The Relationship between Motivational Beliefs and Learning Strategy Use among Norwegian College Students

We studied how motivational beliefs were related to learning strategy use in 176 Norwegian college students who were in the second year of their teacher training. Students' implicit theories of intelligence, self-efficacy beliefs, and learning strategy use were assessed by self-report instruments. It was found that students who conceived of intelligence as a relatively modifiable quality reported using more strategies than students who had doubts about the modifiability of intelligence. However, the relation between students' theories of intelligence and their learning strategy use varied with the way their theories of intelligence were assessed, with only indirect questions about the modifiability of intelligence yielding a positive relation. Regression analysis and group comparisons suggested that beliefs in the modifiability of intelligence may override the contribution of self-efficacy to students' use of learning strategies. With this study, relations previously emphasized within American theory and research are extended to college students in a different cultural context. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.