The Role of Direct Strategy Instruction and Indirect Activation of Self-Regulated Learning—Evidence from Classroom Observation Studies

Abstract

Despite the consensus about the importance of self-regulated learning for academic as well as for lifelong learning, it is still poorly understood as to how teachers can most effectively support their students in enacting self-regulated learning. This article provides a framework about how self-regulated learning can be activated directly through strategy instruction and indirectly by creating a learning environment that allows students to regulate their learning. In examining teachers' instructional attempts for SRL, we systematically review the literature on classroom observation studies that have assessed how teachers support their students' SRL. The results of the 17 retrieved studies show that in most classrooms, only little direct strategy instruction took place. Nevertheless, some teachers provided their students with learning environments that require and thus foster self-regulated learning indirectly. Based on a review of classroom observation studies, this article stresses the significance of (1) instructing SRL strategies explicitly so that students develop metacognitive knowledge and skills to integrate the application of these strategies successfully into their learning process, and (2) the necessity of complementing classroom observation research with data gathered from student and teacher self-report in order to obtain a comprehensive view of the effectiveness of teacher approaches to support SRL. Finally, we discuss ten cornerstones for future directions for research about supporting SRL.

Can You Only Diagnose What You Know? The Relation Between Teachers’ Self-Regulation of Learning Concepts and Their Assessment of Students’ Self-Regulation

“…Third, in order to shed light on the mismatch of educators' focus on the forethought phase when describing SRL found in this study and the evidence from classroom observation studies indicating that teachers rather omit the forethought phase of the SRL cycle with regard to their SRL practice, more classroom observation research in combination with teacher inquiry is needed (see also Butler, 2002;Perry, 2002). Rather than solely analyzing classroom observations by means of systematic coding schemes that are derived from scientific conceptualizations of SRL as has been done in many studies (see Dignath and Veenman, 2020), researchers should watch the classroom videos together with the educators to ask them about their intended SRL practice and SRL assessment in order to be able to uncover inconsistencies between teachers' ideas about SRL and its assessment and their implementation in the classroom.…”

“…Finally, providing students with a semi-structured learning environment allows for effective autonomy and leads to higher self-determination (De Corte et al, 2004). Although these characteristics of powerful learning environments are similar to criteria of teaching quality in general (Seidel and Shavelson, 2007; see Dignath and Veenman, 2020), they have been found to be particularly beneficial to engage students in SRL. However, in how far students can benefit from such learning environments depends on their need for structure and support (Corno, 2008).…”

“…Teachers need to know in which situation which of their students need how much support. Moreover, they need to use high-support situations to provide students with the means to eventually learn to master low-support learning environments (e.g., Dignath and Veenman, 2020).…”

“…Consequently, in order to enact self-regulation, learners do not only need learning environments that provide them with the freedom to engage into self-regulatory processes but also need the necessary skills to regulate their learning effectively (e.g., Paris and Paris, 2001). Educators have been found to be particularly successful in promoting SRL when they also promote self-regulatory strategies in their classroom (e.g., Dignath and Veenman, 2020). This is probably related to the fact that teachers support their students' development of self-regulation through several levels (Zimmerman, 2000(Zimmerman, , 2002: first, teachers regulate the pacing of learning by demonstrating and verbalizing the enactment of self-regulatory skills explicitly.…”

“…Yet, educators need to have a clear conceptualization of SRL in order to promote self-regulatory strategies in their classroom (Boekaerts, 1999). Moreover, based on this conceptualization, they need to assess how self-regulated each individual student is and which students need which type of support in order to foster SRL adaptively (Dignath and Veenman, 2020).…”