Improvement of self-regulation learning strategies at university: the impact of a program of academic fit to the degree

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. This study is aimed to present and verify the effectiveness of an intervention program directed to students in early degree’ courses, in order to improve the self-regulation strategies of learning within the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). The program “Academic fit to the degree studies” attempts to facilitate the relation between the personal and background variables using activities that promote reflection and appropriate decision-making about academic behavior. METHOD. A pre-test-post test design study was conducted with a control group of sophomore students. The instrument used to assess the level of self-regulated learning of the subjects was the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) by Pintrich and colleagues (1991) translated into Spanish and adapted by Roces Montero in 1996. RESULTS. The results obtained show the effectiveness of this program on improving the self-regulation of learning in relation with the strategies of organization, elaboration, and help seeking as well as the capacity of reflection on the own learning process. Likewise, this study corroborates better time adjustment skills which are marked by the new academic demands. As a consequence, a reduction in the levels of anxiety can be observed. DISCUSSION. At present favoring the academic fit of students to Degree Studies is one of the variables to consider achieving the university excellence and reduce the dropout rate . The results obtained in this research show the program’s efficacy in relation to self-regulated learning in degree students.