Tracing Cycles of Teachers’ Self- and Coregulated Practice

• In Event: Research Evidence on the Dynamic and Cyclical Nature of Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

SPEAKERS: Deborah L. Butler, The University of British Columbia, Canada, &
Leyton Schnellert, University of British Columbia-Okanagan

TITLE: Tracing Cycles of Teachers’ Self- and Co-regulated Practice

SUMMARY: Models of self-regulation describe how individuals engage dynamically and cyclically in goal-directed activity (Zimmerman, 2008). Most often, attention has focused on self-regulation of learning (SRL). For example, in the past work of Dr. Butler and her colleagues, they have traced how students’ metacognition, self-perceptions (e.g., self-efficacy), and cycles of strategic action have co-developed in academic activities (e.g., reading, writing) in relation to instructional processes (see Butler, 1995, 1998a, 1998b; Butler et al., 2005; Butler, Schnellert & Cartier, 2013).

The research reported in this presentation builds from prior SRL research to investigate teachers’ self- and co-regulated engagement in professional practice, as another form of adaptive, strategic activity. As part of a longitudinal project (e.g., Butler & Schnellert, 2012; Schnellert et al., 2008), Drs. Butler and Schnellert have been documenting how teaching practice involves the same kinds of processes associated with self-regulating other forms of activity (e.g., metacognition, motivation/emotion, strategic action) that interweave in iterative cycles (i.e., within and across forethought, performance, self-reflection phases; Zimmerman, 2011). For this report they juxtaposed multiple forms of data (e.g., interviews, documents, field-notes) to investigate how 18 teachers collaborated to support adolescent literacy in secondary, subject-area classrooms.

In their presentation, Dr. Butler and Dr. Schnellert will describe how teachers’ engagement in iterative cycles of self-regulated practice was shaped dynamically by two sources of feedback: (1) student data, which supported teachers to focus goals, monitor outcomes, and revise practices accordingly; and (2) feedback from mentors and/or colleagues, particularly when provided in context as educators co-regulated practice together.

Implications will be distilled for conceptualizing and supporting teachers’ professional learning and practice development.

Authors

• Deborah L. Butler, The University of British Columbia

• Leyton Schnellert, The University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus