College students' self-regulation of motivation strategies, and its relationship with classroom environment in mathematics courses

This study aimed to identify the motivational self-regulatory strategies used by college students in mathematics courses as well as to examine the relationships between their motivational beliefs and the said motivational self-regulatory strategies. Also, to explore the relationship between such strategies and the students' perception of certain aspects of the classroom environment. To this end, 224 college students completed two self-report instruments to measure their motivational beliefs and self-regulatory motivation strategies. Results from a repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that students used self-regulatory motivation strategies to varying degrees (F (3.607, 804.343) = 96.188, p = .000, p2 = 0.301); that the motivational beliefs of performance goal orientation and learning value orientation explained 30% of the variance of the performance goal regulation strategy (F (2, 221) = 48,193, p = 0.000), as well as 29% of the variance of the task value regulation (F (2, 221) = 45,343, p = 0.000). Last, the study identifies plausible relationships between the self-regulatory motivational strategies used by students and aspects of the classroom environment such as the level of promotion of meaningful learning, the type of goals promoted in class, and the support offered by the teacher. This study makes a novel contribution by providing the student's perspective on the classroom environment, and its relationship with strategies chosen by the students.