Self-regulation and computer based learning

In recent years, interest in self-regulated learning has risen considerably. While self-regulatory activities are controlled cognitively, they encompass more than the monitoring of cognitive activities. Motivational and emotional processes are also important in learning and they too need to be regulated. At the same time, multimedia computer programs and theInternet have come to play un important role in present day 's learning environments. The question therefore arises as to what extent these new technologies facilitate the acquisition and improvement of self-regulated learning strategies. In the present article, we first explore the field of self-regulated learning and then try to come up with un answer to the question posed.En los últimos años, el interés por el aprendizaje autorregulado se ha desarrollado considerablemente. Aunque las actividades autorreguladas son controladas cognitivamente, abarcan más que el control de las actividades cognitivas. Los procesos motivacionales y emocionales también son importantes en el aprendizaje y también requieren ser controlados. Al mismo tiempo los programas multimedia e Internet han logrado unpapel importante en los entornos de aprendizaje y se presenta la pregunta de si las nuevas tecnologías facilitan la adquisición y el perfeccionamiento de las estrategias autorregulativas. En este articulo exploramos primero el campo de aprendizaje autorregulado y después tratamos de dar una respuesta a la pregunta planteada

Adaptive Instruction for Elementary School Children: The Interplay of Giftedness, Working Memory, and Hypermedia Learning

Several studies have shown that promotion offers for gifted students have positive effects on the students’ educational achievement and development (e.g., Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, & Steiger, 2010). However, it is not entirely clear which promotion offers actually work best for gifted children. According to aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) research (Cronbach & Snow, 1977), promotion or learning offers that are matched to a learner’s specific prerequisites are assumed to be most beneficial. In line with this, promotion offers that take advantage of the specific aptitudes of gifted children should be most effective for this ability group. Unfortunately, however, studies that focus on the particular aptitudes of gifted children in order to develop appropriate learning offers are rare. Therefore, the present dissertation aimed at closing this research gap by not only exploring the specific learner characteristics of gifted children, but also by investigating whether learning offers that are designed based on the particular strengths of these children might be more beneficial than other, more common learning offers. More precisely, it was first investigated whether the construct of working memory (WM; Baddeley, 2002) represents a crucial cognitive characteristic in gifted children, even beyond intelligence. Second, it was explored whether learning offers that capitalize on the students’ high WM resources, such as hypermedia environments, would be more beneficial for these students than learning offers that require lower WM resources. To this end, the present dissertation focused on the students’ learning performance as well as on their navigational processing during hypermedia exploration. In total, three empirical studies were conducted within the present dissertation.Die Wirksamkeit von Angeboten für hochbegabte Kinder zur Förderung ihrer schulischen Leistung und kognitiven Entwicklung konnte bereits mehrfach gezeigt werden (z.B. Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, & Steiger, 2010). Allerdings ist bisher unklar, welche Förderangebote für diese Zielgruppe am effektivsten sind. Basierend auf dem Aptitude-Treatment Interaction Ansatz (Cronbach & Snow, 1977) sind generell solche Förder- oder Lernangebote am effektivsten, die auf die spezifischen Fähigkeiten einer Person abgestimmt sind; im vorliegenden Fall also auf die spezifischen Fähigkeiten von Hochbegabten. Leider gibt es bislang kaum Studien, die basierend auf den spezifischen Lernvoraussetzungen bzw. Fähigkeiten von hochbegabten Kindern adäquate Lernangebote entwickelt haben. Aus diesem Grund war das Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation sich genau mit dieser For-schungslücke zu beschäftigen. Im Rahmen von drei Studien sollte neben der Untersuchung und Feststellung der spezifischen Lernvoraussetzungen von hochbegabten Kindern auch die Effektivität von entsprechenden Lernangeboten, die auf diese Voraussetzungen angepasst sind, überprüft werden. So wurde in Studie 1 konkret untersucht, ob das Arbeitsgedächtnis (Baddeley, 2002) neben der Intelligenz eine essentielle kognitive Charakteristik von hochbe-gabten Kindern darstellt. Weiterhin wurde in Studie 2 untersucht, ob Lernangebote, die das Arbeitsgedächtnis besonders beanspruchen, so wie zum Beispiel Hypermedia Lernumgebun-gen, zur kognitiven Förderung von Kindern mit entsprechend hohen Arbeitsgedächtnisres-sourcen geeigneter sind als Lernangebote mit geringerer Beanspruchung des Arbeitsgedächt-nisses. Zur Beurteilung der Effektivität wurden Lern- und Leistungsmaße der Kinder beim Explorieren der Hypermedia Lernumgebung herangezogen. In Studie 3 stand das Navigationsverhalten der Kinder beim Explorieren der Hypermedia Lernumgebung im Fokus. So sollte überprüft werden, ob bestimmte Navigationsstrategien für den höheren Lernerfolg von Kindern mit hohen Arbeitsgedächtnisressourcen verantwortlich sind. Die Ergebnisse und Implikationen der drei Studien werden dargestellt und zusammenfassend diskutiert

Differences in the Use of Macro-level Self-Regulated Learning Processes between Students that Gain Declarative Knowledge and Students that Gain Conceptual Understanding about Complex Science Topics

Learning complex science topics is an important part of students' education. Learning these complex topics is difficult, and students often fail to gain a conceptual understanding of them. Research shows that the use of hypermedia based learning environments can enhance students' ability to learn complex science topics. However, the use of hypermedia as a learning tool does not always improve students' learning. Additional research has shown that the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) processes enhances students' ability to reach a conceptual understanding of complex topics with hypermedia. In this study, to improve understanding of self-regulated learning with hypermedia, I examined what differentiates students that gain conceptual understanding from those that only gain declarative knowledge about a complex science topic. Specifically, I examined differences in the frequency of students' use of macro-level SRL processes. After completing the analysis, no statistically significant differences were found in the frequency participants in the conceptual understanding group employed macro-level SRL processes when compared to participants in the declarative knowledge group

Help-seeking or help avoidance: Important motivational, personality and metacognitive antecedents role in help-seeking and help-avoidance between normal and gifted students

Educational help-seeking is one of the important self-regulation strategies that plays an important role in students learning process. The purpose of current study was investigation of the relationship between motivational, personality and metacognition variables in educational help-seeking and help avoidance for mathematics. The sample for the study consisted of 557 high school students in Bushehr city who were selected randomly from the high school population in Bushehr, and completed NEO-FFI questionnaire and Zushu and Barnett Cognitive- Motivational Strategies Questionnaire. Regression analysis results showed that metacognition, task value and conscientiousness were the educational help-seeking predictors and neuroticism, metacognition and task value predicted the avoidance of help-seeking. ANOVA results indicated that from the expectation for success and tasks value, gifted students are higher than normal students and in agreeableness trait normal students have more scores than gifted students. Results indicated that many numbers of factors affect educational help-seeking behavior that all them would seal the help seeking is a positive strategies in learning

Help-seeking or help avoidance: Important motivational, personality and metacognitive antecedents role in help-seeking and help-avoidance between normal and gifted students

Educational help-seeking is one of the important self-regulation strategies that plays an important role in students learning process. The purpose of current study was investigation of the relationship between motivational, personality and metacognition variables in educational help-seeking and help avoidance for mathematics. The sample for the study consisted of 557 high school students in Bushehr city who were selected randomly from the high school population in Bushehr, and completed NEO-FFI questionnaire and Zushu and Barnett Cognitive- Motivational Strategies Questionnaire. Regression analysis results showed that metacognition, task value and conscientiousness were the educational help-seeking predictors and neuroticism, metacognition and task value predicted the avoidance of help-seeking. ANOVA results indicated that from the expectation for success and tasks value, gifted students are higher than normal students and in agreeableness trait normal students have more scores than gifted students. Results indicated that many numbers of factors affect educational help-seeking behavior that all them would seal the help seeking is a positive strategies in learning

Promoting Students' Motivation and Use of SRL Strategies in Online Mathematics Learning

Computer and information technologies have brought revolutions to many aspects of our lives. Online learning is one of the new learning methods that have emerged with the development of new technologies. Even though the advantages of online learning are very attractive to students and educators, when they are applied in real educational settings, not all individuals that participate in online learning are successful; not all programs that are offered online attain their academic goals. This study was based on an experiment involving high school students from two high schools in China over about two weeks’ time. It evaluated the effectiveness of motivational and SRL design implemented in the online trigonometry function instructional system. Two hundred and thirty-six students participated in the study to test the effectiveness of the instructional design and 183 students completed the tasks through to the end. Participants were randomly divided into four groups: the motivational design group (MD); the SRL intervention group (SI); the SRL intervention and motivational design group (MDSI); and the control group (CT). Three sets of two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) were used to test the effectiveness of the motivational design and SRL intervention with the independent variables of group membership and gender. Research results showed that the motivational design using the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) model for students to learn trigonometry online is effective in enhancing students’ learning motivation online. The IMPROVE method was effective as an SRL intervention in the instructional design to promote students’ use of SRL strategies during their online learning activity. Both motivational design and SRL intervention were positively correlated to students’ academic achievement. But for students learning math online, motivation played a more important role in improving students’ academic achievement than SRL intervention. However, the group with both motivational design and SRL intervention showed the highest academic improvement compared with other two treatment groups

Effects of Metacognitive Training on the Academic Self-Regulation of Japanese College Students

The ability to self-regulate is important for students at any level, especially for those in college, as they need to process a large volume of information and material a short span of time as they study. Competent self-regulated learners have the knowledge and strategies needed to learn and remember information along with the ability to apply the skills to specific learning task (Bembenutty, 2009, 2011; Ruban, 2006; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2011). Though more than a few decades have passed since academic self-regulation has been a focus in the field of educational psychology in Japan, the focus on self-regulation has concentrated on middle school to junior high school students in the area of mathematical learning (Ichikawa, Seo, & Uesaka, 2007; Uesaka, Manalo, & Ichikawa, 2007). Few studies have confined the effectiveness of metacognitive training among Japanese college students. Using a convenience sample from Japanese private Christian colleges, the intervention of metacognitive strategies such as goal setting, time-management, and self-control was implemented. Research question 1 attempted to determine if there was a significant difference between the groups Treatment and Comparison on the MSLQ scores. Research question 2 attempted to determine if there was a significant difference in the MSLQ scores by gender. Research question 3 attempted to determine if there was a significant effect for group by gender. A nonequivalent comparison-group design with repeated-measure was employed in this study. The design included three independent variables: a) Group (treatment and comparison9, b) Gender (male and female), and c) Testing (pretest, posttest, and posttest 2). The dependent variable was the self-regulation scores derived from two subscales, Motivation and Metacognition, of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Inferential analysis was accomplished using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Despite the lack of finding statistical significance in this study, the students’ reflections written after each intervention session offered insight into the possible effectiveness of teaching self-regulated learning to Japanese college students. Further studies are needed with a larger sample size to determine whether or not the results of this study would hold true for other populations

The Effect of Standardised Learning Diaries on Self-Regulated Learning, Calibration Accuracy and Academic Achievement

The online learning environment is a dynamic yet complex learning modality. Students are physically separated from their peers, they grapple with feelings of isolation, and they may be unable to self-regulate their learning. Studies have shown that self-regulation is related to academic achievement and student metacognitive monitoring in online settings. The present study investigated the effects of a standardized diaries on students’ self-regulatory behaviors, calibration accuracy and academic achievement within an online learning environment. Using this self-monitoring and evaluation tool, forty online graduate students enrolled in a research methods course at a southeastern university in the United States participated in a semester-long experimental study. Students were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. The researcher used the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) (Barnard-Brak, Lan, To, Paton, & Lai, 2009) to examine changes in students’ self-regulatory behavior. Calibration accuracy was used to measure metacognitive monitoring while final course grade was used to measure achievement. The one-way ANOVA revealed that students who received the intervention were significantly more accurate on their metacognitive judgements made after taking the test (postdiction) when compared to the control group. However, no significant effect of the treatment was found on self-regulated learning behaviors or academic achievement

RECONTEXTUALIZING METATEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE AND TEXT STRUCTURE FEATURES IN SELF-REGULATED LEARNING AND ONLINE COMPREHENSION

Despite advanced and evolving research on the complex strategic decision-making demanded of successful online 21st century learners, many individuals lack requisite knowledge and skills to enact effective strategies, to make inferences, or to engage in self-testing. Researchers across theories and disciplines (e.g., New Literacies, Educational Psychology, and Multiple Source Use) have captured the complex intersection of cognition, metacognition, and motivation associated with learning online. Notably, few researchers have integrated traditional literacy elements related to the structure and function of texts with research on online learning. In particular, there is a need to integrate self-regulated learning literature with research on metatextual knowledge and knowledge of text types and structural features, within online learning environments. In this study, I applied think-aloud protocol data analysis to examine how metatextual knowledge and self-regulated learning processes related to online comprehension. Using 53 university participants, I explored the following: what kinds of metatextual knowledge were displayed during a complex online science task, the relationship between metatextual knowledge and learning gain, and how self-regulated learning processing varied across text types (e.g., argumentation, refutation). Results indicated the following: (a) learners enacted different processes related to structural and organizational functions of text (b) frequency of use of bold headings statistically significantly related to learning, and (c) a combination of metatextual variables, such as using headings to determine the expectation of the adequacy of content, and noticing lists, statistically significantly related to learning. Further, participants statistically significantly differed in their frequency of self-regulated learning processes (e.g., planning, monitoring, and strategy use) across different text types. Findings from this study align with previous traditional literacy research showing the awareness of structural components of text types related to learners’ ability to organize information into main ideas that aid comprehension (Akhondi, Malayeri, & Samad, 2011; Dymock, 2000; Roehling, Hebert, Nelson, & Bohaty, 2017; Wijeckumar, Meyer & Rei, 2012), retention, and recall (Richgels, McGee, Lomax & Shield, 1987). Results implicated potential avenues for more research, including continued exploration of self-regulated learning processes and strategies related to different text types and structural components of online learning. In addition, this study further illustrated the utility of think-aloud protocols as an approach to understanding self-regulated learning in context.Doctor of Educatio