Academic subject and gender differences in high school students’ self-regulated learning of language and mathematics

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 42; no. 10; pp. 7965 - 7980
• Main Authors: Guo, Wenjuan, Lau, Kit Ling, Wei, Jun, Bai, Barry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anxiety; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Chinese languages; Demographic aspects; Education; Educational aspects; Elementary school students; Females; Gender differences; High school students; Language instruction; Learning; Mathematics; Metacognition; Motivation; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Secondary school students; Secondary schools; Self-regulated learning; Sex differences (Psychology); Social Sciences; Study and teaching; China; Subject differences; Mathematics learning; Self-regulated learning; Gender differences; Language learning
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-02120-9

The purpose of this study was to examine academic subject and gender differences as well as their interaction in high school students’ self-regulated learning (SRL). Participants were 584 Chinese 10th graders from two high schools, who reported their SRL in language and mathematics learning. Results of two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs suggested that students’ level of SRL varied by academic subject and gender, and that there were also interactions between subject and gender on the SRL components. Results of two-group structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that for both male and female students, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy were strongly correlated with the use of various strategies, whereas extrinsic motivation was weakly correlated with the use of sporadic strategies in both subjects. Test anxiety was moderately correlated with the use of multiple strategies in language learning for male students, which is the case for female students in their math learning.