Development of Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Young Children: Role of Collaborative and Peer-Assisted Learning

Abstract

The authors present findings from a large 2-year study exploring the development of self-regulatory and metacognitive abilities in young children (aged 3 to 5 years) in educational naturalistic settings in the United Kingdom (English Nursery and Reception classrooms). Three levels of analysis were conducted based on observational codings of categories of metacognitive and self-regulatory behaviors. These analyses supported the view that, within the 3- to 5-year age range, there was extensive evidence of metacognitive behaviors that occurred most frequently during learning activities that were initiated by the children, involved them in working in pairs or small groups, unsupervised by adults, and that involved extensive collaboration and talk (i.e., learning contexts that might be characterized as peer-assisted learning). Relative to working individually or in groups with adult support, children in this age range working in unsupervised small groups showed more evidence of metacognitive monitoring and control. Relative to children in supervised groups, they also showed more evidence of “other” and “shared” regulation. The implications for research, theory, and educational practice are discussed.

A New Context Affording for Regulation: The Case of Musical Play

“…The significance of these results arises when compared with previous studies reporting that self-regulation was the most frequently coded type of social intentionality (Whitebread et al, 2007) and noting a relative absence of highlevel socially-shared regulatory behaviours in school collaborative environments (Hurme & Jarvela, 2005). It is, thus, intriguing that during musical play socially-shared regulation behaviours were the most frequently observed, in contrast to what has been reported in research on other group learning activities.…”

“…Nonetheless, research findings present selfregulation as the most frequently coded type of social intentionality in children's group-work (Whitebread et al, 2007), and highlight a relative absence of high-level socially-shared regulation (Hurme & Järvelä, 2005). Evidently, the group nature of tasks is not sufficient prerequisite for sociallyshared regulation to evolve.…”

“…Activities were devised in order to be interesting, challenging and open-ended, affording opportunities for children to control the level of challenge (McCaslin & Good, 1996;Veenman, 2011;Veenman et al, 2006;Whitebread, 2013). They also provided ample opportunities for collaborative group work and various kinds of peer-tutoring, since there is growing evidence that such collaborative forms of learning are able to enhance regulatory behaviour in classroom situations (Iiskala et al, 2004;Whitebread et al, 2007), but also facilitate the identification of regulatory behaviour by obliging the participants to externalize and articulate their ideas and conceptions to others (Iiskala et al, 2004). Additionally, when designing tasks to evoke socially-shared regulation, as discussed above, a key ingredient is the need for interdependence within the tasks (See The social nature of selfregulation section) and, given that musical play's inherent characteristics promote interdependence in the group (See Self-regulation and musical play section), every effort was made to accentuate and fully exploit this characteristic of musical play.…”

Matematikte Akran Öğretimi Sırasında Öğretici Görevi Üstlenen Öğrencilerde Üstbiliş

“…Sharpley and Sharpley (1981) reported the result of a meta-analysis about the effectiveness of peer tutoring by stating that peer tutoring provides some cognitive gains for both tutee and tutors. Among such gains, metacognitive and self-regulatory behaviors were reported to be supported and facilitated in peer-assisted learning environments of children, such as problem solving and learning group activities and peer tutoring activities without adult intervention (Whitebread, Bingham, Grau, Pino Pasternak, & Sangster, 2007). Besides, Holton and Clarke (2006) remarked that peers make reciprocal scaffolding to each other in group work which is a similar activity to metacognitive questioning taking place as the inner dialogue of the learner.…”

“…Akran öğretimi etkinliği sırasında hızlı öğrenen öğrenciler arkadaşlarına öğretmek için sorumluluk almalarının yanında kendi öğrenme süreçleri ve alışkanlıklarını da gözden geçirmektedirler. Bu tür akran destekli öğretim ortamlarının öğrencilerde üstbilişsel mekanizmaları desteklediği alan yazında savunulmaktadır (Whitebread, Bingham, Grau, Pino Pasternak, & Sangster, 2007). Bu sav öğrencilerin aynı zamanda kendi zihinsel süreçleri üzerine düşündüklerini ve bu süreçleri düzenlediklerini düşündürmektedir.…”