Self- regulated Learners: What Drives Them?

Abstract

In an online environment, students can learn independently and flexibly. Motivation and emotional control are the critical factors that influence learning. Therefore, applying self-regulation learning strategies may assist students to remain proactive in the online learning environment. Self-regulation is a holistic learning strategy to understand how students regulate their learning from the perspectives of cognitive, metacognitive, behavioural, motivational and emotional or affective. This study aimed to examine how motivation beliefs and self-regulation learning strategies affect learning, and the relationships between motivation beliefs and self-regulation learning strategies. A sample of 155 students obtained by purposive sampling from a university in Malaysia participated in this quantitative study. The study used a questionnaire with five-point Likert scales as the instrument. The results indicated that students sometimes had self-efficacy and very often had the intrinsic value online language learning environment, but they very often had test anxiety. Besides, they very often used cognitive strategies to facilitate their learning, but sometimes applied self-regulation in the online language learning environment There was a significantly strong relationship between motivation beliefs and self-regulation learning. The outcomes of the survey suggest that the instructor might redesign the instruction and assist students in self-regulation learning process.