Self-regulated Learning Intervention Research Articles

Enhancing students’ classical Chinese reading through a two-year flipped self-regulated learning intervention program

AbstractThis study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of using a flipped classroom (FC) approach to combine self-regulated learning (SRL) instruction and out-of-class eLearning activities in a two-year reading intervention program to facilitate students’ learning of classical Chinese reading. A total of 352 junior secondary students from three Hong Kong secondary schools participated in the study voluntarily. Using a quasi-experimental design, students from each school were assigned to one of the following conditions: SRL instruction plus out-of-class eLearning (EG-I+E), SRL instruction only (EG-I), and control (CG). Both quantitative methods, including reading tests and student questionnaires, and qualitative methods, including teacher and student interviews, were adopted to collect data for the program evaluation. Findings indicate that after implementing the intervention program, EG students perceived significant changes in their classical Chinese lessons to be more SRL-oriented. While all treatment groups significantly improved their performance in the reading post-tests, only EG students significantly improved their strategy use, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation. Although both EG groups had similar improvements in all outcome measures, teachers and students of EG-I+E opined that the eLearning component of FC facilitated teachers’ implementation of the intervention and students’ strategy learning and motivation. Findings are discussed to shed light on applying SRL instruction and FC in a school subject long dominated by teacher-centered instruction.

Exploring the impact of chat-based collaborative activities and SRL-focused interventions on students’ self-regulation profiles, participation in collaborative activities, retention, and learning in MOOCs

AbstractDespite their potential to deliver a high-quality learning experience, massive open online courses (MOOCs) pose several issues, such as high dropout rates, difficulties in collaboration between students, low teaching involvement, and limited teacher–student interaction. Most of these issues can be attributed to the large number, diversity, and variation in self-regulated learning (SRL) skills of participants in MOOCs. Many instructional designers try to overcome these issues by incorporating collaborative activities. Others try to scaffold students’ SRL levels by making SRL-focused interventions. However, limited research combines the study of SRL-focused interventions with students’ engagement in collaborative activities, course retention, and learning outcomes of MOOC environments. We deployed a programming-oriented MOOC in which we incorporated chat-based collaborative activities, supported by a learning analytics dashboard. Students were asked to complete SRL-focused questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the course. Based on their score, we calculated an average score that forms their SRL level, creating three groups: (a) control, (b) general intervention, and (c) personalized intervention in which we provided personalized interventions. We compared the students’ learning outcomes, participation in collaborative activities, and retention in the MOOC. These comparisons provided evidence regarding the positive impact of different intervention modes on students’ engagement in collaborative activities and their learning outcomes, with respect to their various SRL profiles. Students allocated to the general and personalized intervention groups displayed increased participation in the collaborative activities and learning outcomes, as compared to students assigned to the control group. We also documented that the SRL interventions positively affected students’ course retention.

Domain-specific self-regulated learning interventions for elementary school students

BackgroundSelf-regulated learning has been deemed an essential skill that must be explicitly learned and repeatedly practiced for young students. The need for research on teacher-led self-regulated learning interventions embedded in regular classroom instructions has escalated steadily. AimsWe aimed to investigate self-regulated learning interventions' effectiveness led by teachers applicable to three primary subjects (i.e., writing, mathematics, reading) based on Zimmerman's cyclical model of self-regulated learning. Samples214 Korean upper elementary school students participated in a series of three intervention studies (nStudy1 = 70, nStudy2 = 69, nStudy3 = 75). MethodsTrained homeroom teachers implemented the interventions—incorporating explicit instructions about domain-specific strategies in writing (Study 1), mathematics (Study 2), and reading (Study 3)—in Korean elementary school classrooms. Participants were assigned to one of the three groups: regular classroom instruction (REG), domain-specific strategy instruction (STR), and strategy instruction within the framework of eight-phase self-regulated learning instruction (STR + SRL). ResultsSynthesized results revealed that the STR + SRL group used more self-regulated strategies, performed better in achievement tests, and was less distracted by task-irrelevant thoughts than the STR and REG groups. ConclusionsOur interventions are compatible with domain-specific instructions in multiple subjects and can guide and prompt self-regulatory learning processes in elementary classrooms. Current findings also reiterate the importance of the teachers’ role in research-based interventions to increase ecological validity and applicability. We shed light on the potential mechanism that underlies the relationship between enhanced self-regulated learning and motivational and cognitive outcomes.

Boosting self-regulated learning with mobile interventions: Planning and prompting help children maintain a regular study routine

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities for encouraging self-regulated learning (SRL) in children. In this pre-registered study, we tested what kind of mobile intervention helps children maintain a regular study routine for vocabulary learning. Study behavior was measured objectively and with high ecological validity using logfiles of a vocabulary app that the children used. The mobile intervention was delivered via a separate study app and combined two critical components: planning and prompting. Children (N = 130, mean age = 10.75 years) first received a digital instruction on the benefits of distributed practice. Children in the full intervention group also formulated a plan for when and where to study vocabulary. On about half of the next 36 days (within-subject manipulation), they received prompts reminding them of the instruction and the plan. The comparison groups lacked either the prompting or planning intervention component (between-person manipulation). The results revealed that the reminder prompts increased the likelihood of studying on the day they were given. Planning, in contrast, had a more long-term impact in that it helped children maintain a high frequency of learning over time. Overall, our findings show that mobile interventions can be highly effective in supporting SRL in children. We found no evidence for children becoming overly reliant on prompts, nor for any time-varying effects of prompts. These findings contribute to our understanding of how mobile SRL interventions need to be designed to be effective for children.

Effectiveness of Self-Regulated Learning Intervention on Foreign Language Learning at Tertiary Level: A Systematic Review

Self-regulated learning (SRL) has been widely recognized as an efficient way of enhancing foreign language learning (FLL) outcomes in the sphere of higher education. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of SRL interventions or supports in improving foreign language learning among learners in tertiary institutions. The review involved 20 studies pertaining to exploring the effects of SRL interventions on improving FLL. According to this systematic review, SRL interventions can be successful in improving various aspects of FLL, including language proficiency, language learning strategies (LLS), motivation, and self-efficacy. The review also provides practical implications for language practitioners and researchers, including the need to tailor SRL interventions to the specific specialized demands of EFL learners and the importance of considering contextual factors to devise and administer SRL interventions in the sphere of FLL at tertiary education. However, several limitations of the existing studies are also identified, including limited assessment of long-term effects, limited use of control groups, insufficient consideration of individual differences, and lack of use of the mixed-methods approach. The findings also provide implications for future studies to address these limitations and provide a more nuanced understanding of the effectiveness of SRL interventions on foreign language learners. Specifically, future studies should incorporate longer-term assessments, stronger control groups, assessments of individual differences, and the mixed-methods approach. Overall, the paper provides insights into the strengths and limitations of existing research and highlights areas for future inquiry concerning SRL and foreign language acquisition.

Temporal learning analytics to explore traces of self-regulated learning behaviors and their associations with learning performance, cognitive load, and student engagement in an asynchronous online course.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) plays a critical role in asynchronous online courses. In recent years, attention has been focused on identifying student subgroups with different patterns of online SRL behaviors and comparing their learning performance. However, there is limited research leveraging traces of SRL behaviors to detect student subgroups and examine the subgroup differences in cognitive load and student engagement. The current study tracked the engagement of 101 graduate students with SRL-enabling tools integrated into an asynchronous online course. According to the recorded SRL behaviors, this study identified two distinct student subgroups, using sequence analysis and cluster analysis: high SRL (H-SRL) and low SRL (L-SRL) groups. The H-SRL group showed lower extraneous cognitive load and higher learning performance, germane cognitive load, and cognitive engagement than the L-SRL group did. Additionally, this study articulated and compared temporal patterns of online SRL behaviors between the student subgroups combining lag sequential analysis and epistemic network analysis. The results revealed that both groups followed three phases of self-regulation but performed off-task behaviors. Additionally, the H-SRL group preferred activating mastery learning goals to improve ethical knowledge, whereas the L-SRL group preferred choosing performance-avoidance learning goals to pass the unit tests. The H-SRL group invested more in time management and notetaking, whereas the L-SRL group engaged more in surface learning approaches. This study offers researchers both theoretical and methodological insights. Additionally, our research findings help inform practitioners about how to design and deploy personalized SRL interventions in asynchronous online courses.

Digital note-taking: An effective self-regulation tool in increasing academic achievement of Filipino students in a business mathematics online learning course

Online learning is a relatively new but emerging approach in Philippine education. The approach's rise in popularity warrants an emphasis on self-regulated learning (SRL). Hence, the current study aimed to propose and assess an intervention using a digital note-taking application as an SRL tool for Business Math. Data collection included the administration of a pre-test and a post-test and weekly ratings of digital notebook usage. Two-way ANCOVA results suggest that skillful self-regulators consistently achieved more than naïve self-regulators. Hierarchal regression analysis results imply that learners with better digital notebooks are likelier to achieve more in the course. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SRL intervention used in the study. Furthermore, repeated measures of ANOVA results suggest that different groups of learners use their SRL tools differently. Despite the effect of SRL tools on achievement, higher achievers are not certainly better self-regulators than lower achievers.

Self-regulated learning with mobile devices for university students: exploring the impacts on academic vocabulary development

The present study explored the impact of mobile-assisted self-regulated learning (SRL) on developing university students’ knowledge of academic vocabulary in English. The participants were 49 students in experimental (N = 28) and control (N = 21) learning conditions. Those in the experimental group studied 70 academic words using digital flashcards application installed on their mobile devices (i.e., smartphones), and the control group learned the same words using traditional materials (i.e., word lists). The participants’ vocabulary knowledge was tested before and after the treatment, and their test scores were analyzed using mixed between-within-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated a significant main effect for time in both SRL interventions, as both strategies were effective in scaffolding university students’ academic vocabulary development, and the learning gains were significant in post- and delayed post-tests. Additionally, the findings revealed a significant main effect for mobile-assisted SRL in that participants in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group on post-treatment tests. Accordingly, the results provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning in the SRL mode. The study offers implications for addressing the academic vocabulary learning needs of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students.

Developing low-achieving medical students’ self-regulated learning using a combined learning diary and explicit training intervention

Introduction The development of self-regulated learning (SRL) is an essential educational component of remediation for low-achieving students. The aim of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a longitudinal SRL intervention combining both a structured learning diary and explicit SRL training in a cohort of low-achieving undergraduate medical students. Materials and methods A mixed methods quasi-experimental study was conducted, with a pretest–posttest study in the intervention group and comparison of the GPA and course grade of the intervention group with a historical comparison group. A questionnaire and focus group explored the participants’ perceptions about the intervention. Results The SRL scores (total and rehearsal, organization, critical thinking, metacognitive regulation, time management and environment management) and course grade of participants were significantly improved in the intervention group. The course grade of participants was significantly higher than the comparison group but the GPA was not significantly different. Overall, the participants were positive about the intervention. Conclusions This study was the first in medical education to evaluate the effectiveness and user acceptability of an SRL intervention that combined a structured learning diary and explicit SRL training in low-achieving medical students. Further research is recommended in different contexts and with larger number of students.

A meta-analysis of the efficacy of self-regulated learning interventions on academic achievement in online and blended environments in K-12 and higher education

ABSTRACT Numerous empirical studies, including meta-analyses, have confirmed the impact of self-regulated learning (SRL) on learners’ academic achievement in traditional or face-to-face learning environments. However, prior meta-analyses rarely examined the efficacy of SRL interventions on academic achievement in online or blended education across elementary education, secondary education, higher education, and adult education. Therefore, this meta-analysis addresses this research gap by focusing on the effect of SRL interventions on students’ academic test performance in online and blended learning environments in elementary, secondary, and higher education settings as well as informal settings. The present meta-analysis compares SRL phase, SRL scaffolds, and SRL strategies between treatment and control groups. We also investigated possible differential effectiveness due to substantive features of the included studies, such as different educational levels of learners (e.g. elementary, secondary, and higher education), academic subjects (STEM vs. non-STEM), and learning contexts (e.g. online learning, blended learning, web-based learning, mobile learning). Consistent with previously published meta-analyses, the present meta-analysis confirmed a positive and moderate effect of SRL intervention (ES = 0.69) on learners’ academic achievement in online and blended environments for learners in elementary, secondary, and higher education as well as informal adult education settings.

Exploring the impact of self-regulated learning intervention on students' strategy use and performance in a design studio course.

A growing number of studies indicate that self-regulated learning plays a significant role in students' academic achievement. However, research studies on design studio education in self-regulated learning are under-researched globally, including in Turkey. In this study, I developed a self-regulated learning intervention for industrial design studio education and examined its impact on students' self-regulated learning strategies and design performance. Twenty six third-year industrial design students were tracked in a mixed-method research study conducted during a design studio course. Following the study, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the students using self-report questionnaires and interviews. The jury grades of the students in the experimental group were compared with the grades of the students in the control group. Integrated data analysis indicated that activities for promoting self-regulated learning strategies such as goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-efficacy, and seeking help and information in design studios can assist design students to improve their strategy use and design performance.

Improving online instruction with self-regulated learning: A case study of kinematics graph interpretation

The objective of this study was to determine if students’ skills interpreting kinematics graphs could be improved in an online instruction environment by using the Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) framework. The gain in skills was measured by comparing pre-test and post-test results of the objective Test for Understanding Graphs – Kinematics (TUG-K) for N=19 students. The average score of the post-test was 62% better than the average score of the pre-test. The difference between the two average scores was statistically significant (p < 0.05). In addition, an opinion survey of the students – conducted before and after the SRL intervention – showed a statistically significant (p < 0.05) improvement of 15% regarding the students’ own sense of self-efficacy, and their capacity for delayed gratification (self-control). These two intra-personal skills, in addition to metacognition, are addressed and developed by the SRL framework. SRL also develops self-instruction skills which opens further possibilities of using class time to provide feedback and to thoroughly assess student knowledge with oral exams. These initial results provide a positive outlook that the development of SRL skills contributes to improvements in online instruction.

Exploring achievement-level differences in implementing self-regulated learning instruction in a classical Chinese reading intervention program

Research on self-regulated learning (SRL) instruction typically treats students as a homogeneous group, without considering the possible effects of students’ prior level of SRL competence on the implementation and effectiveness of SRL instruction. To fill this research gap, this study explored the differences in learning outcomes among students with different achievement levels who received an SRL-based classical Chinese reading instruction program. Sixty seven ninth graders from two classes, one with high achievers and the other with moderate achievers, from one secondary school in Hong Kong participated in an intervention program designed by this study’s researchers. The study adopted qualitative methods, including classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, along with supplementary quantitative methods, including reading test and questionnaire, to explore the differences between the two achiever-groups when the intervention program was implemented. The results showed that the two classes differed on students’ SRL performance, the degree of teacher support and student autonomy, and students’ perceptions of SRL instruction. Implications of the findings for SRL research and intervention design are discussed.

In the need of self-regulated learning interventions in undergraduate medical education

Medical knowledge keeps growing and education doesn’t end with college, on the contrary, we need lifelong learners. Our future doctors require new tools to develop goal-outcome behaviors, select strategies to achieve better care to patients and to become lifelong learners. Thus self-regulated learning (SRL) emerge as a promise land. Our objective in this review is to describe the research conducted on interventions and training programs to promote self-regulated learning skills in medical students. A literature search was conducted following Garcia Peñalvo model for systematic reviews and the PRISMA statement, the search includes Web Of Science (WOS), EBSCO, ProQuest, Scopus, PubMed and Scielo from 2009 to 2022. We identified 362 articles, 7 were eligible for evaluation. Seven (100%) studies were longitudinal, three were randomized clinical trials. The country that contributed the most literature was the United States, no articles were found in Latin America; the most used instrument to measure SRL was the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), most of the interventions teach SRL skills in implicit manners, two of them teach SRL skills in explicit manners. There is a large field to explore regarding interventions and training programs to foster SRL in medical students.

Exploring the link between self‐regulated learning and learner behaviour in a massive open online course

AbstractBackgroundLearners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are presented with great autonomy over their learning process. Learners must engage in self‐regulated learning (SRL) to handle this autonomy. It is assumed that learners' SRL, through monitoring and control, influences learners' behaviour within the MOOC environment (e.g., watching videos). The exact relationship between SRL and learner behaviour has however not been investigated.ObjectivesWe explored whether differences in SRL are related to differences in learner behaviour in a MOOC. As insight in this relationship could improve our understanding of the influence of SRL on behaviour, could help explain the variety in online learner behaviour, and could be useful for the development of successful SRL support for learners.MethodsMOOC learners were grouped based on their self‐reported SRL. Next, we used process mining to create process models of learners' activities. These process models were compared between groups of learners.Results and conclusionsFour clusters emerged: average regulators, help seekers, self‐regulators, and weak regulators. Learners in all clusters closely followed the designed course structure. However, the process models also showed differences which could be linked to differences in the SRL scores between clusters.TakeawaysThe study shows that SRL may explain part of the variability in online learner behaviour. Implications for the design of SRL interventions include the necessity to integrate support for weak regulators in the course structure.

Exploring Long-Term Impacts of Self-Regulated Learning Interventions in K-12 Contexts: A Systematic Review

While research illustrates the benefits of interventions designed to improve self-regulated learning (SRL) and academic achievement, far fewer studies have examined the durability of these effects. This review synthesizes research on the lasting effects of 17 comprehensive SRL interventions on variables related to metacognition, cognition, motivation, and achievement in K-12 populations. Results reveal common patterns of design, domain-specificity, intervention complexity, and style of measurement instrument. Intervention effects tend to be durable regarding achievement and SRL but were mixed when presented across multiple measures of SRL. Overall findings imply that SRL interventions can lead to enduring effects on achievement and better achievement outcomes than content-strategy instruction alone and can be implemented successfully in a variety of contexts and subjects.

A tool-kit to help students from low socioeconomic status background: a school-based self-regulated learning intervention

A tool-kit to help students from low socioeconomic status background: a school-based self-regulated learning intervention

Do Self-Regulated Learning Practices and Intervention Mitigate the Impact of Academic Challenges and COVID-19 Distress on Academic Performance During Online Learning?

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced significant disruptions and challenges to the learning environment for many post-secondary students with many shifting entirely to remote online learning. Barriers to academic success already experienced in traditional face-to-face classes may be compounded in the online environment and exacerbated by stressors related to the pandemic. In 2020–2021, post-secondary institutions were faced with the reality of rolling out fully online instruction with limited access to resources for assisting students in this transition. Instructional interventions that target students’ ability to self-regulate their learning have been shown to improve academic performance and self-regulated learning (SRL) competencies have also been found to mediate the effect of SRL interventions on higher education. However, few studies have examined the efficacy of fully online SRL intervention on mitigating the impact of psychological distress and academic challenges on academic success. This study examined the moderating roles of self-regulatory practices and SRL intervention in buffering the influence of COVID-related psychological distress and academic challenges on academic outcomes (self-reported grade point average (GPA) and academic challenges) in a Canadian sample of undergraduate students (n = 496). We found (a) levels of metacognitive and motivational challenges fully mediated the impact of COVID distress on GPA, (b) SRL adapting practices moderated the impact of metacognitive challenges on GPA, and (c) semester-long SRL intervention buffered the impact of COVID distress on academic challenges and resulted in lower levels of social-emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive challenges for first year undergraduate students.

Utilizing clickstream data to reveal the time management of self-regulated learning in a higher education online learning environment

ABSTRACT Online learning with the characteristics of flexibility and autonomy has become a widespread and popular mode of higher education in which students need to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) to achieve success. The purpose of this study is to utilize clickstream data to reveal the time management of SRL. This study adopts learning analytics to investigate the differences in time management (time investment and time use patterns) in a large-scale authentic online learning environment based on 8019 students’ clickstream data of over one term recorded by the starC system log. This study quantitatively reveals the SRL process in a higher education online learning environment, which presents the detailed differences in time management among students with different academic performance categories. These research results will have inspirations in the design of SRL interventions for optimizing students’ learning processes and overall achievement.

Implementing a Simple, Scalable Self-Regulated Learning Intervention to Promote Graduate Learners’ Statistics Self-Efficacy and Concept Knowledge

Learners’ efficacy beliefs are an important determinant of their performance and future study in an academic domain, and recent work has highlighted the complexities associated with promoting learners’ statistics efficacy. The current study tested the effectiveness of a course-embedded, activity-driven intervention, grounded in principles of self-regulated learning, in promoting graduate learners’ statistics efficacy and concept knowledge. The intervention was designed to elicit and scaffold students’ analysis-specific efficacy beliefs and facilitate their monitoring of and critical reflection on their statistics understanding across engagement in an intermediate, graduate-level statistics course. Students’ pre- and post-course statistics efficacy was assessed; students’ statistics concept knowledge was assessed at the completion of the course. Engagement in the intervention explained a moderate amount of variance in learners’ post-course statistics efficacy and concept knowledge; efficacy and concept knowledge scores were higher for students in the intervention condition compared with students in the comparison condition. The findings suggest the use of these activities as a method of prompting students to engage more strategically with learning material in statistics. Implications for future research and pedagogy are discussed.