Easing the Transition: Supporting Students' Self-Regulated Learning in the Transition From Primary to Secondary Education

• In Event: The Promotion and Support of Self-Regulated Learning Across Different Educational Levels

Abstract

Objectives or purposes:

The present study investigated whether two popular Dutch Interventions, Talent Talks and Talent Lessons, could be used to improve students' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, motivation, and self-efficacy.



Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Talent Talks and Talent Lessons are based on a popular approach to helping adults and children recognize and utilize their talents (Dewulf, 2009). These interventions are also presumed to support students' SRL skills, motivation, and self-efficacy. Talent Talks and Talent Lessons mainly help to prepare for future learning tasks, this is thought to strengthen task-analysis skills in the forethought phase of the cyclical phases model of self-regulation Zimmerman (2002). Talent Talks are thought to activate enhancement of personal significance, which is a motivational strategy discussed by Schwinger et al. (2009), as well as help satisfy the need for autonomy, relationship, and competence as described in self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2000). In turn autonomous forms of motivation influence self-efficacy (e.g., Schunk and DiBenedetto, 2016).



We pose the following research question: What effect do Talent Talks and Talent Lessons have on monitoring accuracy, motivation, self-efficacy, and SRL?



Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry & data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

This study employed a quasi-experimental mixed design with research condition as a between-subjects factor and test moment as a within-subjects factor. There were four conditions: a control group (n = 59), a group receiving only the Talent Lessons (n = 47), a group receiving only the Talent Talks (n = 68), and a group receiving both (n = 57). Participants' self-efficacy, self-regulation skills, and motivation were measured at three separate times (twice in primary school and once shortly after entering secondary school). We used the Children's Perceived use of SRL Inventory (CP-SRLI; Vandevelde et al., 2013) as a general measure of SRL, motivation, and self-efficacy. Additionally, we employed task-based measures of SRL; these included measured monitoring and regulation accuracy in the context of reading comprehension.



Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

We found no differences between students in any of the conditions regarding pre-test and post-test measures of self-efficacy, motivation, monitoring accuracy, and general measures of SRL. The most logical explanation for a lack of differences between conditions is that the presumed intervention effect does not exist or the intervention was not powerful enough. Alternatively, measurement instruments and intervention might have been malaligned.



Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

The current study reinforces the importance of the granularity concept in SRL (Rovers et al., 2019). The self-regulation concept can be approached at various grain sizes, and the size of the grain is consequential to the selection of measurement instruments and perhaps also the selection of interventions. Fitting measurement instruments should be chosen to fit the size of the SRL grain that is targeted. We advocate to conceptually approach the transition construct in a holistic sense (see Jindal-Snape and Cantali, 2019) and employ measures accordingly, to accurately capture effects on transitions.

Authors

• Jorrick Beckers, Open Universiteit Nederland

• Sandra Bolkenbaas, VMBO Maasland

• Anne-Roos Verbree, University Medical Center Utrecht

• Trudie Schils, Maastricht University

• Tamara van Gog, Utrecht University

• Anique de Bruin, Maastricht University