The effect of turkish students’ motivational beliefs on their metacognitive self-regulation in Physics

Today, the studies conducted in the field of science education on the one hand focus on the investigation of the factors that affect the achievement of students and on the other hand, the effects of motivational and cognitive variables on learning are also studied. One of the important constructs that are effective on learning is metacognition (Pintrich, 2002). Today, the most commonly used definition of metacognition is “thinking about thinking” (Livingston, 2003). Research on metacognition started in the 1970s with the studies on meta-processes by Flavell. Later on, Flavell conducted studies on the aspects of how an individual monitors or thinks about his or her own cognition (Dinsmore, Alexander & Loughlin, 2008). Metacognition is generally viewed from two different aspects as the knowledge about cognition and the regulation of cognition (Flavell, 1979, Veenman, Van Hout & Afflerbach, 2006). Knowledge about cognition involves what a student knows about his own cognition or about cognition in general and that student’s awareness of this knowledge (Schraw & Moshman, 1995; Pintrich, 2002). Self-regulation of cognition emphasizes an individual’s monitoring of his learning processes.

Self-regulation, which is thought to be a construct that is effective on the achievements and academic performances of individuals, refers to the effectiveness of the individual on his or her own learning processes. The concept of self-regulation has been tried to be explained through various models and definitions (Boekaerts, 1996; Pintrich, 2000b; Zimmerman, 1998). Pintrich (2000b, p.453) defines the concept of self-regulation as “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment”. According to Zimmerman (1989, p.4) self-regulated learners defined as “metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning”. In terms of metacognition, self-regulation implies the learners’ making plans regarding their goals, self-monitoring, and self-evaluating their learning processes (Zimmerman, 1990). In terms of behavioral processes, learners select environments for an optimum learning (Zimmerman, 1990). In terms of motivational processes, self-regulation implies the learners’ desire to realize their goals (Zimmerman, 1990). Although there are some differences among various models on self-regulated learning, Vrugt and Oort (2008, p.124) indicated that “there is consensus among researchers that self-regulated learning involves goal setting, metacognition, and the use of (meta)cognitive strategies”. Furthermore, it is emphasized in various models that self-regulated learning involves goals and self-regulatory processes are used in achieving these goals (Zimmerman, 2000). Besides, all learners use self-regulation strategies more or less and it would be wrong to speak of a lack of self-regulation in individuals (Winne, 1997).

Pintrich (1999) classifies the strategies that can be used in self-regulated learning into three categories as cognitive learning strategies, metacognitive learning strategies, and resource management strategies. Cognitive processes that are used for attaining a goal regarding the learning subject, e.g., they maintain the recall of a piece of information as simple memory information or its comprehension, which is a more complex task are related to cognitive strategies (Leopold, den Elzen-Rump & Leutner 2007). Metacognitive strategies are those that involve the control and regulation of a learner’s cognitive strategies. Numerous metacognitive strategy models include planning, monitoring, and regulating strategies. These are indicated as strategies that are necessary for self-regulated learning (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990, Pintrich, 1999). Planning strategies comprise setting a goal for studying and the analysis of the study material. Monitoring strategies involve assessing and judging one’s own understanding while reading a text or listening to a speech. However, regulating strategies are those that enable the learner to perform fine-tunings and adjustments between one’s learning goals and current performance through monitoring oneself (Pintrich, 1999). Moreover, learners use resource management strategies to manage and control their environments as well as to perform necessary changes in their environments to fit their goals and needs (Pintrich, 1999).

Studies on achievement motivation have focused on two types of motivational approaches: learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation (Dweck & Elliot 1983). Learning goal orientation is motivation towards learning a new thing and trying to understand a topic, namely, it aims at developing the competence of a learner. On the contrary, performance goal orientation focuses on motivation to demonstrate own abilities and performances like getting high grades or being praised by others, being more successful than the other students (Pintrich, 2000a). On the other side, self-efficacy belief is based on individuals’ beliefs on their abilities and it is necessary for organizing and elucidating essential behavior for achieving the goal. Bandura (1997, p.3.) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments”. Moreover, highly self-efficacious persons tended to make more effort in a task (Palmer, 2011).

The relationships between metacognition and motivational factors were investigated in several studies (Coutinho, 2007; Ford, Smith, Weissbein, Gully, & Salas, 1998; Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990, Vrugt & Oort, 2008). Similarly, some research studies focused on the investigation of the effects of goal orientation and self- efficacy on learning (Pajares, 1996; Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Pintrich (1999) examined the relationships among the self-efficacy, task value beliefs and goal orientations dimensions of motivational beliefs and self-regulatory strategy use in middle school and college contexts. A relationship was found between self-efficacy and self-regulatory strategy use in both samples. Furthermore, it was emphasized that there was a relationship between task value beliefs and self-regulatory strategy use. Besides, Pintrich (1999) stated that learning goal orientation was a better determinant of self-regulated learning compared to performance goal orientation. Kahraman and Sungur (2011) investigated the relationship between students’ perceptions of self-efficacy and achievement goals and their metacognitive strategy use in science. The results of their study showed that self-efficacious students who studied science in order to learn and understand it tended to use metacognitive self regulation strategies more. In certain studies, a significant relationship was found between metacognitive strategy use and mastery goal orientation (Couintho, 2007, Middlebrooks, 1996).

There are many research conducted in Western countries (Kahraman & Sungur, 2011). A review of the literature shows that there are very few studies on the metacognitive self-regulation in Turkey. In addition, although there are several studies on the metacognitive strategy use in different domains, we could not find any studies on the metacognitive strategy use in learning physics. It is stressed that since both domain specific factors and cultural values and beliefs could be effective on the students’ metacognitive self-regulation and motivational beliefs, studies should be conducted in this field (Veenman, Van Hout-wolters, & Afflerbach, 2006). Furthermore, it is important to investigate the relationship between metacognitive self-regulation and goal orientation in the domain of physics, which is perceived by students to be difficult and abstract (Angell, Guttersrud, Henriksen & Isnes, 2004), in terms of the contribution of domain specific results to the theoretical basis of the field. It is emphasized in some studies that the grade levels of students could have an effect on their goal orientations and these orientations might guide the student to focus on different skills (Abd-El-Fattah & Patrick 2011). Considering the studies in the literature, it is thought that the investigation of to what extent students’ motivational beliefs affect their use of metacognitive strategies when learning physics will contribute to the studies in this field. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of introductory physics course students’ goal orientations in physics (learning goal and performance goal) and physics self-efficacy beliefs on their metacognitive strategy use in physics.