A Phenomenological Research on Anadolu University Open Education Faculty Students' Attributions of Perceived Success

Abstract

Learners' perception of success and their achievement attributions have both cognitive and affective consequences on learners' performance. According to attribution theory, the interpretations of the causes of outcomes by individuals have been identified as the most significant factors influencing individual's persistence, expectancy of future success, motivation, and in return, academic achievement. This study aims to get detailed information about Anadolu University Open Education Faculty (AUOEF) students' perception of success and causal attributions related to their performances. With respect to attributions' context and individual specific nature, this study is significant as it aims to gather information related to attributions for perceived success directly from the students themselves. For this reason, without making any presumptions multiple open-ended interviews were conducted with the students on their perception of success and causal attributions with a phenomenological approach. The extent to which these attributions are healthy or unhealthy was examined according to Wiener's attributional model of achievement motivation. According to the findings it was revealed that perception of success varies from individual to individual and the attributions are similar to those ones in many other attribution studies in the literature. Based on the attributions of the participants, some suggestions were made for open education system.