Domain Specificity of Motivation and Learning Strategies: Filipino Science High School Students&rsquo; Profiles in Science and Social Studies

Melissa Lopez  Reyes,

Domain Specificity of Motivation and Learning Strategies: Filipino Science High School Students’ Profiles in Science and Social Studies

Abstract:

An issue examined in learning research is whether the exercise of motivation and learning strategies is similar across domains or different in accordance with the domains’ particularities. This issue is of particular interest when examining a domain of giftedness or educational emphasis, where students would possibly employ motivations and learning strategies differently from how these are employed in other domains. In this research, Filipino high school students with inclination towards and receiving advanced instruction in science answered motivation and learning strategy scales twice, in relation to science and social studies. Domain-latent factors were found in a multitrait-multimethod analysis, indicating domain specificity. Motivation and learning strategies, however, are domain-general in that their patterns of relations in path-analytic models are similar in science and in social studies. The implications of these results for establishing context-sensitive measures and examining sources of domain differences in motivation and cognition are discussed.