What Teachers Think about Self-Regulated Learning: Investigating Teacher Beliefs and Teacher Behavior of Enhancing Students’ Self-Regulation

Greetje van der Werf,Charlotte Dignath-van Ewijk

doi:10.1155/2012/741713

Abstract

In order to foster self-regulated learning (SRL), teachers should provide students with learning strategies, as well as with constructivist learning environments that allow them to self-regulate their learning. These two components complement each other. When investigating teachers’ promotion of SRL, not only teacher behavior, but also teachers’ beliefs as well as their knowledge about SRL are relevant aspects to consider. Therefore, this study seeks to examine teachers’ knowledge and beliefs on promoting SRL, as well as their predictive value on teachers’ promotion of SRL in the classroom. Forty-seven primary school teachers completed questionnaires on knowledge and beliefs towards both components of the promotion of SRL: strategy instruction and a constructivist learning environment. In addition, teachers had to answer open-ended questions on their understanding of SRL, as well as their implementation of SRL in their classroom. The results show that teachers are more positive towards constructivist than towards SRL (teacher beliefs), and most teachers mentioned characteristics of constructivist learning environments, while only few teachers addressed strategy instruction when being asked about their understanding of SRL (teacher knowledge). Moreover, teacher beliefs are the only predictor for teacher behavior. The results indicate how teacher education could support teachers to learn how to promote SRL effectively.

Highlights

Research on the promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL) has revealed that students can learn how to self-regulate their learning, but investigation of training them to do so has pointed out teachers producing weaker effects of training than researchers do
The results show that teachers are more positive towards constructivist than towards SRL, and most teachers mentioned characteristics of constructivist learning environments, while only few teachers addressed strategy instruction when being asked about their understanding of SRL
With regard to our first research question, we wanted to know whether teachers assign more importance to the design of constructivist learning environments than to strategy instruction when asked about their beliefs and their knowledge on SRL

Summary

Introduction

Research on the promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL) has revealed that students can learn how to self-regulate their learning, but investigation of training them to do so has pointed out teachers producing weaker effects of training than researchers do (see, e.g., [1] for primary school and [2] for secondary school). Providing students solely with autonomy but not with means to execute strategies has not been found to be beneficial for students (see for an overview [5]) Both the instruction of metacognitive strategies—strategies on how to learn—as well as learning environments that require and enable self-regulation have been found to predict students’ self-regulation [6]. Kramarski and Michalsky [8] found that teachers’ ability for SRL was associated with their pedagogical knowledge as well as with their beliefs on student-centered learning. Looking backwards, it would even enhance our understanding of the delineated

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