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Effects of self-regulatory instructional aids on self-directed study

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Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of providing instructional support for the self-regulation of a self-directed homework assignment. Across four parallel experiments, university students completed an online module on critical thinking. In Experiment 1, participants who were prompted on a broad spectrum of study strategies showed superior performance on a subsequent test of application relative to a control group. In Experiment 2, participants were prompted to use two specific strategies: generation of explanations and summarization. The former improved performance, whereas the latter did not. In Experiment 3, instructional aids designed to facilitate planning improved some aspects of performance relative to the control group. In Experiment 4, attempts to encourage self-feedback impaired performance. In conclusion, beyond encouraging a broad spectrum of study strategies, the generation of explanations and planning particularly improve learning without overburdening working memory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

    Timothy C. Bednall & E. James Kehoe

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  1. Timothy C. Bednall
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  2. E. James Kehoe
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Correspondence to Timothy C. Bednall.

Appendices

Appendix A

See Table 1.

Table 1 Description of the fallacies used in the homework module
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Appendix B

See Table 2.

Table 2 Classification scheme for SRL activities referenced in students’ plans
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Bednall, T.C., James Kehoe, E. Effects of self-regulatory instructional aids on self-directed study. Instr Sci 39, 205–226 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-009-9125-6

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