Assessing motivation and learning strategy usage by dually enrolled students

Abstract

Theoretical frameworks grounded in the social cognitive theory are used to discuss the need for assessing motivation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, metacognitive self-regulation of dually enrolled students. This study assessed motivation and learning strategy usage by Dually Enrolled Students participating in Georgia’s Dual Enrollment program. The research was conducted on 213 high school aged 14 to 18 years, in grades 9–12, and attended a high school in a seven-county service area in southwest Georgia. Participants all were taking classes under a program that allows them to simultaneously earn high school and college credit, and required them to attend a high school and college concurrently either at a technical college of the Technical System of Georgia, or a state college of the University System of Georgia. The research questions were answered using a cross-sectional survey, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and demographics were used to classify participants based on age, grade, gender, number of classes completed in the Dual Enrollment program, teacher type for instruction, and the format/location of college class taken. The study’s findings added to the existing knowledge base regarding teenage students who are expected to conform to the role of college student simply because they were deemed academically equipped to take college classes. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest the importance of implementing additional acceptance requirements to make sure students possess the maturity, motivation, and learning strategy application knowledge to be successful in college classes and that faculty has been trained to accommodate the learning needs of this specific type of learner.