Using Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) Microanalysis to Examine Relations Among Cyclical-Phase SRL Processes

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

Abstract

Assessing SRL in academic contexts has emerged as an important area of inquiry in recent years, with much attention devoted to the development and use of assessment tools capable of capturing SRL as a dynamic, contextualized process (Winne & Perry, 2000; Zimmerman, 2008). A relatively recent assessment methodology, called SRL microanalysis (Cleary, 2011; Cleary, Callan, & Zimmerman, 2012), was developed to measure an array of theoretically linked and cyclically interdependent processes (e.g., goal-setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring) to delineate in a social-cognitive dynamic feedback model of SRL (Zimmerman, 2000). Although the use of SRL microanalytic methods in academic contexts has increased (Cleary, Callan, Peterson, & Adams, 2013; DiBenedetto & Zimmerman, 2013), very few microanalytic studies have utilized middle school or elementary school populations, with no study targeting mathematical problem-solving.

To address this issue and to examine the relations among the theoretically-linked SRL processes relative to mathematical problem-solving, Drs. Cleary and Callan administered a SRL microanalytic protocol to a sample of 97 eighth-grade students from an urban school district as they practiced a set of algebra word problems. In this presentation, they will address an emergent issue regarding the cyclical nature of SRL processes (i.e., goal-setting, planning, strategy use, monitoring, attributions, and adaptive inferences) as well as the predictive validity of microanalytic SRL processes regarding both contextualized and global mathematics outcomes.

Implications for SRL assessment in general and SRL microanalysis in particular will be reviewed and discussed.

Authors

• Timothy J. Cleary, Rutgers University

• Gregory L. Callan, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee