A Study On The Role Of Motivation In The Process Of Self-Regulated Learning

Self-regulated learning (SRL) refers to the process by which learners personally activate and sustain cognitions, affects and behaviors that systematically oriented toward the attainment of learning goals. Much of the early research on self-regulated learning had focused on students' cognitive regulation, but with the research paradigms shifted from "cold" cognition to "hot" cognition in educational psychology, many self-regulated learning models or theories began to emphasize the important role of motivational beliefs. Recently, researchers give more and more attention to motivational process in self-regulated learning, and they began to integrate the work of self-regulated learning and motivation. From the perspective of self-regulated learning process, the purpose of this paper was to give a systematical investigation on the role of various motivational beliefs in different phrases of self-regulated learning, and to explore the motivational mechanism of self-regulated learning.In the theoretical analysis chapter of this paper, we presented and compared four latest models of self-regulated learning, and concluded the process of self-regulated learning mainly concerned three phases, namely forethought phase, monitoring and control phase and reflective phase. Based on the analysis of motivational research literatures, we analyzed the motivational beliefs or motivational process in different phases of self-regulated learning. We found that there were five motivational beliefs in forethought phase of self-regulated learning, which including self-efficacy, interest, values, achievement goal and emotion. Next, we clarified the nature of motivational regulation and different strategies using for regulation of motivation. After that, we analyzed the role of attribution on the reflective phase of self-regulated learning. Consequently, we got a theoretical base and framework for the empirical studies.The empirical chapter of this paper included six studies, which exploring the role of motivational factor in different phases of self-regulated learning:In study one, we exploring the influence of initial motivational beliefs on problem solving. The results indicated various motivational beliefs affected learning outcome and students' self-satisfaction through the mediator of functional state. Self-efficacy, interest, and emotion factor had a significant effect on functional state, and self-efficacy was a direct predictor of self-satisfaction. In study two, we explored the influence of achievement goal on self-regulated learning, and the moderator effect of self-efficacy. The result indicated, compared with the mastery goal, performance-approach goal had a positive influence on achievement outcome, but the motivational pattern and choice behavior resulted by performance-approach goal were somewhat negative. In all of our findings, we did not find self-efficacy can moderate the effects of achievement goal.In study three, using an open-end questionnaire, we investigated the strategies for regulation of motivation. The finding indicated when facing with motivational problems, students mainly used 12 strategies to regulate their effort and persistence, and the self-regulated learner could use different motivational strategies according to different learning context and different problem types.In study four, using a self-designed questionnaire, we further explored the relationship between motivational beliefs such as self-efficacy, task value, control beliefs, achievement goal and motivational strategies, which including performance-approach goal self-talk, mastery goal self-talk, interest enhancement, self-consequating, and environmental control. The result indicated students' motivational beliefs regarding a particular course could be used to explain whether students engage in motivational strategies regardless their achievement level, and different motivational beliefs could predict different motivational strategies.In study five, from an attribution content point of view, we investigated the attributional differences for success and failure of student with different motivational beliefs and motivational regulation level. We found, students with high motivation or high level of motivational regulation had a positive attribution pattern, they attributed their success and failure causation to internal, controllable factors; students with low motivation and low level of motivational regulation had a negative attribution pattern, they always attributed to uncontrollable factors, whether the factor was internal or external to them.In study six, we explored the effect of attribution on students' self-efficacy and emotion. The result indicated the locus dimension and the controllability dimension integrated into one dimension, and had a positive influence on self-efficacy. The stability dimension was a positive predictor of positive emotion, and the integrated dimension had a negative effect on negative emotion. In this study, we did find the dimension of attribution moderate the effect of achievement-goal score. After a further analysis based on the empirical result, we maintained motivational beliefs were important component of self-regulated learning, and different beliefs had different effects in various phases of self-regulated learning. Regulation of motivation was a somewhat parallel process to the regulation of cognition in self-regulated learning. In the process of regulation of motivation, various motivational beliefs interacted with each other, and also had influence on students' cognition and behavior, and the interaction between motivational, cognitive, and behavioral regulatory process would influence the affect of self-regulated learning.