Succeeding in LLL

The Situation in Austria

At present, the central sources of information about the situation in Austria are international monitoring studies (e.g., TIMSS, PIRLS), particularly PISA (Artelt et al., 2003; Haider and Reiter, 2004; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2004; Schreiner, 2007). Depending on the content area under investigation, survey date and age of the students examined, OECD studies come to different conclusions concerning motivation and self-regulated learning. This is not only true of samples from the entire OECD but also with regard to the current situation among Austrian students.
Concerning motivational aspects, the findings of PISA 2003 (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2007) show that Austrian students (similarly to German and Swiss students) report high levels of discipline and self-efficacy in mathematics, as well as low levels of test anxiety in mathematics. In contrast, the findings of PISA 2006 indicate a more negative situation (Schreiner, 2007): compared to the entire OECD sample, Austrian students show an average level of general interest in science. However, their appreciation for science and instrumental and future-oriented motivation to learn science are very low compared to the international sample.
The determinants of self-regulated learning investigated in PISA 2000 (control strategies, effort, persistence, elaboration, and memorization) have been shown to be relatively high in Austrian students. Nevertheless, the correlations with achievement (in this case reading performance) are rather small (r = 0.12–0.18; see, Svecnik and Reiter, 2002). The small size of these correlations is not in line with findings reported in the literature about the critical impact of the determinants of self-regulated learning on achievement (Artelt, 1999). Hence, a replication of these findings—with different instruments—would be desirable before using them to make any generalizations.
In summary, large-scale international assessments mostly examine (or more accurately: can only examine) selected aspects of specific target groups. Furthermore, their interpretability with regard to mean values is constrained by cultural differences (Schütte et al., 2007). Thus, it is important to conduct additional, more differentiated national surveys in order to get a better picture of the current situation in Austria.

The Present Study

Based on the described research gaps, the following research questions were specified for the present study: (1) To what degree do Austrian students possess LLL competencies? (2) Can perceived classroom structure predict Austrian students’ LLL competencies? (3) Can Austrian students’ LLL competencies predict their achievement?