A Longitudinal Analysis of High School Students’ Self-Reported Strategy Use in Math and English

• In Event: Integrating Different Approaches to Investigating Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

In the literature on self-regulated learning (SRL), self-report measures are increasingly being referred to as “aptitude” measures, primarily because these instruments typically require students to report on behaviors at the school or domain level across learning situations (Winne & Perry, 2000). Thus, self-reports are thought to capture more domain-general learning tendencies or students’ knowledge of strategy-use, rather than actual strategy-use per se. Despite being called aptitude measures, very few studies have systematically investigated the malleability and/or stability of self-report measures of SRL over time and across subject domains. Another unresolved question concerns the overall utility of such instruments.

Accordingly, the purpose of this presentation is to explore the stability and utility of a commonly used instrument of SRL, namely the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) among a sample of high school students. Particular attention will be paid to how these measures change over the course of three academic years in the domains of mathematics and English, and perhaps more important, how these measures correlate with a host of other motivational, cognitive, and learning outcomes.

Participants included 218 9th, 10th, and 11th grade female high school students attending an urban, private, high school in the metropolitan New York City area. Students were asked to complete a web-based survey multiple times over the course of three academic years: 5 times during the 2008-2009 academic year, 4 times during the 2009-2010 academic year, and 3 times during the 2010-2011 academic year. Measures were adapted from established instruments (e.g., PALS, MSLQ, see Zusho & Barnett, 2011) and included indices of motivation (i.e., achievement goals, task-value, expectancy-for success), affect (i.e., anxiety), self-regulation (i.e., rehearsal, organization, metacognitive self-regulation, academic procrastination, help-seeking), cognition (i.e., working memory, executive function), and personality (i.e., need for cognition). At each administration, students were asked to complete the measures twice, once in reference to their English class and once in reference to their mathematics class. Students’ quarterly grades in math and English were also collected at the end of each academic year.

Preliminary results suggest that students’ average ratings of self-reported strategy-use are generally consistent across the 12 waves of data and across domains. For example, students’ average ratings of metacognitive self-regulation ranged from 4.29 to 4.63 in English (M=4.49) and from 4.27 to 4.60 in math (M=4.56). Autocorrelations of strategy-use variables over time were also found to be statistically significant (Rs in the .4 range for organization, rehearsal; .6 range for metacognitive SRL), as were autocorrelations across domains (Rs in the .6 range for rehearsal, organization; .7 range for metacognitive SRL). As for predictive utility, strategy-use variables were found to be: positively correlated with indices of adaptive motivation, help-seeking, need for cognition, and achievement; inversely related with procrastination; and uncorrelated with measures of working memory and executive function. Taken together, findings suggest that there is both stability and malleability in SRL aptitude measures, and that they have generally good predictive utility. Findings will be discussed in terms of the value of aptitude measures for understanding students’ regulation of learning.

Authors

• Akane Zusho, Fordham University

• Jared Anthony, Fordham Graduate School of Education

• Karen Elizabeth Clayton, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine

• Gerard Robertson, Fordham University

• Stuart A. Karabenick, University of Michigan