Investigation of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Motivational Beliefs in Mathematics Achievement

This study aimed to investigate how mathematics achievement can be explained in terms of motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control and learning beliefs, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and test anxiety), cognitive and metacognitive (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, metacognitive self-regulatory, time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, and help seeking). In addition, it sought to investigate any statistically significant differences between male and female students on motivational beliefs, self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies, and achievement in mathematics. The study was conducted in Al Ain, with 402 students of 12th scientific stream grades (199 males, 203 females) from 6 public schools. In this study, an adapted version of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) that was developed By Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and Mackeachie (1991) and the mathematics final test of the first term of academic year 2011-2012 were used as measuring instruments. Independent sample t-test was applied to examine the two means of males and females at an alpha level of .05 to determine any statistical significance between them on motivational beliefs, SRL strategies, and achievement. Additionally, Pearson correlation was applied to investigate the relation between motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies. There was no statistically significant mean difference between males and females with respect to all motivational beliefs. Nevertheless, it was found that there are statistically significant mean differences regarding the effort regulation strategy in addition to mathematics achievement in favor of females, and peer learning in favor of males. Additionally, multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine which of the motivational beliefs and SRL strategies can be considered as good predictors of mathematics achievement. The results showed that there were five significant predictor variables of students\u27 mathematics achievement including: self-efficacy, extrinsic goal orientation, effort regulation, time and study environment, and peer learning. The most important educational implication of the current research results is that it is important to teach learners how to engage in self-regulation and how to improve their motivational beliefs. This kind of teaching could improve the students\u27 mathematics achievement. Additional research on the students\u27 motivational beliefs and SRL strategies in other subjects is recommended to get results that can be generalized for the UAE