Motivational self-regulation strategies:
How they differ across subjects and school tasks
Appropriate use of motivational self-regulation (MSR) strategies in the face of potential obstacles, whether due to task difficulty, learner interest, or distractions (Wolters, 1998), promotes learner engagement in terms of effort and persistence in completing the activity and, consequently, reduces the risk of task abandonment (Wolters, 2003). The purpose of this study, which was conducted as part of a master’s thesis, was to clarify the developmental nature of MSR and to examine how learners use MSR strategies to maintain their attention and effort on the task at hand, considering their age, gender, subjects, and school tasks. Data for this study were collected through questionnaires from 167 learners in elementary, middle, and high school. The main findings show that strategies related to structuring the environment are the most frequently reported by learners. Proximal goal setting, self-consequating and planning tend to be mobilized more for linguistic subjects, and literary or learning tasks that rely on memorization while reinforcing personal usefulness and seeking support from others tend to be mobilized more for scientific subjects. The main differences between learners by grade level indicate that elementary and middle school students tend to use strategies such as mastery self-talk, performance-avoidance self-talk, enhancing personal significance, and situational interest more than high school students. On the other hand, high school students were more likely to use self-consequating strategies.
