Students can learn to motivate themselves for learning - A training experiment

Sixty-six university students participated in a computer-based training program on motivational learning strategies. The program dealt with a strategy to generate a learning intention by identifying the personal (task) value of information which could be drawn from reading an instructional text. The students received (1) no training at all, (2) a training of the motivational learning strategy or (3) a combined training of the learning strategy and related self-regulation strategies. After having completed the training program, the students read an instructional text which they had initially rated to be less motivating. It was measured whether the students applied the contents of the training program, which motivation level they were able to reach by applying the motivational learning strategy and how much knowledge they had acquired after reading the text. On all three variables, those students who received the combined training outperformed those students who received the learning strategy training and no training, and the students who received the learning strategy training also outperformed students without any training. The results are in line with instructional theories which state that - besides teaching specific learning strategies - it is useful to instruct students to apply the strategies in such a way that the strategy goals will be reached.