The Role of Self-Regulated Learning in the Process of Educational Innovation

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Charlotte Dignath
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448034687

Self-regulated learning (SRL) has proven to be a key competence for academic success and for lifelong learning (OECD, 2019). The importance of equipping students with self-regulation skills has even risen due to educational innovations (digitization, inclusive education. Societal changes, on the one hand, such as the implementation of inclusive education according to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNESCO, 2000; 2017), as well as the digitization of schools (KMK, 2016), on the other hand, are changing today’s classrooms. Such profound changes provide new opportunities for learning and teaching, but at the same time challenge learners and teachers with new obstacles. Because inclusive education and digitization require more individualized learning environments, one main development is the increasing amount of SRL that comes along with both educational innovations. The objective of the SRL network of this application is to bring together a broad international expertise from the subfields of (1) differential effects of students’ SRL, (2) aspects of teacher competence to foster SRL, (3) SRL in digital learning environments, and (4) SRL in inclusive settings. In order to close gaps of the current SRL research field, the network will focus on the general yet important hot topics of SRL research that are still unsettled, such as valid forms of assessment of SRL, but also enlarge the scope of SRL research by consulting experts from neighbouring fields. The innovative goal of the network is therefore to combine: (1) SRL research focussing on the learners with SRL research focussing on the teachers, (2) research from different educational and psychological sub-areas, and (3) fundamental and applied research. The prospective research network seeks to facilitate research collaborations among the network members in order to advance the field of SRL in the scope of educational innovations, and to develop innovative research ideas by combining the expertise of researchers across different sub-disciplines. In the run of four meetings of the network members and workshops with national and international experts on the different meeting topics, we aim at: (1) discussing, exchanging, and developing methodological approaches to assess SRL, (2) bringing together research that focusses on the role of SRL in the scope of educational innovation, and to disseminate these results in two special issues of international, peer-reviewed journals, and (3) developing a vision of how to support a sustainable implementation of SRL and its promotion in different educational settings, resulting in a research agenda.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks