University students’ motivation and learning strategies from the perspective of self-regulated learning

Abstract

In the chapter Student motivation and learning strategies from the perspective of self-regulated learning, the authors Milja Vujačić, Jelena Stanišić and Snežana Mirkov start from Pintrič’s model of self-regulated learning and examine the relationship between student motivation and learning strategies, and whether they are related to academic achievement (current average grade at studies), field of studying, and gender. The research included 520 respondents of all years of study from the faculties of arts and faculties of natural and social sciences of the Universities of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac. For collecting data on motivational orientations of students and strategies they use while learning study programs, the authors used the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The results obtained in this research confirmed that for achieving learning success it is important for students to be motivated and to achieve a certain level of self-regulation by using different learning strategies; individual forms of motivation have importance in prediction of different self-regulation strategies; at University level, rehearsal as a learning strategy has a lower potential of leading to success than learning strategies that require higher level of cognitive engagement; and female students, when compared to male students, use different cognitive and metacognitive strategies to a greater extent. The authors see the key implications of research in the need for teaching practice at faculties to be based, as much as possible, on modern theories of development and the learning process, which lie in the basis of self-regulation as a necessary aspect of the learning process, personal development, and success of an individual.