Text

ETD_1655

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051196

theses

Over the last twenty years social cognitive models of self-regulated learning (SRL) focused primarily on understanding the processes learners use to self-regulate and the subsequent benefits SRL has on learning and performance. More recently, sociocultural models have begun to argue that SRL is fostered, developed, and maintained (1) within social contexts and (2) as a result of interactions with teachers and peers. This dissertation relied on both theories to analyze a single learning environment in which self- and social forms of regulation were present. Participants included sixty four students from a K-8 school whose residents are largely from low-income families. Students worked collaboratively to design and carry out a complex project with students who shared similar interests over a nine-week period. Students completed a number of survey instruments, and their group interactions were videotaped daily. Using qualitative and quantitative data analyses, I examined the strategies group members used to regulate their cognition, motivation, and behavior over the course of their project. Results of the quantitative Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis suggested that students' motivational orientations, prior SRL, and perceptions of task features predicted change in SRL over the nine-week period. Furthermore, coregulated learning scores moderated the relationship between (1) students' motivational orientations and their change in SRL, and (2) students' beginning and ending SRL scores. Finally, coregulation scores positively predicted groups' final assessment scores at the conclusion of the project. Results from the qualitative analysis suggested between group and within group differences in both the amount and type of processes groups used to self- and coregulate their cognition, motivation, and behavior over the course of their project. Theoretically, this research extends individual models of SRL to include social forms of regulation arguing that students acquire, refine, and use different forms of regulatory processes to regulate group interactions. Finally, given the emphasis on SRL throughout national and NJ state curriculum standards this research supports the use of high interest, collaborative tasks as an instructional method to increase students' regulatory processes.

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references (291-301)

by Nicole C. DiDonato

doi:10.7282/T33778ZZ

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.

ETD

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