Environment Management and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Among Higher Education Students in Malaysia

Learning strategies help students take greater responsibility for their own learning and are commonly divided into cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management components. Within resource management, environment management is rarely studied as a distinct construct. This study explores the relationship between environment management and cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management components, and whether this differs across gender and academic cluster. This quantitative survey used a 5-point Likert-scale instrument rooted in Wenden and Rubin (1987). The instrument had four sections: demographic profile, cognitive components (19 items), metacognitive self-regulation (11 items), and resource management (12 items), with a Cronbach’s alpha of .959. A total of 238 respondents from public and private higher education institutions in Johor, Malaysia took part in the survey. Findings show no significant difference in learning strategy use across gender and academic cluster, and learners reported positive practices across all components, with environment management strongly correlated with the other three. These findings support Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning Theory, and suggest that educators should embed environment management guidance into teaching.

Environment Management; Cognitive Strategies; Metacognitive Strategies; Resource Management; Self-Regulated Learning

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