Study of the psychometric properties of some of the learning strategies scales of the MSLQ in Secondary Education Context

The aim of this paper is to carry out an initial validation study of some of the learning strategies scales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in Secondary Education. We analyze if our approach shows a consistent internal structure that is coherent with that found by its authors, and if the results support the necessity to address a general validation study of the whole instrument in the Secondary Context. The sample was composed of 374 students from 2nd grade of Secondary Education. For this task, each items' psychometric behavior was studied firstly. Secondly, a reliability estimation was obtained by means of Cronbach' alpha coefficient. Finally, factorial analysis was used (both exploratory and confirmatory) in order to assess data adjustment level to the theoretical proposed structure. Results show the lack of consistent internal structure of the Pintrich model and its difficulty to differentiate components that are supposed to be strongly interrelated (self-regulation with elaboration, self-regulation with control of the effort, etc.). For this reason, it will be required a further study of the construct of learning strategies, the dimensions composing it and the behaviors that serve as indicator of the above.