Cognitive and affective variables in academic learning: The significance of direction and effort in students' goals

This paper examines the conceptual usefulness of distinguishing between two aspects of learning goals, namely direction and effort. This research builds upon and integrates three bodies of research related to self-regulation of learning, Boekaerts' work on the significance of cognitive, affective and motivational appraisals of study, Kuhl's notion of action control, and our previous work on qualitative differences in students' learning goals. An independent effect for direction and effort in predicting academic performance provided support for the assumption that these two aspects of goals are complementary dimensions of self-regulation of learning. The investigation of relationships between action control, motivation control, perceptions of course directions and students' goals revealed different patterns for direction and effort, as well as changing patterns from task on-set to task off-set. Overall higher levels of effort and performance appeared to require both positive appraisals of the task and volitional efficiency, but action control had a different impact on students' high or low on motivation control, and on their performance of different academic tasks.

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