Abstract

Ensuring that students learn in a self-regulated way is a key component of effective learning. This is a complex process that involves both personal and context variables. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to obtain information on how students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure relate to their personal goal orientation, and their use of volitional and metacognitive strategies, examining differences in early and late adolescence. The investig-ation was developed with a sample of 336 seventh grade and 268 tenth grade Secondary School students, from public and private schools in Spain. A model was proposed, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), to analyze how the structure varies between the seventh and the tenth grades. According to our findings, students’ perception of a classroom goal structure with a learning emphasis is more adaptive from a motivational perspective; in both grades it leads students to adopt a personal goal orientation towards learning. The use of volitional strategies has a significant mediating effect between a learning goal orientation and the use of metacog-nitive strategies. Only in the fourth grade, both an orientation towards learning and an orient-ation towards performance relate significantly to students’ use of metacognitive strategies. Results are discussed in detail in the document.