Development of student self-regulated learning in middle-school classrooms

• Main Author: Heater, Jill Alexandra
• Other Authors: Walsh, William John Charles
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: motivation; education; academic achievement; UVic Subject Index::Humanities and Social Sciences::Education::Educational psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/1959

Students who engage in self regulated learning have been consistently found to employ deeper cognitive processing and attain higher academic achievement (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; VanderStoep, Pintrich, & Fagerlin. 1996). The present study extended self-regulation research by looking at the developmental trajectories of student self-regulated learning across the middle-school years and how these trajectories might be affected by the goal structure of the classroom environment and the sex of learners. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyse the longitudinal data of 475 middle-school students responses to the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990) and Student Classroom Environment Measure (Feldlaufer, Midgely, & Eccles, 1988). HLM analyses showed that students intrinsic value and self-regulation decreased, and test anxiety increased over the middle-school years. Self-efficacy and cognitive-strategy use remained stable during this period. The goal structure of the classroom environment influenced all of the self-regulated learning components of the MSLQ, such that the more mastery oriented the classroom environment, the more intrinsic value students had in their learning and the higher was their self-efficacy, self regulation and cognitive-strategy use, and the lower their test anxiety. In the final HLM model that included all of the predictors and the interaction term, the results highlighted the continuing influence of a mastery-oriented classroom environment on students self-regulated learning. In addition, the results showed that a mastery-oriented classroom helped to minimize students decrease in intrinsic value over the middle-school years. No sex differences were found. The important practical implication of this study’s findings is that educators may be able to help foster student self-regulated learning by making modifications to their learning environments.