PLAT 20(3) 2021: Promoting Self-Regulated Learning: Training, Feedback, and Addressing Teachers’ Misconceptions

Self-regulated learning is the capacity to monitor and regulate your learning activities and is vital in an increasingly complex and digitalized world with unlimited amounts of information at your fingertips. The current Special Issue highlights five articles and one report, which provide different approaches for teachers to promote effectively self-regulated learning in various educational contexts: training, feedback, and addressing teachers’ misconceptions. This editorial serves as a succinct review article and an introduction to the content of this issue. Training programs frequently teach information about effective learning strategies. Accordingly, Benick et al. (2021) found that students reported using more learning strategies when their teachers provided direct-strategy instruction combined with a learning diary, as compared to when these supports were not implemented. Yet, in this study, no transfer effect on academic performance was observed. Note that it is important that students are motivated to engage with these training courses and the learning strategies that are taught. Accordingly, van der Beek et al. (2021) investigated high school students in their last year before graduation and demonstrated that “motivated” students more often participated in a voluntary, self-regulated-learning training. However, a utility-value and implementation-intention intervention did not increase the likelihood of participation. McDaniel et al. (2021) reported a theoretical training framework addressing multiple components of self-regulated learning. The authors then tested a pilot college course based on this framework: knowledge of and belief in the effectiveness of learning strategies are targeted combined with efforts to promote students’ commitment and planning to apply these strategies (Knowledge-Belief-Commitment-Planning framework; McDaniel & Einstein, 2020). Another approach to promote self-regulated learning is to provide feedback and opportunities to effectively process and utilize it. Bürgermeister et al. (2021) developed an effective online tool supporting preservice teachers to assess and provide feedback on peer learners’ self-regulated use of effective learning strategies. Kuepper-Tetzel and Gardner (2021) demonstrated how to enhance self-regulated processing of feedback by temporarily withholding university students’ grades in favor of accessing and engaging with the feedback first. Finally, teachers’ misconceptions about learning can affect the degree to which teachers can scaffold students’ learning how to learn. As a first step, to address these misconceptions, Eitel et al. (2021) developed and psychometrically evaluated the Misconceptions about Multimedia Learning Questionnaire (MMLQ). Using the MMLQ, the authors showed that (preservice) teachers endorsed three out of four common misconceptions of self-regulated multimedia learning, with the potential to design instructional devices to refute them and thereby to promote rather than hinder self-regulated learning in students. Taken together, the contributions of the current Special Issue highlight self-regulated learning as a critical skill at all levels of education, which can be promoted through structured training programs, various uses of feedback, and addressing misconceptions about self-regulated learning from (pre-service) teachers.