the study tested the following hypotheses:
1. There is a statistically significant difference at a 0.01 level of significance between the mean scores of fourth-year EFL student teachers’ overall performance on the creative writing pre-posttest in favor of the posttest.
2. There are statistically significant differences at a 0.01 level of significance between the mean scores of fourth-year EFL student teachers’ overall performance on the pre-post creative nonfiction writing test (personal essay) and its subskills in favor of the posttest.
3. There are statistically significant differences at a 0.01 level of significance between the mean scores of fourth-year EFL student teachers’ overall performance on the pre-post creative fiction writing test (short story) and its subskills in favor of the posttest.
4. There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of fourth-year EFL student teachers’ overall performance on the pre-post administration of the writing self-efficacy scale and its subdimensions in favor of the post-administration.
With taking into account that the study was confined to one intact group (N=30) of fourth-year EFL student teachers enrolled at the Faculty of Women for Arts, Sciences, and Education at Ain Shams University during the first semester of the academic year 2021/2022. Additionally, the focus of the study was on creative writing—more specifically personal essay as an example of creative nonfiction writing and short story as an example of creative fiction writing—and self-efficacy. The study followed the Six Principles of Self-Regulated Learning presented by Andrade and Evans (2013) and utilized Schoology as the learning management system to facilitate the online learning process.
On the completion of the experiment, the participants were posttested and the results revealed a statistically significant improvement in their creative writing and self-efficacy.
5.2 Limitations of the Study
Though the current study was appropriate to the Egyptian context as due to the Coronavirus pandemic almost all Egyptian universities were pushed to shift to online teaching for full even academic semesters; thus, of course, required utilizing a digital medium such as learning management system platforms, yet because of students’ unfamiliarity with the suggested program basic elements which were self-regulated learning, Schoology as a learning management system, creative writing, and self-efficacy, the researcher met some challenges during the implementation phase of the program. Here is a summary of these challenges along with the suggested solutions helped overcome them:
1. Lack of Motivation
Some students hesitated to participate in the SRCWP since they knew that the course is online and targets improving their creative writing abilities. They expressed their anxiety about facing problems while trying out this type of writing. They also stressed out that they were never introduced or trained on creative writing before as it was not a focus of their study. Additionally, they clarified that due to the past two academic years exceptional circumstance—during the Coronavirus pandemic—and being forced to study from home, writing in general was over neglected and been limited to few types of essays such as compare and contrast and argumentative. To overcome this problem, extra sessions were devoted to illustrating the differences between academic writing and creative writing with its two genres fiction and nonfiction. Additionally, detailed sessions deliberately addressed creative writing tools (e.g., literary devices & sensory language) as well as techniques (e.g., show don’t tell). Furthermore, through interactive exercises and tasks, the instructor was able to unfold students’ creative writing potential by giving them the chance to explore different examples and apply what they have learnt in writing short paragraphs before asking them to write personal essays and/or short stories.
2. Reluctance of Being Responsible
The goal of this study was to develop creative writers who can effectively use self-regulatory strategies throughout the writing process to produce original, clear, accurate, and creative written texts. Thus, students were introduced to the self-regulated learning process and principles for the first time. Honestly, encouraging students to take control and responsibility of their own learning as well as behaviors was difficult, especially that students in the Egyptian culture are used to be spoon-fed rather than self-learnt. In the beginning, students were confused about how to be self-regulated learners and what it means. They expressed their discomfort with being the only responsible for when, how, and where their learning process occurs. Therefore, the instructor dedicated a week session to get students adhere to the process and principles of self-regulation. She assured them that self-regulated learning skills are teachable and develop with experience and that it is logical that changing their behaviors take time. To provide more guidance, she also developed a study plan outline to help students organize their ideas, thoughts, and plans of their learning as well as a reflection sheet to get them the chance to assess their weekly progress and reflect on what went right and/or wrong throughout accomplishing their tasks. Though teachers are not likely to take learners from a complete lack of self-regulation to full-regulation over the time period of a single course (Andrade & Evans, 2013), the instructor was able to help her students achieve progress.
3. Lack of Confidence Using Technology
Some students were not confident enough to use technology. There were not familiar with either using Schoology—the learning management system chosen for the implementation of the SRCWP—or dealing with the interactive design of the program content which included watching guided videos, participating in online discussions, answering live worksheets, submitting assignments, and taking online quizzes. Concerning these problems, the instructor encouraged the learners to give up on their negative thoughts and develop strong self-beliefs in their ability to adapt to the system. She also devoted the first week of the program for serving one purpose which was getting them to know all needed features in Schoology and let them apply practically how to reach and interact with the weekly content, discuss it with their colleagues and/or instructor, submit required assignments, and take the online quizzes. In another attempt to eliminate students’ fear, the instructor created a WhatsApp group and included all participants for better communication and following up. They were also given permission to contact the instructor via e-mail or cell phone whenever they encountered technical problems.
4. Time constraints
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic response plan, the Faculty of Women for Sciences, Arts, and Education had to set an early date to start the first semester final exams of the academic year 2021-2022 which, in turn, prevented the researcher from having enough time to finish the proposed SRCWP. Therefore, the instructor had to condense the program sessions.
5. Plagiarism
Plagiarism, a serious academic concern, started to appear as an enduring problem especially with the big number of assignments students had to write and the insufficient time. Some students started to copy their own written texts, whether the personal essays or the short stories, from the internet. To overcome this problem, at the beginning of each assignment learners were warned not to copy from the internet confirming that this is consider an unethical act. Instead, the instructor encouraged participants to seize the chance to express their real-life experiences while creating their personal essays and unleash their imagination while creating their short stories using their unique dictionary to paint vivid imageries and generate original pieces of writing.
5.3 Conclusions
Analyses of the results of the current study revealed the following conclusions:
A. The proposed program based on self-regulated learning using learning management system tools had a significant effect on the overall creative writing performance of EFL student teachers.
B. The proposed program based on self-regulated learning using learning management system tools had a significant effect on the overall creative nonfiction writing performance (personal essay) of EFL student teachers.
C. The proposed program based on self-regulated learning using learning management system tools had a significant effect on the overall creative fiction writing performance (short story) of EFL student teachers.
D. The proposed program based on self-regulated learning using learning management system tools had a significant effect on the overall performance of writing self-efficacy and its subdimensions of EFL student teachers.
E. Self-regulated learning allows students to take control and responsibility of their own learning as well as behaviors.
F. Integrating self-regulated learning in online courses with using learning management systems contributed to provide a better language learning environment.
G. Being self-regulated learners help students adhere to the concepts of autonomy learning and develop their abilities to become long self-learners.
H. The progress of students’ self-regulatory skills is achievable with consistency and effort, even if students had no prior knowledge or experience.
I. There is a strong indication that good self-regulated learners have high level of self-efficacy and are more able to generate positive self-beliefs about their capabilities and performance.
5.4 Recommendations
In light of the present study, the following recommendations are suggested:
A. Self-regulated learning principles and strategies should be used in teaching EFL classes in general and more specifically in facilitating EFL writing.
B. Students should become the center of the learning process and should be assigned more responsible and active roles in their learning.
C. Learning management system should be integrated in teaching EFL classes whether face-to-face, flipped, blended, or virtual due to its two-folded advantages for both teachers as well as students.
D. Creative writing constitutes a problem for most students. Therefore, teaching this type of writing should be given more attention, time, and effort in EFL classes.
E. Improving EFL students’ self-efficacy in general and specifically writing self-efficacy should be given a special emphasis in EFL syllabuses in early stages due to its huge impact on students’ academic achievement and success.
F. The significance of teachers’ constructive constant feedback is paramount. It is considered as an integral part of students’ learning process as well as an effective factor in the development of the creative writing performance.
G. Students should be given more opportunities to use modern technology for academic purposes (e.g., learning management systems, electronic portfolios, weblogs, etc.)
5.5 Suggestions for Further Research
Based on the present study, the researcher suggests conducting future research tackling the following areas:
A. The impact of self-regulated learning on EFL student teachers’ oral skills.
B. The impact of using learning management systems on developing self-regulated learning in flipped classrooms.
C. The relationship of self-efficacy beliefs and writing apprehension level on EFL students’ overall writing performance.
D. EFL student teachers’ attitude towards using learning management systems.
E. The effect of self-regulation on EFL students’ motivation towards writing.
F. The impact of EFL student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs on integrating learning technology in their future practices.
G. Exploring the effect of self- and peer-assessment on the EFL students’ writing self-efficacy.
H. The impact of EFL student teacher’s self-efficacy on their speaking achievement.
I. Using learning management systems to promote EFL students’ autonomous learning.