Assessing the credabilty and validity of the Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionaire (MSLQ) to aid self regulating learning to a cohort of undergraduate students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to focus on using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to determine its credibility and validity to a group of student research participants. Innumerable research including that undertaken by Roth, Ogrin and Schmitz (2014); Zimmerman (2008); Van Eekelen, Boshuizen and Vermut, (2005); Tuckman and Kennedy (2011); McKendry, Wright and Stevenson (2013); Kukkonen, Suhonen and Salminen (2015) and Robshaw and Smith (2004) indicates the credibility and validity of self-regulated learning with a view to its indication of academic achievement success. Henceforth, this study sought to apply the MSLQ to twenty-three undergraduate participants, undertaking a three-year BSc (Hons) Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) course within a Higher Education (HE) institution located in the North West of England to determine if this applied to them. Proposed strategies to assist cogitation were fed back to each participant. The overall rationale being to signpost support to the participants such as, targeted resources available to them within the University to underpin their studies. The study commenced with, a presentation to the participants followed by an eighty-one-point questionnaire for them to complete. On completion, the emergent data allowed each participant to be informed of improvement strategies and the support available to them. Finally, to validate the outcomes, a focus group was convened to discuss if and how, each participant had interacted with the self-regulating learning.