Video Analysis of Self-regulated Learning in Social and Naturalistic Contexts: The Case of Preschool and Primary School Children

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the opportunities and challenges emerging from the use of video as a tool to capture and analyse children's developing metacognitive and self-regulatory behaviors in genuine learning contexts. In order to meet this aim, this chapter presents two empirical illustrations concerned with the development of metacognition and self-regulation in preschool and primary school children in the context of authentic learning activities. We have decided to focus on these two empirical illustrations as each one shows different affordances and challenges involved in the collection and analysis of video data in this particular area of research illustration 1 will show how the use of video can support the collection and analysis of emerging metacognitive and self- regulatory behaviors in preschool children. Through examples of data, we will argue that video is a particularly suitable technique to capture emergent metacognition and self-regulation as it appears in autl1cntic learning contexts. In particular, this methodology was invaluable in tl1e investigation of non-verbal evidence of this type of activity in young children, and of tl1c impact of tl1e social and educational context on it. Illustration 2, in turn, will show how the use of video can enable researchers to capture social dynamics that bear different relationships with primary-aged children's self-regulation and metacognition and how it supports the simultaneous use of several coding schemes to investigate the complexity and multidimensionality of social interactions. In addition, shared features of both illustrations will show how the use of video data is critical in the operationalization of coding categories and how it enables quantitative and qualitative treatment of data. Relevant challenges concerning the use of video data in the context of these empirical illustrations will also be addressed at the end of this chapter. However, before addressing methodological innovations related to the use of video technology, it is necessary to familiarize the reader with our understanding of the constructs metacognition and self-regulation, as well as the critical dimensions embedded within them. Though we are aware that theoretical considerations are not the main focus of this volume, providing this theoretical background is necessity for the subsequent understanding of the coding categories developed in the reported empirical illustrations and related methodological decisions concerning the use of video.