Using Observations to Understand How Children's Self-Regulated Learning Is Supported in Classrooms

• In Event: 72.061 - Measuring Self-Regulated Learning: Issues and Innovations

Abstract

Purpose: My research asks how children’s self-regulated learning (SRL) is supported in classrooms. This paper focuses on observations as a method for answering this question. Perspectives: Research links young children’s self-regulation to success in school (McClelland & Tominey, 2011). Kindergarten teachers rate skills associated with self-regulation essential (Rimm-Kauffman & Chiu, 2007). They also report many children struggle with SRL, highlighting the need to understand how to support it. Limitations of survey self-report measures and controlled laboratory experiments for studying children’s SRL are well documented and, now, educational and developmental psychologists are calling on researchers to use multiple measures to understand how self-regulation develops and can be supported in classrooms (Rimm-Kauffman et al., 2009). My research uses observations to study how: (a) teachers and peers co-regulate children’s learning and behavior (McCaslin, 2009); and (b) control gradually shifts from other- to self-regulation (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997), or shared regulation (Whitebread & Colleagues, 2007). Measure: I use observations as a direct measure of children’s opportunities to regulate learning in classrooms, and evidence from other measures (e.g., interviews, work samples) to triangulate my interpretations of observation data. My observation protocol involves keeping a running record, then coding six conceptual categories reflecting opportunities to: (a) participate in complex tasks; (b) make choices; (c) control challenge; (d) self-evaluate learning; and access (e) teacher and (f) peer support. Each category is rated: 0, indicating no evidence of the category; 1, evidence of the category but not to support SRL; and 2, evidence of the category to support SRL. Ratings can be aggregated across categories to obtain a total SRL score. Inter-rater reliability using this protocol is high (e.g., agreement > .90, K = .91; Perry, 1998).
Research Findings: My observations have documented opportunities for children to regulate learning in classrooms where they are engaged in complex meaningful tasks and autonomy (i.e., choice, control over challenge, self-evaluation) is supported through highly effective forms of co-regulation (i.e., teacher and peer support to SRL). Detailed examples will be presented at AERA, highlighting what observations reveal about how personal and contextual factors impact children’s development of SRL over time (K-grade 2) and across classrooms.
Strengths, Limitations, Future Directions. Observations: (a) reveal what teachers and students actually do versus what they say they do; (b) provide detailed descriptions marking opportunities for children to engage in SRL, and evidence that they do; (c) illuminate how much and what kinds of support children need to be self-regulating, which informs the design of teaching practices that support SRL. However, some aspects of SRL are difficult to observe (e.g., metacognition), and observations reflect researchers’ views about what warrants attention, making it possible to miss, or misinterpret, actions and reactions in events and activities. Hence, there is room for including self-reports with observations in classroom research (Turner & Patrick, 2008). Finally, qualitative observations typically focus on a small number of classrooms for long periods of time, limiting the generalizability of findings to a wider population. Testing and revising theories of SRL in classrooms requires scaling up.

Author

• Nancy E. Perry, The University of British Columbia