Developing novice teacher self-regulated learning processes with explicit instruction

Being able to self-regulate one’s learning is essential for academic success but is also very difficult for students. Especially first year students can be overwhelmed with the high study load and autonomy in higher education. To face this challenge, students’ monitoring and self-regulated learning (SRL) processes are crucial. Yet, often students are not aware of effective SRL strategies or how to use them. In this study, the use of a mobile application with gamification elements (i.e., Ace Your Self-Study App) to support first-year university students’ SRL processes was investigated. In Study 1a, the Ace your self-study app was implemented in a first-year psychology course, and students’ SRL skills, motivation, self-efficacy, app use and satisfaction, and performance were measured. The results showed a significant increase in autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and metacognitive self-regulation skills (MSR-R) across the 5-week course. Moreover, students who used the mobile application with gamified elements showed higher autonomous motivation. Nevertheless, most students used the app only for a limited number of self-study sessions. In Study 1b, students’ self-study experiences were captured using focus group interviews to shed some more light on why students did or did not use the app. The results show that if students feel they do not need support for their SRL processes during self-study, they are less inclined to use the app. Specifically, regarding using study strategies, it was found that only if students’ strategies do not work well in their perception, they feel the need to change their way of studying and choose another strategy. These results are discussed in the context of theory on SRL and how to support it.

Teacher education programs are a critical site for preparing teachers’ self-regulated learning (SRL) knowledge and capacity to foster students’ SRL skills. The present study describes preservice science teachers’ (PSTs) perspectives and practices regarding SRL after a brief learning opportunity. The participants were 12 PSTs in a certification program for teaching secondary science. The data came from course assignments, lesson plans, and semi-structured interviews. The findings showed the PSTs appreciated the role of SRL and tried to integrate SRL processes into their science lessons. However, they needed further support to systematically implement SRL processes in classrooms. Findings from this study are relevant for science teacher educators who are interested in improving science teaching because the link between SRL and science teaching is discussed. They may also support teacher educators in making more informed decisions about course design and instruction regarding SRL. Finally, since suggestions for future studies are discussed, this research is relevant for science education researchers who study teachers’ perspectives on and practices related to SRL.

Researchers, especially in the field of educational psychology, have argued that self-efficacy plays an important role in self-regulated learning. As such, teaching of self-regulated learning often focuses on enhancing self-efficacy. However, few studies have examined how the process of self-regulated learning might lead to the enhancement of self-efficacy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the self-regulated vocabulary learning process on self-efficacy. A total of 303 learners of English as a Foreign Language from two universities participated in the study. They completed a questionnaire measuring the process of self-regulated learning (i.e. forethought, performance or volitional control, and self-reflection). They also completed a vocabulary test as a measure of learning outcome. Correlation analysis was employed to evaluate the relationships between various variables investigated in the study. The results showed that self-regulated learning process can boost self-efficacy and increase vocabulary knowledge. The pedagogical implications of the current study are discussed mainly in terms of incorporating instructions aimed at enhancing self-efficacy and self-regulation in vocabulary teaching.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a key competence for pre-service teachers to develop, both for their own activities as learners and for their future activities as teachers. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how pre-service teachers can be supported in acquiring SRL competence in their initial training. To reach this aim, we conducted a systematic review of SRL interventions for pre-service teachers. Sixty-six intervention studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. We explored three aspects of those SRL interventions, and how they moderate the interventions’ effectiveness: (1) the theoretical and practical underpinnings of SRL, (2) whether the intervention aimed to promote SRL learning and/or teaching of SRL, and (3) the intervention’s pedagogical characteristics and content related to the SRL professional competences. We found that the most effective SRL interventions (1) focused the training on one or two SRL areas (especially cognition and metacognition); (2) when targeted both, SRL learning and teaching of SRL, pre-service teachers’ SRL skills improved as well as their pedagogical skills; and (3) addressed direct and implicit SRL instruction, inside which self-assessment of learning and teaching practices appear as an effective pedagogical method. We derive implications from our findings for designing effective SRL interventions for prospective teachers.

Supporting Self-Regulated Learning with Student-Facing Learning Analytics: User-centric Design Guidelines

Recent research efforts have established that self-regulated learning (SRL) is necessary for teachers to attain successful professional development. Our study addresses two central questions: under what conditions in preservice teachers' education can SRL processes be enhanced to the optimum level, and how can we assess these processes? The participants of the study were ninety-seven preservice teachers, who were engaged in real-time teaching in a video-digital Microteaching environment. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of two groups: reflective support (RS) for SRL or no support (NS) for SRL. Participants in the RS group were explicitly exposed to SRL aspects and were directed to address these aspects in their reflective discussions of the teaching experience. The SRL process was measured as an online event during real-time teaching exercises, based on a coding scheme developed for this study to identify and assess the SRL skills by two major aspects: metacognition (planning, information management, monitoring, debugging, and evaluating) and motivation (interest and value, self-efficacy, and teaching anxiety). Results indicate that the RS group outperformed the NS group in all SRL measures. Implications for reflective support for SRL and event measures of real-time observations of preservice teachers' SRL are discussed.

Arts-integrated social studies projects can provide meaningful learning about another culture; yet, they are rare in the current assessment-focused climate. Similarly, students are under-exposed to projects that involve spatial reasoning; nonetheless, this skill is important in everyday life and the workplace. This article describes a mixed-methods study of 65 (59 female, 6 male) pre-service elementary teachers in a social studies methods course reflecting on their participation in an African mask-making project with first and second graders that incorporated both arts integration and spatial reasoning. Pre-service teachers identified discussion with others, example masks and images, and taking time as the most helpful mask-making strategies. Most preservice teachers thought they would (42%) or possibly would (32%) implement mask making with their future elementary students because of deep, meaningful learning and active engagement they experienced and observed during the project. The authors concluded that pre-service teachers need multiple experiences with long-term arts-integrated projects that support the development of spatial skills to be confident enough to undertake them in their future classrooms and suggest that such projects be part of social studies methods courses.

Self‐regulated learning (SRL) is an active process involving multiple interacting components that evolve over time, exhibiting characteristics of complex systems such as non‐linearity, emergent behaviour, self‐organization, and hierarchy. These interactions unfold at different temporal levels, each warranting a dedicated lens to capture their distinct dynamics. In this study, we apply a complex dynamic systems lens to analyse the longitudinal dynamics of SRL. We map how different SRL processes interact with each other across time and scales: (1) the stable between‐person level, which represents the dominant approach to learning or roughly the trait of SRL, (2) the contemporaneous level, which maps how SRL processes influence each other within the same time and (3) the temporal level, which captures how processes predict or influence each other in the future. Data were collected through a weekly survey administered over 4 weeks in five courses at two institutions, complemented by LMS behavioural engagement data. A panel vector autoregression model was employed to examine the structure and dynamics of SRL and LMS behavioural engagement at the three levels. The findings suggest that central SRL processes, such as planning and adapting, take place in separate stages, in accordance with the classic SRL models, whereas other processes, like effort regulation, are more pervasive, co‐occurring with most other regulatory processes. At the aggregate level, adjusting was the most central process that drove students' SRL. As such, our results align with the main characteristics of complex systems, including non‐linearity and hierarchy. These findings have implications for the design of SRL interventions, where effort can benefit from real‐time prompts, whereas metacognitive processes might require long‐term scaffolding. Furthermore, the weak association between LMS engagement and SRL processes across all levels highlights the limitations of relying solely on behavioural trace data to infer regulation. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic? Self‐regulated learning (SRL) is an important driver of academic success and can be influenced through targeted interventions. Most SRL research is based on group‐level data, often using static, cross‐sectional designs that overlook temporal dynamics. Recent work has highlighted that SRL can and should be modelled as a complex dynamic system. What this paper adds? There is evidence of complex systems characteristics in SRL such as hierarchy, non‐linearity and feedback loops. SRL processes follow distinct temporal phases, with some processes persisting throughout all phases. Metacognition is the most central process at the between‐person level, whereas effort is central at the within‐person level. LMS behavioural data is weakly linked to self‐reported SRL. Implications for practice and/or policy SRL interventions should consider how regulatory processes unfold over time, rather than treating SRL as a static trait. Interventions targeting effort regulation and metacognition have the potential to be the most consequential. Caution must be exerted when using average or between‐person data to inform individualized support. LMS metrics should be interpreted with care and ideally complemented by self‐report or observational data.

Öz-düzenlemeli öğrenme, öğrencilerin kendi öğrenme hedefleri doğrultusunda öğrenmeye yönelik motivasyonları, bilişsel süreçleri ile davranışlarını gözleme, düzenleme ve denetlemeye çalıştıkları süreçtir. Çevrim içi uzaktan öğrenmede öz-düzenleme becerilerinin önemi vurgulanmakta, akademik başarıyla ilişkili olabileceği düşünülmektedir. Ancak araştırmalar çevrim içi öz-düzenlemeli öğrenmenin başarıya etkilerine ilişkin çelişkili sonuçlar ortaya koymaktadır. Mevcut araştırmanın amacı, bir üniversitede eğitim gören öğretmen adaylarının öz-düzenlemeli çevrim içi öğrenme düzeylerini ve bu becerilerin akademik başarıya etkisini irdelemektir. Araştırmanın evrenini, 2020-2021 akademik yılında X Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi’nde 2, 3 ve 4. sınıflarda farklı bölümlerde aktif olarak öğrenim gören 1152 öğretmen adayı oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın örneklemini basit tesadüfi örnekleme ile seçilmiş öğretmen adayları arasından geri dönen 207 öğretmen adayı oluşturmaktadır. Öğretmen adaylarının Öz-düzenlemeli çevrim içi öğrenme becerilerine ilişkin veriler ‘Öz-düzenlemeli Çevrim İçi Öğrenme Ölçeği (SOL-Q)’ ile toplanmıştır. Öğretmen adaylarının akademik başarıları çevrim içi eğitim gördükleri 2020-2021 akademik yılı Güz dönemi not ortalamalarıyla değerlendirilmiştir. Yapılan analizler öğretmen adaylarının öz-düzenlemeli çevrim içi öğrenme düzeylerinin orta düzeyde olduğunu, kadın öğretmen adaylarının öz-düzenlemeli öğrenme ortalamalarının erkek öğretmen adaylarından yüksek olduğunu ve öz-düzenleme becerisinin çevrim içi öğrenmede akademik başarının anlamlı bir yordayıcısı olduğunu göstermiştir. Bulgular literatürde var olan benzer araştırmalarla tutarlı sonuçlar ortaya koymakla birlikte çevrim içi öğrenme süreçlerinde öz-düzenlemeli öğrenme geleneksel öğrenme ortamlarına göre farklı sonuçlar doğurabilmektedir.

Critical thinking skills are essential in the success of effective citizens. However, it is unclear how well preservice teachers (PTs) are prepared to teach these skills to K-8 students. This chapter investigates the application of PTs' critical thinking skills in a social studies methods course. In addition, it examines how often PTs include critical thinking strategies in their lesson plans. Findings suggest that PTs consider themselves to be critical thinkers. Yet they may lack the tools, skills, and strategies to promote student engagement with critical thinking through rigorous, complex lessons. The authors present a research study and offer strategies to enhance the development of PTs' critical thinking skills. The chapter discusses how to promote the transfer of these skills to K-8 students.

In recent years, self-report questionnaires and unobtrusive measures of self-regulated learning (SRL) based on digital trace data have been widely used to evaluate students’ SRL skills. However, researchers acknowledged significant limitations in these methods: while students often refuse to fill item-intensive questionnaires, digital trace data often lack the granularity and contextualization required to capture and explain the complexity of learning processes. Interviews (e.g. the Self-Regulated Learning Structured Interview protocol (SRLSI)), another type of instruments, while demonstrated validity and reliability has not been used widely due to its labor-intensive and time-consuming nature on the side of instructors and researchers. To address these challenges, the current research leverages advances in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to develop and implement a conversational agent capable of conducting the SRLSI. Grounded in learning sciences, this study evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of this tool in measuring SRL processes. The findings highlight three key outcomes: first, the tool effectively conducts and concludes SRL interviews; second, it reliably evaluates and categorizes students’ learning strategies; and third, students reported high satisfaction with the quality of the interview discussion, accuracy of the tool’s evaluations, response times, and in part feedback provided. Future research in SRL could combine such tool together with other measures (self-report questionnaires and digital trace data analysis), to provide a more comprehensive understanding of students’ SRL processes. The study concludes with practical recommendations for advancing SRL assessment and emphasizes the potential of multimodal approaches for more accurate and holistic measurement of self-regulated learning.

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for social justice. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the classroom setting (citations from below). Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for social justice provided the foundation for this study. This study examined experiential methodologies that can prepare preservice teachers to teach for social justice, particularly within a social studies context. The study focused on two research questions: (a) How do preservice elementary teachers in a social studies methods course conceptualize teaching for social justice within an experiential framework? (b) In what ways did preservice teachers operationalize teaching for social justice in the practicum classroom? Also examined was how the development of community in a social studies methodology course fostered the understanding of teaching for social justice. The findings highlight how preservice teachers were able to conceptualize building communities with experiential methods to teach for social justice and how doing so created an effective learning community. Although the preservice teachers valued the implementation of experiential methods to foster the teaching of social justice, difficulties were expressed in their incorporation of experiential methods in the practicum environment due to a lack of confidence, teaching competence, or collegial support.

Examining self-regulated learning through eportfolios in higher education: the case of an eportfolio based self-regulated learning (EPSRL) approach for advancing academic achievement

Preparing future elementary teachers to connect social studies content and skills with technology necessitates the integration of technology into teacher preparation methods courses. Such integration hinges on the identification of pre-service teachers’ level of Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK). These three knowledge areas help shape smart uses for educational technology beyond entertainment that utilize technology in educationally profitable ways. The TPACK model is useful for identifying the knowledge required by pre-service teachers for the purpose of wedding instructional technology to social studies content and instruction. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to describe and to analyze the integration of an instructional technology lesson in an elementary social studies methods course in a large Midwestern university. The study, specifically, describes and reports on 25 pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the utilization of a social studies software technology called Timeliner. The study reports on the level of TPACK awareness of the study’s pre-service teachers and offers implications related to instructional technology integration in elementary social studies methods courses.

With this study, it was aimed to determine the effect of constructivist chemistry laboratory on science and technology pre-service teachers’ opinions about constructivist approach and their self-regulated learning skills.The relationship between pre-service teachers’ opinions about constructivist approach and their self-regulated learning skills was investigated. The one group pre-test-post-test design was used in the study. The sample of the study was 58 pre-service teachers from Hacettepe University, Department of Science Education, who were attending chemistry experiments at Science Teaching Laboratory Applications II Course. Self-regulated Learning Skills Scale developed by Turan and Demirel (2010) and Opinion Scale of Constructivist Approach for Science Teachers developed by Balım, Kesercioğlu, Evrekli ve İnel (2009) were used as data collection tools. At the end of the study, it was determined that constructivist chemistry laboratory applications caused a positive increase in pre-service teachers’ self-regulated learning skills and opinions about constructivist approach. Also, there was a positive relationship between pre-service teachers’ self-regulated learning skills and opinions about constructivist approach that was observed. Key words: constructivist approach, self-regulated learning, chemistry laboratory applications, pre-service teachers.