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Does training in how to regulate one’s learning affect how students report self-regulated learning in diary tasks?

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Abstract

The processes and perceptions of students’ self-regulated learning are not easily measured. Thus, research has presented and suggested numerous ways in which these processes and perceptions of self-regulated learning can be investigated and assessed. Accordingly, this study aims to assess whether training in how to regulate one’s learning is related to students’ growth patterns regarding their reported self-regulated learning activity over time. This study also investigates whether this type of training has an impact on students’ reflective ability and academic performance. To reach these goals, we examined whether students’ use of a diary task - developed by interviewing primary school students (n = 43) and validated with exploratory (n = 78) and confirmatory (n = 83) factor analysis - would capture change in students’ reported self-regulated learning activity and reflective ability during training in how to regulate one’s learning (students: n = 100; diary task entries: n = 1,000). Students’ academic performance was assessed with an oral and vocabulary task. Results from multilevel linear modeling revealed different growth rates of reported self-regulated learning activity over time between students who experienced training and students who did not. Furthermore, pre and posttest results revealed that the students who experienced the training reported their reflections more autonomously and specifically in their diary task and had better academic performance than students who did not. These results demonstrate how the diary task captured change in students’ perceptions, validating it as a monitoring tool. Lastly, implications for practitioners are discussed and suggestions for future studies are proposed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Anastasia Efklides and Aristides Ferreira for their pertinent and supportive insights on the development and validation of the DOGS-RL, as well as Ronald Heck and Cicero Pereira for their expert guidance in the multilevel analyses of the data. We would also like to show our gratitude to the editor and reviewers who meticulously guided us in the development of this paper with their expert suggestions. This study was funded by The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/61078/2009).

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  1. Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisbon, Portugal

    P. Costa Ferreira, A. M. Veiga Simão & A. Lopes da Silva

  2. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Lisbon, Portugal

    P. Costa Ferreira

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  1. P. Costa Ferreira
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  2. A. M. Veiga Simão
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Correspondence to P. Costa Ferreira.

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Ferreira, P.C., Simão, A.M.V. & da Silva, A.L. Does training in how to regulate one’s learning affect how students report self-regulated learning in diary tasks?. Metacognition Learning 10, 199–230 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-014-9121-3

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