Self-regulated learning: gender differences in motivation and learning strategies amongst Malaysian Science Students

Understanding the self-regulated learning amongst students has been given much prominence because it helps explain achievement differences among students and serves as a means to improving student achievement. A self-regulated learner engages in self-generated thoughts, actions, and feelings while pursuing his/her academic goals. Research indicates that successful learners have better self-regulatory learning, maintaining high levels of motivation and learning strategies. This article reports the gender differences in self-regulated learning amongst 185 Malaysian science students (84 males and 101 females) as a whole, and by groups (e.g., students taking science, mathematics, and additional mathematics). Dataset collected using the MSLQ-R, the revised version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results indicated that the gender effect was not significant across the two dimensions (i.e., motivation and learning strategies) in the group taken as a whole, in mathematics group and in additional mathematics group. However, gender effect was significant across the two dimensions in the science group where the girls reported a markedly higher level of self-regulatory learning