Exploring Socially Shared Regulation in the Context of Collaboration

• In Event: Innovations in Researching Regulation of Learning in Solo and Collaborative Tasks

Abstract

Objectives: One of the challenges in SRL research is to understand more about regulation as a social continuum from solo regulation to socially shared regulation. We used solo and collaborative data to investigate socially shared regulation of learning in the context of collaborative groups: a) What are the individual and shared statements of challenges experienced in collaborative group work, b) How do students collectively regulate the contextual challenges and their future challenges? c) What are the collaborative learning results compared to the emerging shared regulation among the different groups?

Theoretical framework: Socially-shared regulation of learning refers to processes by which group members regulate their collective activity. Successful individuals regulate their motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive engagement. Similarly, successful groups share in regulating group processes. We follow our earlier conceptual and empirical work on social aspect of motivation and regulation of learning (Järvenoja & Järvelä, 2009; Järvelä, Volet & Järvenoja, 2010) and stress that empirical research should recognize the following perspectives: (a) regulated learning is intentional, goal directed and metacognitive, (b) learners regulate motivation, behavior, and cognition and it is embedded in social context, (c) research should target challenge episodes since they invite strategic regulation of learning (Hadwin, Järvelä & Miller, 2011).

Methods: Participants included 18 graduate students in a Learning and Educational Technology Masters Program. The students participated in a six weeks course involving f-2-f meetings, virtual solo studying periods and collaborative task period. Course materials and workspaces for solo and collaborative work were accessed through nStudy (Winne & al., 2010).

Data Sources: Data included solo and collaborative statements of challenges for the collaborative task, collaborative strategies the students used for regulating the contextual tasks and future tasks, collaborative task performance and collaborative chat discussions. The students filled in the solo and collaborative planning notes in nStudy in the beginning of each learning phase.

Results: Based on the data set we were able to create “regulation over time group profiles” which consist of groups’ challenges and their statements of situated regulation strategies and their reported future regulation strategies. Seven different strategies were coded from the data: Performing, Planning, Cognitive processing, Asking for external help, Task and environmental structuring, Motivation and No strategies expressed. The cross case analysis among the six groups resulted three kinds of collaborative regulation profiles which were labeled; strong shared regulation, progressing shared regulation and weak shared regulation.
Significance: The results show that successful collaboration emerges when teams collectively regulate learning. Three kinds of “regulation over time profiles” were found and emerging shared regulation was linked to the collaborative learning results. This study enhances our understanding of regulation as a contextual and social continuum by showing how to use context- or task specific questions to measure thoughts and beliefs as they occur in real time, discern how combining data at the individual and group level can provide insight into the dynamics of the group, and examine the extent of congruence in each individual’s data in relation to others’ data during the same event.

Authors

• Sanna Järvelä

• Hanna Jarvenoja, University of Oulu

• Jonna Malmberg, University of Oulu