Collaborating With Teachers to Design Assessments for Self-Regulated Learning in Authentic Classroom Writing Tasks

• In Event: One More Step: Bridging Self-Regulated Learning and Classroom Assessment

Abstract

Purpose
We present data from a longitudinal study of children developing self-regulated learning (SRL), from kindergarten through Grade 5. We focus on researchers’ and teachers’ collaborative design and implementation of assessments for learning (AfL), including self-assessments, to support children’s SRL during classroom writing activities when children were in Grade 3. We ask: what do the assessments reveal about children’s engagements in SRL and, particularly, how do children’s self-assessments of SRL vary across classrooms with high and low emphasis on SRL?

Research Perspectives
SRL involves metacognition (e.g., self-awareness), motivation for learning (e.g., willingness to persist when challenged), and strategic action (Zimmerman, 2008). Classroom practices that support SRL have been linked to the development of adaptive responses to challenging circumstances (Perry, 2013). Especially, assessment for learning (AfL) practices are linked to adaptive SRL (Black & Wiliam, 2009; Clark, 2012). These include: embedding assessments in on-going activities; assessing learning processes and personal progress; engaging students in co-constructing assessment criteria and self-assessment; and using errors as opportunities for learning and adapting (Andrade & Valtcheva, 2009; Perry, 2013; Black & William, 1998).

Method
Seventeen Grade 3 teachers from six schools in a culturally and economically diverse suburban school district in Western Canada collaborated with researchers to design assessments for SRL in writing. Activities incorporated common elements to support researchers’ cross-class comparisons, but were flexible to suit each teacher’s goals for their classrooms. This presentation focuses on 10 classrooms (5 with high and 5 with low emphasis on SRL; 112 children in total). Data include: detailed descriptions of writing tasks and differences in SRL and AfL practices across classrooms with relatively high and low emphasis on SRL; children’s self-assessment of SRL (i.e., metacognition about affect, motivation, and strategic action); and traces of children’s SRL during writing (e.g., their planning, writing, and revising process) and writing products.

Results
Children in the high, versus low, emphasis classrooms demonstrated statistically higher task understanding, even when tasks were complex; more productive engagements in SRL; and higher achievement on writing tasks involving SRL. Also, their self-assessments of interest and task importance were reliably higher. Finally, these learners were more likely to: express both positive and negative emotions, indicating a more nuanced awareness of affect during learning; use more words to describe their emotions (e.g., “I got a little frustrated … because it is hard for me to connect the sentences”); attribute negative affect to insufficient focus on learning or particular aspects of the writing task; and articulate more adaptive strategies for coping (e.g., “asking for help from a friend”) than their peers in the low emphasis classrooms.

Significance
Our study adds to research linking AfL to SRL—showing how AfL practices can support SRL outcomes. Moreover, it attends to calls for closer alignment between classroom assessments and instructional goals (Baird et al., 2017) and shows how researchers can support teachers to develop effective, but personalized, SRL and AfL practices through collaborative design processes (Smith, 2011; Wiliam, 2011).

Authors

• Nancy E. Perry, The University of British Columbia

• Simon Lisaingo, University of British Columbia

• Nikki Yee, The University of British Columbia

• Natasha Parent

• Xinke Wan, University of British Columbia

• Krista R. Muis, McGill University