An Exploration of Attributional Beliefs and Procrastination Among Online Teacher Education Graduate Students
Abstract: Previously, the authors found that the attributional belief that academic outcomes occurred because of the individual’s effort significantly predicted procrastination in online students. Research suggests that high effort attributions may reflect degradation of self-efficacy. Thus, the authors sought to better understand the reasons online students procrastinated with particular emphasis on decoding the role of effort in students’ attributional thinking and procrastination. An investigation of causal attributions for procrastination among online students enrolled in a graduate teacher education program was conducted. Subjects completed a measure of achievement attribution and a structured open-ended question regarding their attributions for procrastination. Results indicated that students tended to attribute academic success to effort and attributed procrastination to context. Findings are discussed as they relate to reducing students’ tendency to procrastinate in the future.