University students profiles of self-regulated learning and motivation

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify students’ self-regulation through learning strategies adoption in connection with motivation. A sample of 212 freshmen students answered a Likert-type questionnaire with the aim to assess learning strategies, mastery achievement goal, extrinsic goals, procrastination, and discipline valuation. Strategy use consisted in a specific task of writing a text. A person-centered approach was adopted according to the statistical data and four self-regulation clusters were identified, namely, highly self-regulated students, low regulation students, and two clusters with mixed scores. Through variance analysis mastery achievement goal appeared significantly associated only with the highly self-regulated students cluster. Results were discussed in the framework of a self-regulated learning model and achievement goals theory. Finally, future investigations on other specific learning activities were proposed.