ESPLAT 2025 conference: Scientific thinking in challenging times

The self-regulated use of learning activities is crucial for academic success at university. However, many students engage in these activities less frequently than they originally intended at the start of the academic term (Bosch et al., 2021). This results in an intention-behavior gap. One possible explanation for this gap is a decline of intentions during the first half of the academic term, mirroring the motivational drop in the same period (Benden & Lauermann, 2022; Sander et al., 2024). Self-regulatory competences such as motivation-related competences might further explain individual differences in the size of the gap. Motivation-related competences can be divided in motivational competences, two types of volitional competences and evaluative competences (Schaller & Spinath, 2017; Spinath, 2005). We expected higher motivational competences to be associated with more stable intentions and higher volitional competences to predict greater engagement in self-regulated learning activities. Consequently, both motivational and volitional competences should contribute to a smaller intention-behavior gap.
The longitudinal study included three measurement points over the period of one academic term. The final sample comprised N = 945 pre-service teachers from 7 cohorts. We assessed intentions and behavior regarding six self-regulated learning activities: lecture attendance, reviewing slides, reviewing literature, practice essays, practice testing, and learning groups.
Results indicated a decline in intentions between the beginning and the middle of the academic term for all learning activities. Furthermore, we observed an intention-behavior gap across all learning activities. Regression analyses revealed that higher volitional competences of goal setting and action planning predicted a greater use of learning activities and a smaller intention-behavior gap.
The present study replicates earlier works reporting an intention-behavior gap in pre-service teachers‘ use of learning activities and extends existing research by offering initial explanatory approaches. Future research should explore additional contributing factors.