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Original Article

Suitability of Motivational Regulation Strategies for Specific Motivational Problems

An Expert Survey

Published Online:August 18, 2022https://doi.org/10.1026/0049-8637/a000257

Abstract

Abstract. Learners utilize a variety of strategies to regulate their motivation. Theoretical models of motivational regulation imply a connection between the decision for a concrete strategy and the specific situational requirements. Accordingly, one would expect that the suitability of a strategy depends on how well it fits the motivational problem in question. Since reliable findings on this point are missing, we conducted a survey of N = 33 proven experts in the field of self-regulated learning to enlighten the suitability of nine strategies for six different motivational problems. Our findings showed that the suitability of a group of strategies was consistently considered dependent on the given motivational problem (e. g., ability-focus self-talk was suitable to enhance motivation for a difficult task) – pointing to the importance of conditional strategy knowledge for learners. For another group of strategies, experts’ suitability judgments were indifferent, indicating that strategy suitability may also comprise idiosyncratic (i. e., person-specific) aspects.


Eignung von Strategien zur Motivationsregulation bei spezifischen motivationalen Problemen. Eine Expert_innenbefragung

Zusammenfassung. Lernende regulieren ihre Motivation mittels unterschiedlicher Strategien. Theoretische Modelle der Motivationsregulation legen nahe, dass die Entscheidung für eine konkrete Strategie nicht unabhängig von den spezifischen Anforderungen des vorliegenden motivationalen Problems zu betrachten ist. Entsprechend sollte die Eignung einzelner Motivationsregulationsstrategien von deren Passung zum spezifischen motivationalen Problem abhängen. Da hierzu noch keine belastbaren Befunde vorliegen, wurde eine Befragung von N = 33 ausgewiesenen Expert_innen des selbstregulierten Lernens zur Eignung von neun Strategien bei sechs unterschiedlichen Motivationsproblemen durchgeführt. Es zeigte sich, dass die Eignung einer Gruppe von Strategien übereinstimmend als abhängig vom jeweils gegebenen motivationalen Problem eingeschätzt wurde (z. B. fähigkeitsbezogene Selbstinstruktion als geeignet, um sich für eine schwierige Aufgabe zu motivieren), was auf die Bedeutung von konditionalem Strategiewissen verweist. Die Einschätzung der Eignung einer anderen Gruppe von Strategien war eher indifferent, was dafür spricht, dass die Eignung der Strategien auch durch idiosynkratische (z. B. personenspezifische) Aspekte bedingt ist.

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