Self Regulated Learning (SRL) in science using digital environment

Leading team

Zahava Scherz (PhD)

Bat Sheva Eylon (PhD)

Postdocs and students

Tali Shapiro, PhD student

Summary

This ongoing study aims to characterize and identify students' various self-regulation learning (SRL) considerations and behaviors revealed in a digital environment that offers different learning paths.

For this study we designed a digital learning environment that includes activities for teaching and assessment of middle school material sciences contents and learning skills such as knowledge representations, reading tables, organizing information in a table and graph reading continuous graph. The SRL digital learning environment offers students the option to choose one of three possible paths in order to solve problems presented to them: (a) an "autonomous path", (b) a "help path" with clues and (c) a "guided path" with clues and guidance.

Results: During the past year (2013) we carried out the research among 270 students from three schools. The results indicate a variety of student considerations in selecting learning paths which include considerations relating to their will to face challenges, fear of failure, desire for points and confidence. Additional results indicate the degree of contribution various mediating strategies have for different learners and the ability of students to learn from simulations. The study will continue in the next school year.

These findings contribute to the understanding of necessary features needed in digital learning environments for teaching science in order to support student diversity and self-regulation.

Related articles

• Shapiro, T., Eylon, B., & Scherz, Z. (2013). A self-regulated digital environment for learning skills in science. In G?mez Chova,L., L?pez Mart?nez,A., Candel Torres, I (Eds.), Edulearn13 5th international conference on education and new learning technologies. International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED).
• Shapiro, T., Eylon, B., & Scherz, Z. (2013). Explicit instruction of learning skills for science embedded in physics learning materials. In G?mez Chova,L., L?pez Mart?nez,A., Candel Torres, I (Eds.), Edulearn13 5th international conference on education and new learning technologies. International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED).