The relationships among students' future-oriented goals and subgoals, perceived task instrumentality, and task-oriented self-regulation strategies in an academic environment.

Abstract

The authors performed path analysis, followed by a bootstrap procedure, to test the predictions of a model explaining the relationships among students' distal future goals (both extrinsic and intrinsic), their adoption of a middle-range subgoal, their perceptions of task instrumentality, and their proximal task-oriented self-regulation strategies. The model was based on R. B. Miller and S. J. Brickman's ( 2004) conceptualization of future-oriented motivation and self-regulation, which draws primarily from socialcognitive and self-determination theories. Participants were 421 college students who completed a questionnaire that included scales measuring the 5 variables of interest. Data supported the model, suggesting that students' distal future goals (intrinsic future goals in particular) may be related to their middle-range college graduation subgoal, to their perceptions of task instrumentality, and to their adoption of proximal task-oriented self-regulation strategies.

Mesure de la perspective d’avenir des étudiants : adaptation française et validation d’un instrument de mesure de la perspective d’avenir d’étudiants de l’enseignement postsecondaire

“…le travail et les apprentissages scolaires que doivent réaliser les étu-diants pendant un programme de formation sont donc des activités qui sont définies ou qui sont perçues en fonction de leur utilité dans l'avenir. en conformité avec ces constats, les travaux de recherche menés sur la motivation instrumentale et sur la perception de l'utilité (husman & hilpert, 2007 ;lens, Bouffard, & vansteenkiste, 2006 ;Malka & covington, 2005 ;Miller, debacker, & Greene, 1999 ;tabachnick, Miller, & relyea, 2008) ont montré que plusieurs jeunes, en particulier issus de l'enseignement secondaire et postsecondaire, sont motivés à suivre leur formation non pas pour l'intérêt qu'ils ont envers les matières scolaires, mais plutôt parce que ces activités les préparent pour leur vie professionnelle ou leur avenir en général. en effet, ces apprenants sont orientés vers des buts qui se rapportent à l'école (par ex., accéder à l'université) ou à la carrière (par ex., obtenir un emploi), soit des buts qui se situent dans un avenir proche ou plus ou moins éloigné (dubeau & Frenay, 2013 ;dubeau & van der Maren, 2012 ;Fernandez, 2010 ;Frenay, Boudrenghien, dayez, & Paul, 2007 ;lens, 2002).…”

Future Time Perspective and Self-Regulated Learning: Multiple Case Studies in Industrial Engineering

“…More recently, Simons, Dewitte, and Lens 26 discussed that PI may be a key aspect of student motivation, and the connection between SRL, PI, and FTP has been described in previous literature 27 . While theory and literature has shown connections exist between SRL and FTP, including quantitative studies of engineering students 10,28 , research is lacking to describe the nature of these connections. This pilot study will begin looking qualitatively at why and how engineering students connect their views of the future to the self-regulation of their learning in the present.…”

“…Prior research has explored connections between SRL and FTP at length, such as the findings that suggest a student's FTP can be motivational for adopting SRL strategies 8,10,11,24 . The model created by Miller and Brickman 8 focuses on the fact that a distal future goal in turn motivates the creation of distal sub-goals, which are motivational for proximal self-regulation.…”

“…Additionally, Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) has been positively linked with increased self-efficacy of undergraduates 6 . FTP and SRL have often been researched separately, but previous literature has reported that there is a link between these two areas 2,[7][8][9][10][11] . We seek to observe the student experience in terms of FTP and how FTP affects student task-specific behavior in terms of SRL, thus investigating this link for engineering students.…”

“…Perceptions of the future involve time orientation (how people generally focus on the past, present, or future 12 ), perception of time (an individuals' positive or negative perception of the future 12 ), and other characteristics. PI has begun to appear as a connection between SRL and FTP and can be defined as how important students view present tasks for their future/goals 10,11,13,14 . Effect of the future on present tasks (future on present) refers to how a student's future goals are influencing what they do in the present.…”