Linking parental scaffolding with self-regulated learning in Chinese kindergarten children

The current study aimed to examine the relationships between dimensions of parental scaffolding and children's self-regulated learning (SRL). One hundred and thirty Chinese kindergarten children participated in a range of problem-solving tasks with their parents and independently. Parent-child interactions and child-alone behaviours were video-recorded for an in-depth observational analysis. Parental cognitive support, emotional support, and contingency were coded in parent-child interactions. Children's cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational strategic behaviours and task performance were coded and assessed within the context of child-alone tasks. Results showed that contingency was particularly important for children's SRL. Parental contingency was the only independent predictor of children's SRL among the three aspects of parental scaffolding and mediated the effect of parent education levels on children's SRL.     

Epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning with hypertext

This study investigated the relationship between epistemological beliefs, prior domain knowledge and self-regulated learning. Biology students (n?=?25) and humanities students (n?=?26) who varied in their epistemological beliefs learned with a hierarchical hypertext about the topic of genetic fingerprinting. During their learning processes, logfiles and questionnaire data were collected. Results indicate that students do metacognitively calibrate their learning process to the complexity of the presented learning material, e.g. by processing more complex deeper-level nodes longer. Furthermore, these calibration processes were significantly related to epistemological beliefs. For example, more ‘sophisticated’ epistemological beliefs were associated with processing more nodes, whereas more ‘naïve’ beliefs were related to spending more time on single nodes. Both effects were especially pronounced on deeper hierarchical hypertext levels. Prior domain knowledge also had an impact, especially on comprehensibility ratings: biology students considered all nodes more comprehensible than humanities students. Additionally, epistemological beliefs as well as prior domain knowledge were also significantly associated with the learning outcome: for example, more prior domain knowledge led to significantly higher learning outcome.     

Metacognitive learning strategies: differential development patterns in high school

The main objective of this study is to identify the development of students’ self-reported use of metacognitive learning strategies during high school. Therefore, the study analyses the differential development patterns of 1,432 students, between grade 10 and 12, in a longitudinal sample. The results suggest that, from a global perspective, there is no development of students’ self-reported use of metacognitive learning strategies during high school. The expected gender-specific differences in favour of female students are replicated in this sample. However, the self-reported use of monitoring and evaluation strategies tends to converge between genders during high school, whereas the differences in the self-reported use of planning strategies remain stable. The consequences for the understanding of metacognitive development are discussed.     

Precursors of metamemory in young children: the role of theory of mind and metacognitive vocabulary

This paper describes findings of a longitudinal study that was carried out to examine relationships among different aspects of young children's cognitive development, namely, theory of mind, metacognitive vocabulary, and metamemory, which seem theoretically connected but so far have not been studied simultaneously. In total, 174 children were included in the present analyses who were about 4;6 years of age at the first measurement point. Children were tested at four time points, separated by a testing interval of approximately half a year. At the first time of testing, children completed a set of theory of mind tasks. At each of the following measurement points, measures of metacognitive vocabulary and general vocabulary as well as metamemory were given. Overall, the findings show that theory of mind performance assessed at the age of 4;6 predicts metacognitive knowledge assessed about one and a half years later. Furthermore, they point to a reciprocal relationship between metacognitive vocabulary and metamemory in that comprehension of metacognitive vocabulary predicted later metamemory and, conversely, metamemory significantly predicted later comprehension of metacognitive verbs. This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (SCHN 315 /20–7) to the German Research Group on Cognitive Development.     

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.     

Teaching for understanding and/or self-regulated learning? A video-based analysis of reform-oriented mathematics instruction in Switzerland

In mathematics instruction, can a teacher implement surface features of instruction that foster self-regulated learning as well as achieve quality at the deeper level of instruction, that is, focus on higher-order thinking, problem-solving, and mathematical modeling? An educational reform effort in Switzerland, which is based on constructivist and sociocultural theories of mathematics learning, targets both these dimensions: self-regulated learning and conceptual understanding. We examined the realization of the two dimensions in classroom instruction in a video-based study of 79 eighth-grade math classes using three kinds of data: videotapes of mathematics lessons, student and teacher questionnaires, and achievement tests. As to the surface level of instruction, teachers reported how frequently they provided opportunities for self-regulated learning. With regard to the deeper level of instruction, teachers reported how frequently they provided opportunities for independent problem solving. In addition, we examined the extent to which teachers’ pedagogical beliefs reflected a constructivist orientation. The results showed that teachers implemented the two dimensions relatively independently of one another. Teachers’ constructivist-oriented beliefs influenced only opportunities provided for independent problem solving and did not affect opportunities for self-regulated learning. Opportunities for self-regulated learning had a positive effect on students’ learning experience. Professional development should encourage teachers to take greater account of both surface-level and deeper-level (quality) features of instruction.     

Effects of self-assessment on self-regulated learning and self-efficacy: Four meta-analyses

This meta-analytic review explores the effects of self-assessment on students' self-regulated learning (SRL) and self-efficacy. A total of 19 studies were included in the four different meta-analyses conducted with a total sample of 2305 students. The effects sizes from the three meta-analyses addressing effects on different measures of SRL were 0.23, 0.65, and 0.43. The effect size from the meta-analysis on self-efficacy was 0.73. In addition, it was found that gender (with girls benefiting more) and certain self-assessment components (such as self-monitoring) were significant moderators of the effects on self-efficacy. These results point to the importance of self-assessment interventions to promote students’ use of learning strategies and its effects on motivational variables such as self-efficacy.     

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.     

Procrastination and self-efficacy: Tracing vicious and virtuous circles in self-regulated learning

In the present study, we investigated how students react to self-assessed low goal achievement in self-regulated learning. Over a university term (19 weeks), 150 university students recorded self-efficacy, procrastination and perceived goal achievement in weekly web-based self-monitoring protocols. Using multilevel analyses for growth curve models, we investigated the reciprocal amplifying between procrastination and perceived goal achievement and self-efficacy and perceived goal achievement. Results indicated a vicious circle of procrastination and a virtuous circle of self-efficacy. Students who recorded high levels of procrastination assessed their goal achievement as being low. As a consequence of low goal achievement, they reinforced procrastination. Students who recorded high levels of self-efficacy assessed their goal achievement as being high. As a consequence of high goal achievement, self-efficacy increased. Self-efficacy mediated the effect of perceived goal achievement on procrastination. Thus, students with low perceived self-efficacy are vulnerable for finding themselves in a vicious circle of procrastination.     

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.     

Mathematics, computers, and young children as a research-oriented learning environment for a teacher candidate

The advent of computer technology in the classroom raised the issue of its appropriate use by teachers and their students alike. It has been recommended that teacher education programs provide more opportunities for teacher candidates’ use of technology including teaching their own technology-enhanced lessons. With a goal of integrating scholarship into student teaching, a teacher candidate enrolled in a graduate program in childhood education carried out a technology-enhanced research project within a professional development school. Examining the impact of the project on the teacher candidate, this article describes how one’s pedagogical content knowledge and technological competence can be developed through a research-oriented teaching experience. The article also demonstrates the emergence of a community of practice that shares the goal of providing learning spaces for the teacher candidate and young children in the context of mathematics enrichment with computers.     

Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning

A Personal Learning Environment or PLE is a potentially promising pedagogical approach for both integrating formal and informal learning using social media and supporting student self-regulated learning in higher education contexts. The purpose of this paper is to (a) review research that support this claim, (b) conceptualize the connection between PLE, social media, and self-regulated learning, and (c) provide a three-level pedagogical framework for using social media to create PLEs that support student self-regulated learning. Implications for future research in this area are provided.     

Examining the ontological and epistemic assumptions of research on metacognition,self-regulation and self-regulated learning

While research on metacognition, self-regulation and self-regulated learning is quite mature, these studies have been carried out with varying methodologies and with mixed results. This paper explores the ontological and epistemological assumptions of theories, models and methods used to investigate these three constructs to examine the underlying assumptions of all three. Using oft-cited theories and models of the three constructs along with highly cited studies identified in a previous review of these constructs, this paper examined facets of two popular frameworks: Cartesian-split-mechanistic tradition (CSMT) and the relational tradition specifically looking at the role of intra-individual development, the inclusiveness of categories and notions of causality in these theories, models and methods. While the theories and methods contained elements of both traditions, methods to investigate these constructs relied almost exclusively on assumptions from CSMT. Future directions for research include incorporating more studies examining intra-individual change and multiple notions of causality. Future directions for practice include better contextualisation of research results to strengthen the link between theory and practice.     

The dynamic roles of cognitive reappraisal and self-regulated learning during mathematics problem solving: A mixed methods investigation

Emotion regulation (ER) and self-regulated learning (SRL) are crucial to learners’ academic achievements. To date, little research has considered the dynamic relations between cognitive reappraisal (as a form of ER) and SRL in middle-to-upper-elementary-aged children. To address this gap, we conducted an explanatory mixed-methods study to examine relations between cognitive reappraisal, the four macro phases of SRL (task definition, planning/goal setting, enactment of learning strategies, monitoring/evaluation), and mathematics problem-solving outcomes in a sample of 134 elementary students from grades 3 through 6. Path analysis revealed that cognitive reappraisal positively predicted all four phases of SRL, but that the four phases of SRL did not predict cognitive reappraisal. Moreover, both task definition and planning/goal setting positively predicted enactment and monitoring/evaluation. Results from path analyses further revealed that task definition mediated relations between cognitive reappraisal and enactment, and reappraisal and monitoring. Enactment mediated relations between reappraisal and mathematics problem-solving outcomes. Finally, enactment predicted mathematics problem-solving outcomes. Further, quantitative results were cross-validated by results from trend analyses; results converged regarding the weakly sequenced nature of SRL and with regard to cognitive reappraisal serving as an important antecedent for effective SRL.     

The measurement of calibration in real contexts

Accurate judgment of performance, or calibration, is an important element of self-regulated learning (SRL) and itself has been an area of growing study. The current study contributes to work on calibration by presenting practical and predictive results of varying calibration measures from authentic educational data: elementary-aged students' interactions with a year-long digital mathematics curriculum. Comparison of predictive validity of measures show only small differences in explained variance in models predicting posttest performance while controlling for pretest. A combined model including Sensitivity and Specificity outperforms other single measures, confirming results in Schraw, Kuch, & Gutierrez (2013); however, results show that student patterns of calibration within these data differ from those assumed in simulation studies and these differences have implications for the calculability of popular calibration measures.     

Problem-based learning and the development of metacognition

This study samples first year undergraduates from two programmes at a Hong Kong University (N = 66). One programme uses an entirely problem-based approach to learning and teaching, whilst the other uses more traditional methods. Using the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) as a measure of student perceptions of their thinking, or metacognition it explores differences in metacognitive development between each group of students between the beginning and end of their first year in each programme. The paper argues that, in addition to the formal learning context, everyday challenges emerging from the additional new social contexts provided by problem-based curricula provide fertile environments for the development of metacognition because whilst the highest ‘meta-level’ of cognition is usually not implicated when we receive an outside task and when the task solution is known, the meta-level does tend to be consulted when things go wrong or when the situation is new. In other words, when we are faced with finding solutions to a problem whether posed by the teacher as part of a problem-based curriculum or a new social environment, we are more likely to develop generic, as well as subject specific skills.     

Understanding the association between future time perspective and self-regulated learning through the lens of self-determination theory

The present cross-sectional research examined a process underlying the positive association between holding an extended future time perspective (FTP) and learning outcomes through the lens of self-determination theory. High school students and university students (N = 275) participated in the study. It was found that students with an extended FTP regulated their study behaviour on the basis of several internal motives, including feelings of guilt and shame (introjected regulation), personal conviction (identified regulation) and interest (intrinsic motivation). The association with identified regulation was strongest and the association with intrinsic motivation fell below significance when controlling for identified regulation. Moreover, introjected and identified regulation emerged as mediators accounting for the association between FTP and cognitive processing. Further, to the extent that FTP engenders an internally pressuring mode of regulation it was found to be indirectly negatively associated with determination/metacognitive strategy use. In contrast to FTP, a present fatalistic and present hedonic time-orientation yielded more negative motivational and learning correlates. The link between FTP and self-determination theory is discussed.