| Geoscience education researchers have recently recognized the importance and role of affect and self-regulation as critical mediators between course context and student learning outcomes (e.g., performance and persistence). Introductory physical geology students (n = 73; from 5 U.S. colleges and universities) were interviewed about their learning strategies and experience in their introductory geology course, including how they prepare for an exam. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the interview data and create codebooks to characterize motivation and self-regulated learning as it was reported in interviews. All students report a performance component to their motivation, where a learning task is a means to an end, such as earning a grade. However, most high performing students (70%) also reported their motivation was also oriented towards a mastery goal, such as satisfying curiosity, more frequently than low performing students (18%). The majority of students (81%) also described an emotional component to their motivation. Contrary to existing models that emphasize the dominant role of positive emotions, most students indicated they were motivated to engage in exam preparation as a way to avoid experiencing negative emotions. In terms of self-regulation, high performers are more strategic in their planning and low performing students rely more on instructors for guidance when choosing strategies. Both high and low performers use a combination of shallow (e.g., rehearsal) and deep (e.g., elaboration and organization) learning strategies, but high performers are using deep strategies frequently more and in more advanced ways. High performers are using self-control strategies more often during the action phase of the SRL cycle. High performers are more likely to consider the success of their learning process, yielding more evidence of regulation. From a synthesis of these findings, an applied model of self-regulated learning is presented in which high performing students begin the exam preparation process with reflection on their classwork. Results suggest that student outcomes would benefit from instructors explicitly incorporating aspects of this model into geoscience courses. |
