Latent Profile Analysis of Medical Students’ Use of Motivational Regulation Strategies for Online Learning

Abstract

Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the new norm of online learning has been recognized as core to medical institutions for academic continuity, and students are expected to be motivated and engaged in learning while maintaining distance from other peers and educators. To facilitate students’ and educators’ newly defined roles in online medical education settings, it is crucial to understand how students are actively motivated and engaged in learning. Hence, this study explored medical students’ motivational regulation profiles and examined the effects of motivational regulation strategies (MRS) on cognitive learning and learning engagement for online learning. Data were collected after the end of the first semester in 2020 from a sample of 334 medical students enrolled at a public university school of medicine. Latent profile analysis indicated three subgroups with different motivational regulation profiles: the low-profile, medium-profile, and high-profile groups. Regarding different MRS patterns in the high-profile group, mastery self-talk, performance approach self-talk, and the self-consequating strategy appeared to be most applicable for regulating learners’ motivation. Analysis of variance showed that the profile groups with higher levels of MRS use were connected to a higher willingness to use cognitive learning strategies and a higher degree of engagement in online learning. The findings of this study emphasize the use of specific sets of MRS to support learning motivation and the need to design effective self-regulated learning environments in online medical education settings.