Session Information
27 SES 06 C, Metacognition, Learning Styles and Strategies
Paper Session
Contribution
Learning strategies in general are deemed significant to successful learning of students. Prominent models of self-regulated learning set up in the Netherlands and in the USA raise this claim (e.g. Boekaerts/Pintrich/Zeidner 2000; Zimmerman/Schunk 2001).
While “primary” learning strategies (aiming at the processing of the learning content itself, such as elaboration or repetition strategies) have been the subject of substantive empirical research, relatively little is known about the effects of “support” or motivational strategies. The latter foster learning processes by influencing states and traits which are regarded as prerequisites of learning, such as motivation, domain-specific self-concept, achievement cognitions or emotions of students. A number of theories of self-regulated learning also mention motivational regulation as an important element (Boekaerts/Corno 2005; Pintrich 2004; Zimmerman/Kitsantas 2005), however only a few studies, particularly from France, Germany, Spain and the USA, have investigated such strategic actions empirically (e.g. Schwinger/Steinmayr/Spinath 2009; Suárez/Fernández 2011; Wolters 2003).
Motivational learning activities are divided into external (overt) strategies that manifest in observable behavior elements (such as the elimination of distractors from the learning environment or self-reward) and internal (covert) strategies solely encompassing intra-personal (cognitive) activities (e.g. self-talk) not directly observable for others (e.g. Cooper/Corpus 2009; Zimmerman 2000, 14-15). In this paper, internal learning strategies are addressed. Traditional classification systems of motivational strategies (e.g., Wolters 2003; Schwinger/Stiensmeier-Pelster 2012) consider internal strategies to a great extent, e.g.: efficacy self-talk, self-praise, autobiographical recall of own learning success, mental imagery of future learning success (e.g., Selimbegovic/Régner/Sanitioso/Huguet 2011). Assuch strategies have been found to be applied by students anyway, it is necessary to know if these strategic actions are effective.
This paper reports on two experiments on the efficacy of particular types of learning strategies deployed by students to self-regulate their motivational states. From an international perspective, the investigation of such strategies is a relatively unattended line of research. Prior research has underlined that motivational strategies are indeed applied by students, but there is not much corroboration that these activities are really effective to enhance the task-related state motivation or the learning outcomes.
The mode of operation of internal strategies can be explained by the theory of self-fulfilling imagery. A „self-fulfilling prophecy“ is a prediction or an expectation which causes its own realization by releasing unwitting behavior in the expecter and/or the expectee that produces the expected event. According to the concept of “self-fulfilling imagery,” it is not only (future-directed) “prophecies” or expectancies that can become self-fulfilling in terms of the Pygmalion effect (e.g. Rosenthal 2002). Rather, mental images can equally contribute to the production of the imagined event (learning result) which has been termed as kind of “magic” by some researchers. There is some experimental evidence that this can be working in students as well (Taylor/Pham et al. 1998).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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