How do teachers promote self-regulation of learning when students need to learn at home? The moderating role of teachers’ ICT competency

Abstract

The importance of self-regulation of learning became evident during the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying school closures. Using data from N = 254 German teachers, we analyze how teachers promoted self-regulation of learning in distance education and reasons why they did not promote it. Additionally, we examine which teacher and class variables predict the promotion of self-regulation of learning in distance education and whether teachers’ technology competency moderates these relationships. Further, we look into whether these relationships differ during the first lockdown in spring 2020, for which teachers were not able to prepare for ahead of time, and the beginning of the new school year 2020/2021. Qualitative analyses indicate that teachers focused on promoting metacognitive strategies and used technology to engage students. Reasons why teachers did not promote self-regulation of learning are mostly a lack of resources and misconceptions about students’ competences and needs. Regression analysis show that teachers’ self-efficacy to promote self-regulation of learning and students’ grade predict teachers’ promotion of self-regulation of learning in distance education. Moderation analyses reveal interactions between teachers’ technology competency and class size as well as grade—but only for the period after the summer holidays in 2020/2021. This paper uncovers areas of improvement for teacher education, such as their misconceptions, self-efficacy beliefs, and their technology competency—not only for homeschooling during a pandemic, but also for future learning opportunities in the 21st century that will contain the need for more self-regulation of learning due to the increasing use of technology and digital learning.

The relationship between preservice science teachers' perceived role modeling and self‐regulation skills in science

“…More research is needed on how teachers can be adequately prepared for the successful implementation of SRL instruction in the classroom (Van Hout-Wolters et al, 2002). There is a need for a new generation of teachers who can take an active role in the effective learning process even under adverse conditions (Fischer & Dignath, 2023).…”

“…These teachers should first of all be aware that they can continuously improve their self-regulation skills. There is now stronger evidence that self-regulation skills can be taught and learned (Fischer & Dignath, 2023). Implementing SRL in the classroom can be challenging and we should always ask ourselves, "How can teachers and pre-service teachers best support their students in developing SRL?"…”