Assessing self-regulated learning in higher education: a systematic literature review of self-report instruments

Abstract

The growing interest in the field of learning strategies has led to an increasing number of studies and, with that, the development of numerous instruments to measure the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies. Due to the complexity of this research field, the types of assessment methods are diverse. For this reason, we conducted a systematic review of self-report instruments that measure SRL in higher education and highlight their main characteristics. In doing so, we applied the general principles of systematic reviewing—we conducted a systematic search of established psychological and educational databases with previously defined inclusion criteria and applied a multistage filtering process. In an additional step, we examined a subsample of nine established instruments in terms of their implementation characteristics, psychometric properties, and additional characteristics. The results illustrate the distribution of self-report instruments used in higher education and point to a growing use of course- or domain-specific questionnaires over the past decades as well as a lack of emotional and motivational regulation scales.