Effectiveness of Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies Training on Digital Self-Efficacy and Academic Procrastination in University Students

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Nowadays, the use of digital space has grown and expanded significantly. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determine the effectiveness of cognitive and metacognitive strategies training on digital self-efficacy and academic procrastination in university students.

Methodology: This study was a quasi-experimental with a pretest, posttest and two-month follow-up design including a control group. The population of this research consisted of medical students of Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in the 2025-6 academic years, which 40 people of them were selected through purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group eight sessions of 70 minute received the cognitive and metacognitive strategies training, while during this period the control group received no intervention. To collect data, in addition to a demographic information form were used the Digital Self-Efficacy Scale (Ulfert-Blank & Schmidt, 2022) and Academic Procrastination Questionnaire (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). The data of this research were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS-25 software at a significant level of 0.05.

Findings: The results of this study showed that the students of experimental and control groups did not differ significantly in terms of gender status and age range (P>0.05). Also, cognitive and metacognitive strategies training led to a significant reduction in academic procrastination in students (P<0.05), but it did not have a significant effect on increasing their digital self-efficacy (P>0.05) and the results were maintained at the follow-up stage (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, counselors and psychologists can use cognitive and metacognitive strategies training to reduce academic procrastination.