Graduate Student Differences in Self-Determined Learning: An Analysis Relating Age Group and Sex to Strategy Use

Objetive: discussions about the Self-Determination Theory have been more frequent lately in the field of education. This theory highlights the importance of student motivation as a source of immediate satisfaction in academic tasks. The goal of this study is to explore and analyze the Motivated Stra...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lima Filho, Raimundo Nonato, Casa Nova, Silvia Pereira de Castro
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2017
Country:Brasil
Institution:Academia Brasileira de Ciências Contábeis (Abracicon)
Repository:Revista de Educação e Pesquisa em Contabilidade
Language:Portuguese
English
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.www.repec.org.br:article/1535
Online Access:https://www.repec.org.br/repec/article/view/1535
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Estudo autodeterminado
Educação Contábil
Motivação
Self-determined learning
Accounting education
motivation
Description
Summary:Objetive: discussions about the Self-Determination Theory have been more frequent lately in the field of education. This theory highlights the importance of student motivation as a source of immediate satisfaction in academic tasks. The goal of this study is to explore and analyze the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), validated by Structural Equations Modeling and, additionally, to verify whether age or sex affect the level of self-regulated learning of Master’s and PhD Accounting students in Brazil. Method: the operation model of the research outlined the formulation of two hypotheses arguing in favor of the influence of the variables age and sex on the Self-Determination (SDT) levels of the study participants. Results: these hypotheses, though, were not supported by the results of the multivariate data analysis, which is an interesting diagnosis as the studied variables did not indicate statistically significant relevance. These results suggest that other variables - such as which point in the course they have reached or which kind of educational institution they are studying at – need to be analyzed. Contributions: important limitations of this research can be seen as opportunities for future research: the sample was taken from a specific public; the survey may exhibit common method bias; and there was low participation of Professional Master’s students. Future studies may adopt different methodological strategies and/or engage more diverse samples or follow the students for a longer time. As practical implications, the empirical findings can help teachers, students, researchers, educational institutions and graduate programs understand the aspects of self-determined learning that characterize Master's and PhD students in Accounting.