Student strategy awareness and use: The development of a measure

Students cope with the attentional demands of a university setting by accessing a range of cognitive and behavioural strategies. Yet, they may not be aware of the full scope of strategies available to them. The aim of the study is to design and evaluate the Strategy Use and Awareness Questionnaire to estimate students' awareness and use of strategies that optimize control of attention and/or compensate for stress on an executive system due to environmental and/or neurobiological influences. An item analysis was conducted that included an assessment of dimensionality and item trimming. Findings from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a seven factor solution is optimal; Comprehension Monitoring, Planning/Organization, Self-Reward, Self-Regulation, Organization with Mobile Phone Technology, Distraction Management, and Organization of Materials. This measure is likely to benefit students, as well as counsellors and coaches interested in improving strategy use of students.