The motivated strategies for learning questionnaire: A measure for students' general motivational beliefs and learning strategies?

The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) is a widely used self-report instrument to measure student motivation and learning strategies at the course-specific level (i.e., an individual course or subject domain). The present study sought to explore the utility of the MSLQ in measuring student motivation and learning strategies pertaining to the general curriculum level (i.e., all courses and subjects taken together) rather than to the course-specific level. To that end, the instrument was slightly modified and administered to recently graduated secondary school students (N = 1,166) in Singapore. The construct and predictive validity of the instrument were determined using confirmatory factor analysis and by correlating the individual subscales of the instrument with the overall semester grades. Results showed that the modified MSLQ is a reliable and valid instrument to determine students' motivational beliefs and learning strategies at the general curriculum level.