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Teachers’ direct and indirect promotion of self-regulated learning in primary and secondary school mathematics classes – insights from video-based classroom observations and teacher interviews

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Abstract

Self-regulated learning has a positive effect on academic outcomes; however, little is known about whether and how teachers at various education levels promote it in their classes. Video-based classroom observations were conducted to assess primary and secondary school mathematics teachers’ direct and indirect promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL). Teachers’ implicit and explicit instruction of SRL strategies (direct promotion of SRL) and the learning environment they created (indirect promotion of SRL) were rated according to how conducive they were to self-regulation. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the secondary school teachers to gain insight into their subjective views on SRL. Although the teachers’ instructional practices could foster SRL, teachers spent little time explicitly teaching SRL strategies. Moreover, they taught mainly cognitive strategies and very few metacognitive strategies. These results were more pronounced at the primary level than at the secondary level. Primary school teachers provided learning environments conducive to self-regulation more often than secondary school teachers did. The interviews revealed that the teachers lacked knowledge about metacognition as an important component of SRL and were rather reluctant to promote it; however, most of them valued cognitive and motivational components of SRL. Primary and secondary school teachers need training to enhance their direct and indirect instruction of SRL. They could benefit in particular from learning about explicit instruction of SRL strategies and metacognition.

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Notes

  1. This was a subsample of teachers who had participated in another study in which we compared the observation data of these lessons to questionnaire data from teachers’ own ratings of their promotion of SRL as well as with students’ ratings of their teachers’ promotion of SRL (see Author et al., 2013).

  2. Germany has a tripartite school system. After finishing primary school at around the age of 10, students are assigned to one of four types of secondary school, which end either at the age of 15 (“Hauptschule”) or at the age of 16 (“Realschule”) with a qualification for vocational training, or at the age of 18/19 with a general qualification for higher education studies (“Gymnasium” and “Gesamtschule”).

  3. Names of teachers were changed.

  4. Note that several strategies could be coded within each one-minute segment.

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  1. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6, 60323, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Charlotte Dignath & Gerhard Büttner

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Dignath, C., Büttner, G. Teachers’ direct and indirect promotion of self-regulated learning in primary and secondary school mathematics classes – insights from video-based classroom observations and teacher interviews. Metacognition Learning 13, 127–157 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-018-9181-x

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