Christopher A. Wolters

Personal organization, productivity, and efficient use of one’s time represents one of the most ubiquitous and popular subjects within the self-help media marketed to general audiences. Consistent with this view, researchers have established that increased or more effective time management is predictive of improved well-being and performance within student populations. Within the framework of self-regulated learning, students’ achievement motivation stands out as a critical factor viewed as essential to understanding their time management. Nevertheless, a robust understanding of the theoretical relations that link motivation and time management thus far has escaped thorough scrutiny. Most notably, a dedicated consideration of the research linking motivation and time management has not yet been undertaken. Our overall purpose was to address this absence by synthesizing theoretical perspectives and evaluating empirical evidence linking achievement motivation and time management and by providing a guide for future research. In line with this overarching goal, we first review the conceptual understanding of time management and how it fits with achievement motivation within the framework of self-regulated learning. Next, we conduct a critical evaluation of empirical evidence regarding the connection of time management and core constructs drawn from five prominent models of achievement motivation. Finally, we draw broader conclusions and map out key directions for researchers and practitioners interested in motivation, time management, and their relations within academic contexts.

As the pursuit of multiple goals is an inescapable reality in everyday life, students are consistently challenged to self-regulate toward achieving an array of academic goals as well as social and well-being goals. Nevertheless, prominent self-regulated learning models are limited in explaining and guiding how students can self-regulate in the context of multiple goals. Hence, we developed the multiple goals regulation framework that reconceptualizes how students establish, pursue, and adapt an array of goals. We illustrate specific processes (e.g., goal prioritizing, goal shielding, goal switching) that students can engage in to self-regulate both within and between goals. The new framework contributes to the literature in three main ways. First, we challenge the traditional conceptualization of effective self-regulated learning that focuses on the persistent pursuit of a single academic goal without considering the interdependent nature of goals. Second, we facilitate a sustainable and adaptive cycle of self-regulatory processes by highlighting the importance of navigating and negotiating between multiple academic and nonacademic goals. Finally, our effort offers a more inclusive understanding of students’ lived experiences by acknowledging a diverse set of goals that are closely attached to their social and cultural identities.

The present study investigates the impacts that a sudden change to online instruction had on undergraduates’ engagement in self-regulated learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Using reflexive thematic analysis to examine college students’ written responses, we identified four themes that illustrated the challenges of emergency remote learning: feeling disconnected, discordant, and distracted; struggling to engage amid lost autonomy and personal stressors; experiencing academic burden and burnout; and encountering both caring and disregard from instructors. The implications of these findings highlight the importance that learning contexts and social connectedness have on undergraduates’ willingness and ability to enact self-regulated learning behaviors and strategies.

Academic help-seeking is a self-regulatory strategy that can have an important influence on students’ learning and achievement. The primary goal of the present study was to investigate whether college students’ sense of belonging could be used to understand their academic help-seeking. In addition, two aspects of motivation, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning and utility value, were examined as predictors of adaptive and expedient help-seeking strategies within an integrative model. College students (N = 307) completed two online self-report surveys that assessed sense of belonging, motivation, and help-seeking. Results of structural equation modeling showed that sense of belonging significantly predicted reported use of adaptive help-seeking strategies, even when accounting for students’ motivation. Self-efficacy for self-regulated learning also positively predicted adaptive help-seeking strategies, whereas utility value negatively predicted expedient help-seeking strategies. Findings support the conclusion that college students’ perceptions of their social contexts inform if and how they seek help with their learning.

Effective time management often undergirds students’ success in college, and many postsecondary learning centers offer services to help students assess and improve this aspect of their learning skills. In the context of a college success course, we gathered insights from assignments to consider various facets of students’ time-related behaviors and attitudes. Specifically, we examined a range of indicators of time management (i.e., setting goals and priorities, mechanics of time management, preference for organization, and procrastination) and use (i.e., total hours tracked in various categories, patterns of time use during a seven-day period). Implications for practice derive from the tendencies for the group of enrolled students as a whole as well as the differences between students who were and were not on academic probation.