Styles of engagement with learning: Multidimensional assessment of their relationship with strategy use and school achievement.

Abstract

This investigation examined ways in which student beliefs and goals distinguish different styles of engagement with learning and how such styles are associated with both the strategies students report using when preparing for exams and school achievement. Cluster analysis was used to identify groups of students with similar patterns of beliefs about their own learning. Within a cohort of 137 female llth-grade students, 6 styles of engagement were identified. Analysis of the influence of these styles on strategies adopted for exam preparation indicated differences in the strategies reported. Styles of engagement were also significantly related to school achievement. Findings are discussed in terms of insights achieved through adopting methods of analysis that preserve the multidimensional character of student engagement with learning. This investigation is concerned with examination of the relationship between an individual's general motivational orientation and some features of learning behavior. It emphasizes the interdependence of the sets of goals that guide learning. Students bring to the learning context a personal construction of the purposes of their learning and a set of beliefs about themselves as learners. These beliefs are thought to exert a powerful influence on learning (Paris & Newman, 1990). Typically, variables representing students' beliefs and goals in learning have been studied as separate variables, and their influence on learning has been assessed as independent effects. An important complementary view involves considering these variables as interdependent sets (Corno & Snow, 1986; Iran-Nejad, McKeachie, & Berliner, 1990). This investigation is concerned with a number of general student goals and beliefs about learning and with the ways in which combinations of those goals and beliefs, referred to here as styles of engagement, are associated with learning strategies and academic achievement. Groups of llth-grade students with similar patterns of goals and beliefs about learning were identified, and differences in their learning strategies and learning outcomes were examined. The learning strategy measures were based on strategies students reported using when preparing for midyear exams, and school achievement measures consisted of final grades awarded at the end of the students' 11th- and 12th-grade school years. The model of motivation in learning that informs the current investigation assumes that characteristics that the individual learner brings to the learning context shape and combine with the learner's construction of the task and its I wish to thank the students who cooperated in the collection of these data and acknowledge the helpful comments of Robert Reeve, Suzanne Hidi, Krystyna Gilowska, and two anonymous reviewers. The data analysis was supported by a Special Initiatives