Examining Gender Differences in Self-Regulated Learning With MetaTutor

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Competency-Based Grading, Intelligent Tutoring, and Utility Value Intervention as Tools for Postsecondary Education (Table 3)

Abstract

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been used to scaffold students' self-regulated learning (SRL), or one's monitoring and regulating cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and motivational processes, across various STEM topics. In this study, MetaTutor, an ITS, implements pedagogical agents (PAs) to guide college students' SRL while learning about the human circulatory system. 120 college students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) the Control condition where participants did not receive support from pedagogical agents and could only self-initiate SRL strategies; and (2) the Prompt and Feedback condition where participants were able to self-initiate SRL strategies but were also prompted by the PA to engage in strategies and provided feedback on their use of the strategy. A 2 x 2 factorial design (Gender: males vs females, and Scaffolding: no scaffolding vs adaptive scaffolding) was used to compare male and female students across the two conditions on learning outcomes and SRL strategy use. While analyses did not find significant differences in learning outcomes between genders, results showed that females had greater frequency of note-taking, spend more time taking notes, and self-initiated more note-taking behaviors compared to males. Differences in strategy use like note-taking may reflect gender-specific differences not affecting learning outcomes when compared between genders. Results support further examination of how SRL scaffolding should adapt to gender for possible improvements in learning outcomes.

Author

• David Alejandro Organista, University of Central Florida
  Presenting Author