Strategies for regulating motivation and emotion in teacher education students

Abstract

Self-regulation of learning is the process by which the individual manages his thoughts, motivation, feelings, and behaviors to achieve a certain goal. It involves the planning, monitoring, and regulation of learning itself. Self-regulated learning is a prominent theme in Educational Psychology, not only because it is associated with school and academic success, but also because it can be fostered during formal schooling. Studies show the importance of investigating self-regulatory processes especially of those who aspire to be teachers. Thus, the objectives of this research are to identify the emotional regulation and motivation regulation strategies of 200 undergraduate students in Pedagogy at a Public University in the interior of São Paulo/SP state and to investigate possible relationships between the studied variables and their characteristics, such as gender, age, semester, and shift course. Data will be collected on-line through three instruments: a demographic questionnaire and two Likert scales to assess the emotional and motivational regulation strategies of the sample. Data will be analyzed quantitatively by descriptive and inferential statistical procedures. It is very important to identifying if students in teacher education courses know and use emotional and motivational regulation strategies, as well as which variables are associated with their use. The literature shows that teachers' knowledge and use of these strategies will certainly lead them towards promoting such strategies in their students and help them become strategic and self-regulated learners. (AU)