Measuring Self-Regulated Learning Processes through Tracking Patterns of Student Interaction with Achievement Activities

A micro-level approach to the study of relationships between component processes within self-regulated learning in young adolescent students is described. Using this approach, contingencies between self-regulatory processes can be identified and insight into factors that promote students’ use of self-regulatory strategies can be investigated. Evidence is presented showing how the influence of mastery achievement goals on specific task goals can be mediated by students’ state of interest. Further development of this approach requires consideration of the measurement issues associated with using single items to measure on-task states. Evidence for the reliability and validity of single-item measurement of states is considered in relation to areas of psychological inquiry that regularly use single-item measures and we conclude that further development of these types of measure has the potential to expand our understanding of self-regulated learning.     

The effects of achievement goals and self-regulated learning behaviors on reading comprehension in technology-enhanced learning environments

Studies examining students’ achievement goals, cognitive engagement strategies and performance have found that achievement goals tend to predict classes of cognitive strategy use which predict performance on measures of learning. These studies have led to deeper theoretical understanding, but their reliance on self-report data limit the conclusions that can be drawn. We employed a behavioral approach instead and assessed learning processes by logging learners’ behaviors as they used educational technology. We examined the relationship between achievement goals, strategy use, and comprehension scores of 160 undergraduates who studied a hypertext passage in a technology-enhanced learning environment (TELE) equipped with tools that support learning behaviors including highlighting, taking notes, review of annotations, seeking additional information and monitoring understanding. Results of a path analysis indicated that higher mastery goals predicted more information-seeking and note-taking and marginally more monitoring of learning. Performance avoidance goals negatively predicted note-taking and information-seeking. Performance approach goals did not predict the behaviors we traced. Of the behaviors we traced, highlighting and monitoring predicted increases in comprehension scores. A behavioral approach to assessing learning processes confirmed only a subset of paths from achievement goals to learning processes to learning outcomes originally discovered with self-report data.     

Comparing active delay and procrastination from a self-regulated learning perspective

Researchers have proposed that the act of postponing academic work may be divided into a traditional definition of procrastination, viewed as maladaptive, and adaptive forms of delay. Adaptive forms of delay may be more consistent with certain facets of self-regulated learning. The current study investigated this issue by examining whether the relations between aspects of self-regulated learning and active delay may be distinct from the relations these aspects of self-regulated learning have with procrastination. Among 206 undergraduates, procrastination was positively predicted by mastery-avoidance goals and negatively by metacognitive strategy usage, whereas active delay was negatively predicted by avoidance goals and positively by self-efficacy. Furthermore, students who reported higher levels of active delay also received better grades. These findings provide support that active delay is a distinct form of delay from procrastination that may be more positive due to its associations with some adaptive self-regulatory processes and academic achievement.     

Epistemic profiles and self-regulated learning: Examining relations in the context of mathematics problem solving

Relations were examined between epistemic profiles, regulation of cognition, and mathematics problem solving. Two hundred sixty-eight students were sampled from undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses. Students completed inventories reflecting their epistemic profiles and learning strategies, and were profiled as rational, empirical, or both. Based on their profiles, 24 students participated in two problem-solving sessions. Episodes were coded for planning, monitoring, control, use of empirical and rational argumentation, and justification for solutions. For both self-reported metacognitive self-regulation and regulation of cognition during problem solving, students profiled as rational had the highest self-reported mean and actual frequency of regulation of cognition compared to students profiled as predominantly empirical. Moreover, students profiled as predominantly rational correctly solved more problems than the other two groups. Finally, students’ approaches to problem solving were consistent with their epistemic profiles. Relations are discussed in the context of various theoretical frameworks.     

Metacognition, achievement goals, study strategies and academic achievement: pathways to achievement

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of effective self-regulated learning. Based on effort expenditure we discerned effective self-regulators and less effective self-regulators. The model comprised achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach and -avoidance goals), metacognition (metacognitive knowledge, regulation and experience), study strategies (metacognitive, deep cognitive, surface cognitive and resource management strategies) and academic achievement. The relationships in the model were tested with controlling for intellectual ability, gender and age. The results showed that effective self-regulated learning involved two pathways: a metacognitive and a strategy pathway. The first pathway involved a positive relationship of mastery goals and a negative relationship of performance-avoidance goals with metacognition. Metacognition positively affected the use of the four study strategies. The strategy pathway involved positive effects of mastery and performance-approach goals on the use of metacognitive and deep cognitive strategies. Further, performance-approach goals positively affected the use of surface cognitive and resource management strategies. The use of metacognitive and resource management strategies had a positive and the use of surface cognitive strategies had a negative effect on exam scores.     

Capturing temporal and sequential patterns of self-, co-, and socially shared regulation in the context of collaborative learning

This study examined how temporal sequences of regulated learning events, such as types and processes of regulated learning, emerge during different stages of collaborative learning. Earlier research has focused on individual learning and not on the captured temporal sequences of regulation in collaborative learning. The data were collected during a two-month math didactics course taken by teacher education students who collaborated in three member groups. Twenty-two hours of video data were collected to follow how sequences of regulated learning events, along with task execution, emerged within the six groups as their collaboration advanced. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis. The results showed that the groups engaged mostly in co-regulated planning and monitoring. Temporal analysis showed that collaborative interactions focusing on task execution promoted socially shared planning, indicating that task execution provided grounding for socially shared planning and regulation to occur. The sequential analysis illustrated that metacognitive monitoring played a facilitative role in the progress of task execution.     

How Far Have We Moved Toward the Integration of Theory and Practice in Self-Regulation?

In this article, we address four main questions, including: What is self-regulated learning for? What key strategies do students need to guide and direct their own learning process? What cues in the learning environment trigger self-regulation strategies? What can teachers do to help student to self-regulate their learning, motivation, and effort in the classroom? We illustrate that answers to these questions have changed over time and that changing conceptualizations of the self-regulation process have influenced the assessment tools that were used. We also point to changing classroom conditions as a factor that has affected the assessment of self-regulation. Finally, we formulate some questions that need to be tackled in research on self-regulation and introduce the articles and commentaries in the special issue that provide some cutting-edge work on the use of assessment to register self-regulation over time.     

Emotion regulation,homework completion,and math achievement: Testing models of reciprocal effects

The current investigation employs models of reciprocal effects among emotion management, cognitive reappraisal, homework completion, and achievement, based on two measurement points from 1450 Chinese 8th graders. Results revealed that emotion management and math achievement were reciprocally related. Furthermore, higher prior achievement led to higher subsequent cognitive reappraisal and homework completion. Additionally, significant interactions were found between emotion management and cognitive reappraisal in the prediction of subsequent emotion management, cognitive reappraisal, and homework completion. Specifically, these findings indicated that emotion management had a more positive influence on subsequent emotion management, cognitive reappraisal, and homework completion when prior cognitive reappraisal was low (compensatory effect by decreasing the gap between students with prior high and low cognitive reappraisal).     

The development of achievement emotions and coping/emotion regulation from primary to secondary school

This study reports on the development of achievement emotions and coping/emotion regulation in primary to secondary school-aged children and adolescents. Based on two longitudinal cohorts (Grades 2–5; Grades 4–7), latent growth models were used to analyze the development of achievement emotions and coping strategies separately as well as simultaneously. The results show that enjoyment decreases across grades, whereas boredom increases, with substantial changes between Grade 5 and Grade 7. Consistently, the development of enjoyment is positively associated with the development of problem-focused coping and palliative emotion regulation, whereas the development of boredom is positively associated with the development of avoidant coping and anger-related emotion regulation. Moreover, the relation between problem-focused coping and boredom, as well as between avoidant coping and enjoyment, depends on the age group. The results are discussed regarding the organization of learning environments in classes to prevent unfavorable developmental patterns of achievement emotions.     

The influence of achievement goals and social goals on help-seeking from peers in an academic context

The influence of achievement goals and social goals on help-seeking from peers in an academic context was examined in two studies. A total of 551 high school students participated in the two studies. The results across the studies demonstrated strong convergence, revealing that mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and friendship-approach goals were positive predictors of instrumental help-seeking, whereas performance-avoidance and friendship-avoidance goals were negative predictors. Study 2 additionally demonstrated that attitudes toward help-seeking mediate the influence of achievement and social goals on instrumental help-seeking. These results add to the body of work investigating achievement and social motivation together to more fully understand motivational influences on academic outcomes.     

Self-regulated learning partially mediates the effect of self-regulated learning interventions on achievement in higher education: A meta-analysis

It is often assumed that interventions aimed at supporting students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) are effective for improving achievement because these interventions support SRL activity. In this study, meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) was used to test whether SRL activity indeed mediates the effect of SRL interventions on achievement in higher education. Contrary to popular belief, the results only provide evidence for partial mediation. Furthermore, three separate meta-analyses were performed to investigate the role of possible moderators of the relations between: (1) SRL interventions and achievement, (2) SRL interventions and SRL activity, and (3) SRL activity and achievement. Although SRL interventions were effective in improving SRL activity and achievement, most of the study, measurement, and intervention moderators did not explain significant variance of the investigated effect sizes. Other factors, such as task motivation and time on task, potentially influence the effectiveness of SRL interventions. Practical, theoretical and methodological implications are provided.     

The effect of different goals and self-recording on self-regulation of learning a motor skill in a physical education setting

This study examined the effect of different goals (process, performance outcome, and multiple goals) and self-recording on self-regulation of learning a dart-throwing skill. Participants were 105 fifth and sixth graders who were randomly assigned to six (3 Goal type × 2 self-recording) experimental and one control group. Results showed a positive effect of self-recording on students’ performance, while no difference was found between the goal conditions. Moreover, goal group students made more technical attributions and adaptive inferences compared to the control group students. Results are discussed with reference to self-regulated learning, the pursuit of multiple goals and self-recording in physical education.     

Moral reasoning patterns and influential factors in the context of environmental problems

This study investigated pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) moral reasoning patterns and the factors underlying these reasoning patterns. Local and non-local environmental dilemmas were used to examine moral reasoning patterns. An explanatory design was used with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, which was subsequently refined using qualitative interview data. For the quantitative part of the study, PSTs were asked to comment on four local and non-local environmental dilemmas (i.e. deforestation, e-waste, oil spills, and global warming). The responses were categorized as ecocentric, anthropocentric, or non-environmental reasoning. The findings showed that the participants’ moral reasoning focused on both ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives, with a few displaying non-environmental reasoning. Concern for environmental problems was related to perceptions of whether the issue was directly related to nature, and was independent of whether the issues were local or non-local. The Moral Decision Making Interview protocol was used in the qualitative part of the study. Analysis revealed that the participants’ moral decisions were based on their resolutions in situational context and their concerns showed variations in their moral reasoning due to different factors like, effect on human life, formal principles, notion of rights, moral emotions, potential harm to others, and popular culture.     

Understanding the role of private speech in children's emotion regulation

Self-regulation includes both cognitive and affective components, but few researchers have investigated how these components interact to better explain self-regulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how children's private speech, which is typically related to cognitive ability, was utilized during an emotion-eliciting task. By examining the social and private speech that occurred as children coped with a frustration task, a better understanding of how children regulate their emotional displays can be achieved. Children's speech, emotional expressions (sadness and anger), and emotion regulation strategies (distraction and self-comforting) were coded during a frustration task completed by preschool-aged children (N = 116). Children's social speech to mothers and private speech were transcribed. Children's private speech was categorized according to five mutually exclusive categories: vocalizations, inaudible muttering, task-irrelevant, negatively valenced task-relevant, or facilitative task-relevant. Sadness was associated with more social speech and negatively valenced task-relevant private speech, whereas anger was associated with less distraction and facilitative task-relevant private speech and more vocalizations and negatively valenced task-relevant private speech. Additionally, private speech predicted unique variance beyond that explained by the emotion regulation strategies and moderated the relations of emotion regulation strategies to both anger and sadness. These empirical findings support theoretical propositions that language is a factor in children's emotion regulation. The implications of these findings include support for the encouragement of private speech in the classroom because of its relation to emotional, in addition to cognitive, regulatory functions.     

Family-support goals drive engagement and achievement in a collectivist context: Integrating etic and emic approaches in goal research

Much of the goal research in educational psychology has focused on top-down etic approaches with little emphasis on the use of bottom-up emic methods to uncover culturally-relevant phenomena. The aim of this study was to combine etic and emic approaches and to explore how goals derived from both approaches drive engagement and achievement. Study 1 was a qualitative study which aimed to examine the different types of goals that students spontaneously generated in school contexts. Wanting to help the family (which we labeled as family-support goal) was one of the most commonly-endorsed goals indicating its psychological salience for Filipino students. Study 2, a cross-sectional study, demonstrated that family-support goals were distinct from achievement goals. Study 3, a prospective longitudinal study, found that family-support goals positively predicted subsequent engagement and achievement. Study 4 replicated the results of Study 3 on a different sample of students after taking into account several relevant covariates (e.g., parental relatedness, relational self-construal, social desirability) thus ruling out the possibility of third variable confounds. Taken together, family-support goals were more salient predictors of optimal learning-related outcomes followed by mastery-approach goals. Results of the current study highlight the importance of taking culture into account in examining student motivation.     

Emotions in medical education: Examining the validity of the Medical Emotion Scale (MES) across authentic medical learning environments

To advance emotion research in education, there is a need to develop practical and context-relevant measures of emotion and to test the applicability of emotion theories using these measures. In two studies, we examined validity evidence of a self-report scale (the Medical Emotion Scale, MES) designed to measure the unique range of emotions activated within medical education. In Study 1, we administered the MES and conducted interviews with medical trainees (N = 15). Content analysis of interviews demonstrated that the MES captured an appropriate range of emotions and that there was alignment between scale responses and interview responses. In Study 2, we measured medical trainees' (N = 60) emotions using the MES for three learning environments. Results from principal components analysis revealed a structure of emotions according to valence (negative, positive) and novelty. The findings have implications for the measurement of emotions within technology-rich learning environments and beyond.     

缺省推理：认知语境的功能实现

如何在一定语言形式的基础上,根据语境进行语用推理,从而确定话语的意义,这是语用学和语言逻辑一直寻求解决的问题。日常话语理解中的语用推理是根据认知语境所做的缺省推理,它是一个双层推理系统。在这个推理系统中,大推理系统内嵌一个小推理系统,认知语境中的明示语境和缺省语境分别作为该缺省推理中的显性前提和隐性前提而存在。     

Emotion regulation and academic perceptions in adolescence

Although studied extensively in the field of adolescent mental health, the role of emotion regulation (ER) in the academic functioning of adolescents is not well understood. This study examined the role of ER in adolescents’ perceptions of themselves and their learning environments. We compared adolescents with high and low levels of ER on perceptions of school achievement and attitudes towards school and their perception of their parents’ academic involvement. Students completed surveys about perceptions of their learning and parental involvement, as well as their ER abilities. Results indicated that students with higher emotion dysregulation endorsed more negative self-perceptions of their own academic abilities, had more negative attitudes towards school, and rated their mothers and fathers as more controlling in relation to their learning. These results demonstrate the importance of ER in the academic context, particularly in the home learning environment.     

The influence of achievement goals on collaborative interactions and knowledge convergence

Although there is evidence of the influence of achievement goals on individuals’ learning, less is known about their influence on collaborative groups. In this study, 45 pairs of college students engaged in a building task. Twenty-three of the pairs were assigned to a learning goal condition and 22 to a performance goal condition. Pre- and post-test measures were used to quantify differences in outcomes, knowledge convergence and knowledge convergence mechanisms between conditions; qualitative coding was conducted to understand differences in interactions. Results indicated no difference in overall measures of learning and performance outcomes between conditions. However, groups with a learning goal showed more knowledge convergence than groups with a performance goal. Groups with a learning goal engaged in more reflection and more explanations during the task than groups with a performance goal. These results suggest that achievement goals influence interaction behaviors when students are engaged in collaborative activities.