Effects of Personality and Motivation on Students’ Academic Engagement and Metacognitive-Cognitive Strategies

Several investigations have focused on the relationship between personality and learning performance. However, the relationships among personality traits, motivation, emotional and behavioral engagement, and metacognitive-cognitive strategies remain unexplored. This research introduces a model based on a personality system set comprising metacognition, cognition, motivation, emotional and behavioral engagement. Five core education theories support this model. Three hundred seventy-four Mexican university students who were enrolled in a Biology and Industrial Management bachelor’s degree program participated. Personality traits mainly affect academic engagement but not motivation. Additionally, academic engagement mediates the relationship between personality traits and metacognitive-cognitive strategies. The findings show that agreeableness and neuroticism traits influence emotional engagement and disaffection. Consciousness and extraversion affect behavioral disaffection and engagement, respectively. Meanwhile, motivation affects emotional engagement, disaffection and metacognitive-cognitive strategies. Finally, openness does not affect any of the constructs. Hence, personality traits directly influence academic engagement and disaffection but not motivation and cognitive strategies.