DISCIPLINARY DIFFERENCES IN SELF-REGULATED LEARNING IN COLLEGE-STUDENTS

The personal attributes of self-regulated learning are often described in terms of knowledge base, adaptive motivational beliefs, and approp riate use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies for learning. Thes e attributes are usually assumed to apply across all disciplines and c ontexts, but there has been little research that has examined the disc iplinary differences in these personal attributes of self-regulated le arning. The present study examined college students' knowledge, motiva tion, and self-regulatory learning strategies in humanities, social sc ience, and natural science college courses. The sample included 380 co llege students from three different institutions. Students were given a measure of their course knowledge and a self-report measure of their motivational beliefs and use of self-regulatory strategies at the beg inning and end of the semester. Three levels of achievement were creat ed from final course grade and ANOVA's were used to examine the differ ences in knowledge, motivation, and self-regulation by achievement lev el and discipline. The results suggest that the components of knowledg e, motivation, and self-regulation do distinguish high from low achiev ers in social and natural science courses, but not in the humanities c ourses. Results are discussed in terms of the generalizability of our models of self-regulated learning across disciplines and implications for measuring self-regulated learning in different disciplines. (C) 19 96 Academic Press, Inc.