How do teachers promote self-regulation of learning when students need to learn at home? The moderating role of teachers’ ICT competency

Abstract

The importance of self-regulation of learning became evident during the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying school closures. Using data from N = 254 German teachers, we analyze how teachers promoted self-regulation of learning in distance education and reasons why they did not promote it. Additionally, we examine which teacher and class variables predict the promotion of self-regulation of learning in distance education and whether teachers’ technology competency moderates these relationships. Further, we look into whether these relationships differ during the first lockdown in spring 2020, for which teachers were not able to prepare for ahead of time, and the beginning of the new school year 2020/2021. Qualitative analyses indicate that teachers focused on promoting metacognitive strategies and used technology to engage students. Reasons why teachers did not promote self-regulation of learning are mostly a lack of resources and misconceptions about students’ competences and needs. Regression analysis show that teachers’ self-efficacy to promote self-regulation of learning and students’ grade predict teachers’ promotion of self-regulation of learning in distance education. Moderation analyses reveal interactions between teachers’ technology competency and class size as well as grade—but only for the period after the summer holidays in 2020/2021. This paper uncovers areas of improvement for teacher education, such as their misconceptions, self-efficacy beliefs, and their technology competency—not only for homeschooling during a pandemic, but also for future learning opportunities in the 21st century that will contain the need for more self-regulation of learning due to the increasing use of technology and digital learning.