Examination of the relationships between primary fifth graders' self-regulated learning strategies and attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement

In todays? societies, one of the most prominent goals of education is to develop learners? long-term learning skills. The self-regulation concept which refers to learners? setting goals, monitoring their own learning process to attain their goals and making motivational, cognitive, affective and environmental regulations is of great importance in terms of academic achievement and development of long-term learning skills.The aim of current study is to examine relationships between fifth graders? motivational beliefs, cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies, their attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement. Furthmore, in current study it is aimed to investigate differences between students? motivastional beliefs and cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies according to gender.The sample of this study consisted of 204 students being taught in various primary schools in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Karadeniz et al., 2008), Mathematics Attitude Scale(Aşkar, 1986) and Personal Information Form were used in this study as data collection tools. Furthmore, students? GPA scores were used to asses their mathematics performance. Firstly, structural equation modeling was used to explicit how motivational beliefs and cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies explained attitudes towards mathematics and mathematics achievement. Secondly, structural equation modeling was used to explicit how motivational beliefs explained cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies. Finally, independent-samples t-test was used to examine how motivational belief and cognitive and metacognitive strategies differed on gender.The findings obtained from the study while supporting some of the proposed hypotheses, contradicted with others. Although self-efficacy and test anxiety explained mathematics achievement; intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control belief and cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies were not found to be related with mathematics achievement. Secondly, extrinsic goal orientation, control belief, and cognitive strategies were not found to be a predictor of attitude toward mathematics, while self-efficacy, test anxiety, task value, intrinsic goal orientation and metacognitive self-regulation predicted attitudes toward mathematics. In addition, extrinsic goal orientation, control belief and test anxiety were not found to have an impact on cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation, while self-efficacy, task value and intrinsic goal orientation explained cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies. Finally, motivational beliefs and cognitive and metacognitive self-regulation strategies did not significantly differ on gender. The findings obtained from the study were diccussed in light of literature and hypotheses.