The role of self-regulation skills and educational engagement in online teaching of Arabic language courses for high school students

Self-regulation will result in educational enthusiasm or engagement which is known as a psychological investment and a direct attempt for learning, understanding, and mastering the required knowledge and skills and finally, results in an improvement in educational performance. Arabic language is a mandatory course in the educational system in our country. In the meantime, many students face problems and are not successful in learning Arabic for various reasons. In this study, we investigated the self-regulatory skills and educational engagement of high school students in online Arabic language courses. This study was performed using a descriptive (correlation) method. The statistical population consisted of high school students in the city of Gorgan in the academic year 2020-2021. From among 560 completed questionnaires, 536 accurately completed ones were examined as the study sample. Data collection instruments included Bouffard educational Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) and Reeve Academic Engagement Scale. Questionnaires were analyzed by statistical methods in the SPSS software. The results indicated that, due to a significant relationship, the effects of self-regulatory skills and academic enthusiasm of students in online Arabic language courses could be confirmed. There is no significant difference between male and female students in terms of the general educational engagement in online teaching of Arabic language courses. However, more behavioral and emotional tendency to learn Arabic lessons was observed in the male students in the subscales of educational engagement. In terms of self-regulation, there was no significant difference between male and female students in online teaching of Arabic language courses. Taking into account the effects of self-regulatory learning skills and educational engagement in online teaching of Arabic language courses, it would be possible to enhance the students’ academic performance and their success in foreign language courses, especially Arabic, through using appropriate and adequate data in this field and designing, procurement and implementation of appropriate educational programs.