A Multilevel Investigation of the Social Aspects of Self-Regulation in the Context of Collaborative Ill-Structured Problem Solving

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of the social aspects of self-regulation on students' ill-structured problem-solving performance in a collaborative learning environment. Specifically, two components of the social aspects of self-regulation were explored: self-regulation and co-regulation. One hundred thirty-one pre-service teachers participated in this study, which required them to collaborate with peers in groups of three or four students on an ill-structured problem-solving task. Multiple research methods were used for the study: descriptive statistics, case analysis, multilevel analyses, and correlation analyses. The results suggested there was a wide gap between students' self-reported behaviors and the actual behavioral counted coded by the researcher regarding self-regulation and co-regulation. The students rated themselves much higher self-regulators than the researcher's ratings, particularly at the problem representation phase. Furthermore, neither self-regulation nor co-regulation had a significant impact on ill-structured problem solving. In addition, the relationship between self-regulation and ill-structured problem solving was significantly weakened as co-regulation increased. The self-report measures and behavioral count measures of self-regulation and co-regulation were significantly correlated; however, directions of the impact of co-regulation on ill-structured problem solving were opposite: the self-report measures of co-regulation had a positive impact on ill-structured problem solving while the behavioral count measures of co-regulation had a negative impact on ill-structured problem solving. Issues and limitations of the study are discussed in this chapter. The results of this study provide valuable implications for instructional design and future research.