A Synthesis on the Impact of Self‐Regulated Instruction on Motivation Outcomes for Students with or at Risk for Learning Disabilities

Abstract

In this synthesis, we examined and assessed the impact of self‐regulated instructional components on the motivation of students with or at risk for learning disabilities (LD) in reading, writing, or mathematics intervention studies. Elements such as goal setting, self‐monitoring for task completion, self‐monitoring for emotions, self‐talk for task completion, self‐talk for emotions, and self‐talk for progress monitoring were identified as relevant constructs, and were further examined to determine their effect on students’ motivation for learning and academic functioning. Results indicated major differences in the application of these self‐regulated instructional components across academic domains. Quantitative analyses also revealed that interventions with self‐regulated instructional components resulted in positive effects on motivation measures such as self‐efficacy, self‐esteem, attributions, value for task, affect, expectancy for success, and intrinsic motivation. Finally, our findings have practical implications for struggling learners, as goal setting and self‐talk, for task completion or for progress monitoring, seem especially likely to improve the likelihood that struggling learners will demonstrate positive gains in motivation.

Self-Talk Monitoring and Goal-Oriented Thinking: Effects on Middle Schoolers’ Behavior During Academics

“…Furthermore, the findings from this study indicate that students benefit not just from isolated self-regulation interventions (i.e., goal-setting, self-monitoring, or self-talk on their own; Butler & De La Paz, 2021) but also from the combination of effective strategies. Previous research focused on teaching students to solely understand or utilize one of these strategies during class time (Butler & De La Paz, 2021); data from this intervention package indicate that students are able to not only effectively understand and use these strategies but also monitor and reflect on their use in self-determined, individualized ways.…”

“…Research has validated the effectiveness of self-monitoring interventions (Fishley & Bedesem, 2014;Graham & Harris, 2018), goal-oriented thinking (Wehmeyer et al, 2017), and positive self-talk (Lee & McDonough, 2015) at increasing the self-regulation of students in a variety of settings. Additionally, research indicates that the integration of goal-oriented thinking improves self-monitoring (Gopalan et al, 2020) and that positive self-talk impacts students' abilities to achieve goals (Butler & De La Paz, 2021;Hardy et al, 2018;Horcajo et al, 2019). However, there is currently a paucity of research on the intersection of self-monitoring and effective goal-setting techniques on the academic and behavioral outcomes of students with LD.…”

“…DOE, 2021). While there is a paucity of research on specific strategies, teachers can use them to explicitly teach self-regulation skills during academic instruction (Bardack & Obradović, 2019), and there are several components of self-regulation interventions that have been found to be effective for students with LD. Butler and De La Paz (2021) identified three distinct components of effective self-regulatory interventions: self-monitoring, goal setting, and self-talk.…”

“…Results of these studies indicated increases in athletes’ execution of skills and abilities and decreases in self-criticism, self-deprecation, and regret (Horcajo et al, 2019; Van Raalte & Vincent, 2017). Emerging research in schools has found that students can be taught to produce self-instructional cues to better self-regulate and control their behaviors (Berkeley & Larsen, 2018; Butler & De La Paz, 2021). Additionally, Lee and McDonough (2015) found that students who have positive, influential conversations with themselves have higher rates of academic achievement.…”

An SRSD Intervention Study for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities to Improve Narrative Writing and High Cognitive Skills

“…Students need to be taught how to monitor their own writing processes and how to use metacognitive strategies to revise and edit their work. These strategies can help students with SLD become more independent writers and more successful learners with positive gains in motivation [65]. As a result, SLD students can benefit from intensive writing intervention.…”