Higher Education Students' Self-Regulation Skills in Performance-Based Assessments

• In Event: Using Data to Improve Student, Program, and Campus Outcomes

Abstract

Although higher education students’ self-regulation skills have been found to be crucial for completion of complex assessment tasks, there has been little empirical research into this aspect. This study aims to explore higher education students’ (n=20) self-regulation skills in two types of performance-based assessments from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) International. The data were collected from cognitive laboratories with think-alouds and interviews. Based on the qualitative analysis, three self-regulation skills groups were detected. The students with versatile self-regulation skills were able to complete the task thoroughly, whereas students with moderate self-regulation skills faced challenges in monitoring and evaluation on their performance, and students who were lacking in self-regulation struggled both with the task as a whole and their own progress.

Authors

• Heidi M Hyytinen, University of Helsinki

• Jani Ursin, University of Jyvaskyla

• Katri Kleemola, University of Helsinki

• Auli Toom, University of Helsinki