The Role of Motivational Regulation in Exam Preparation: Results From a Standardized Diary Study

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that the use of motivational regulation strategies has the potential to sustain invested effort and persistence in the learning process. Combining different methods (questionnaires and standardized diaries), the present study aimed to determine the role of motivational regulation in an exam preparation period. Motivational regulation is differentiated in a quantitative (extent of strategy use) and a qualitative (planning, implementing, monitoring, and correcting strategy use) aspect. One hundred and fifteen university students reported the quantity and quality of their motivational regulation strategy use in a pretest and kept a standardized learning diary focused on motivational difficulties and invested effort over a 14-day period just before an exam in their studies. Exam performance was assessed afterward. Results revealed positive effects of both aspects of motivational regulation on invested effort in exam preparation and exam performance. Moreover, a high quality of motivational regulation was associated with reduced negative effects of motivational difficulties on invested effort during studying—implying that motivational regulation can buffer against specific motivational problems occurring in the learning process.

Regulating self-organized collaborative learning: the importance of homogeneous problem perception, immediacy and intensity of strategy use

“…On the other hand, our results show that the association between intensity and satisfaction with the group learning experience is still present when controlling for immediacy, which suggests that intensity of strategy use does play a role in successful regulation. For motivational regulation problems, this was also demonstrated by Eckerlein et al (2019) who found a direct effect of the frequency of motivational regulation strategies on students' successful regulation of motivational problems in individual selfregulated learning. Further research is still needed to pinpoint the exact conditions under which the frequent use of a broad range of regulation strategies is of particular importance.…”

“…Third, it should be noted that some of our operationalizations might be questioned: We based our operationalization of immediacy of strategy use only on theoretical considerations (e.g., based on Eckerlein et al 2019;Hadwin et al 2018). Although future studies might employ a more differentiated coding of the immediacy variable, the fact that satisfaction increased with an increase in all our predictor variables while controlling for problem type actually supports our strategy-problem assignment.…”

“…Immediacy of strategy use In the present article, we assume that the effectiveness of a chosen strategy for regulating a given problem depends on how immediately it is applied with respect to the onset of the associated problem (see also Eckerlein et al 2019;Engelschalk et al 2015). Immediacy is thus defined as a measure of the fit of the selected strategies to the aim of successful regulation of a given problem.…”

“…Instead, positive effects on learning outcomes should become more likely the more students apply the same strategy or the strategy along with other strategies. In individual learning settings, evidence for this hypothesis comes from a study by Eckerlein et al (2019). They found that the quantity by which students reported using motivational regulation strategies during exam preparation had a significant impact on invested effort and exam grade.…”

Self-Regulation, Test Anxiety, Reliability And Success in The Final Exam: Structural Model

“…Recent studies have shown that exam results are largely influenced by motivational self-regulation as well as optimal exam preparation strategies (Eckerlein et al, 2019).…”