Task Difficulty and Self-Regulated Learning: The Importance of Student Perceptions of Difficulty

• In Event: Learning Processes and Strategies, Motivation, and Metacognition

Abstract

Self-regulated learning (SRL) processes vary across task characteristics like difficulty. Existing work has objectively defined task difficulty with little consideration of individual skill or perception. In Stage 1, students completed data analysis problems that were timed, scored, and rated for difficulty. This informed calibrated selection of an easy and difficult problem. In Stage 2, students completed a SRL microanalysis interview measuring SRL processes for matched easy and difficult problems. Students felt more confident, evaluated performance higher, and exerted less effort for the easy problem. Students used adaptive strategies for the easy problem, yet these were not transferred to the difficult problem. It is important to recognize student perceptions of task difficulty, as some SRL processes differ related to those perceptions.

Authors

• Lisa Marie Ridgley, University of San Diego

• Lisa DaVia Rubenstein, Ball State University

• Gregory L. Callan, Utah State University