Date of Award
2001
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Charles Amuso
Committee Member
Charles L. Faires
Keywords
action research, classroom instruction, cognitive strategies, educational intervention, fourth grade, goal setting, learning strategies, motivation, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, private schools, professional development, resource management, rubrics, self-efficacy, self-monitoring, self-regulated learning, seventh grade, staff training, student learning, study skills, teacher training, teaching strategies
Abstract
This report describes an intervention to train teachers how to instruct and support self-regulated learning in the classroom. An analysis of 4th- and 7th-grade student responses on a modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991) revealed that, although 43% of the students indicated that they always or almost always use some self-regulation skills, 23% stated that they never or almost never use them. In a private school where the mission is to equip future learners, 50% of the students should be using self-regulation skills all or most of the time. An analysis of the teaching of self-regulation skills indicated that, although expectations for study skills continued to rise throughout the schooling process, teachers actually taught the self-regulation skills of resource management, learning strategy use, motivation orientation, or self-efficacy less than once per week, if at all.
Planned solution strategies included an action research team made up of volunteer teachers that met weekly from September to May. This team (a) assessed the need for each component of self-regulation within their classrooms and the school; (b) studied the characteristics of each component; (c) identified or created tools to use in teaching self-regulation to students; and (d) designed rubrics to measure the existence of resource management, learning strategies, motivation, and self-regulation within the classroom.
This project increased the knowledge of and time spent on teaching self-regulatory skills. The training resulted in teachers leading students to process learning cognitively, self-monitor, and set goals. The intervention did not increase the number of students who said that they never use self-regulation skills to 50%, but it did increase the amount of time self-regulation is taught to at least 3 times per week. The result of the final product was a staff training manual to teach how to develop and support self-regulation in students.