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This research examined how stakeholders (n = 40) from one school district experienced “accountability” within a context where responsibility for student learning was being distributed across the system. Using a case study design, we examined: what conditions supported stakeholders in multiple roles to exercise responsibility for student learning? Analyses of documents and interviews revealed conditions that enabled teachers, instructional leaders, and administrators to share responsibility in relation to their roles, and empowered teachers to engage in inquiry for continuous improvement and build from their sense of professionalism and responsibility. Implications are discussed for empowering teachers, and other stakeholders, to exercise responsibility in the context of an accountability system.

PurposeThis research investigated whether structuring an inquiry-oriented professional learning network to include school-based co-teaching partners would amplify educators' success in taking up and adapting evidence-based understandings and practices as meaningful in their contexts. Our research questions were: (1) What conditions did educators identify in the PLN overall that supported their co-construction of knowledge and practice development together? and (2) How did including co-teaching partners in the PLN help participants to mobilize knowledge and/or practices in the contexts where they were working?Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study design was used because of its potential to examine how and why questions about complex processes as situated in context (Butler, 2011; Yin, 2014). A case study methodology allowed us to collect and coordinate multiple forms of evidence (i.e. interviews, teacher reflective writing, classroom artifacts, field notes) to examine both how conditions created within the PLN supported learning and how co-teaching partners were mobilizing what they were learning in their school contexts. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data was analyzed abductively through an iterative and recursive process (Braun et al., 2018).FindingsConditions within the PLN overall that participants identified as supportive to their knowledge mobilization and practice development included: having a shared focus, feeling accountability to the group, collaborative enactment of practices within the PLN, large group sharing and debriefing, sustained cycles of collaborative inquiry, affective support, valuing diversity and drawing from expert others as resources. Participants also identified the benefits that accrued specifically from working with co-teaching partners. In addition, findings showed how the degree to which partners engaged in rich forms of collaborative inquiry could be related to their learning and situated practice development.Originality/valueFindings show the generative potential of inviting co-teaching partners into a PLN to engage in collaborative inquiry with others. PLNs offer the benefit of engaging with educators from outside of one's practice context, which enables pushing their thinking in new directions. Our findings add to the literature by revealing how in situ knowledge mobilization can be amplified when educators participating within a PLN are also working through cycles of inquiry with a co-teaching partner. Overall, this study offers a PLN model where teachers have built-in support for knowledge co-creation and mobilization both within and outside of their school contexts.

Competency-based medical education and programmatic assessment intend to increase the opportunities for meaningful feedback, yet these conversations remain elusive. By comparing resident and faculty perceptions of feedback opportunities within one internal medicine residency training program, we sought to understand whether and how principles underlying meaningful feedback could be supported or constrained across a variety of feedback opportunities. Using case-study qualitative methodology, interviews and focus groups were conducted to explore 19 internal medicine residents' and 7 faculty members' perceptions of feedback across a variety of feedback opportunities: coaching, mini-CEXs, in-training evaluation reports and routine clinical supervision. Our data analysis moved iteratively between developing conceptual understandings and fine-grained analyses, while attending to both deductive and inductive analysis. Our results suggest that all feedback opportunities, including those created through formalized assessments, can foster meaningful feedback if faculty establish a trusting relationship with the resident, base their feedback on direct observation and support resident learning. However, formalized assessments were often perceived as inhibiting the conditions for meaningful feedback. A coaching program provided a context in which meaningful feedback could arise, in part because faculty were supported in shifting their focus from patient to resident. Meaningful feedback in clinical education may be fostered across a variety of feedback opportunities, however, it is often constrained by assessment. We must consider whether increasing the frequency of formative assessments may inhibit efforts to improve our feedback cultures while, in contrast, freeing up faculty to focus on supporting resident learning could improve these cultures.

Marginalized students are often found to be struggling with challenges outside of and within school that complicate or even undermine their educational journeys. According to self-determination theory (SDT), marginalized youth may disengage from school if their psychological needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence are not being sufficiently met, which may lead to reduced motivation, and therefore reduced engagement. Using SDT and feminist theory as sensitizing lenses, this study explored school engagement from the perspective of marginalized youth. We sought to understand how six marginalized youth experienced life in school and how their experiences of school influenced their school engagement. Data collected through semi-structured interviews were explored and analyzed thematically. Findings showed that how students engaged in school could be connected to how educational systems supported their basic psychological needs, as well as to significant challenges they experienced personally (e.g., learning needs, poverty). We conclude that, in order to increase marginalized student engagement, schools need to focus on increasing student perceptions of autonomy, belonging and competence in their learning environments, as well as work to reduce barriers such as learning challenges and the effects of outside factors on learning.

Guiding inquiry learning has been shown to increase knowledge gains. Yet, little is known about the effect of guidance on attitudes and behaviours, its interaction with student attributes, and transfer of impact once guidance is removed. We address these gaps in the context of an interactive Physics simulation on electric circuits ( https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc ). 49 students in the Non-Directive condition received a set of goals to focus their inquiry, in addition to implicit support built into the simulation. 48 students in the Directive condition received, in addition to these, also detailed directions and prompts. Log-file analysis found that directive support led to more formal testing and less exploration. Clustering identified two groups of learners: one with higher incoming knowledge (Higher Knowledge), the other with higher incoming perceptions of competence and control (Higher PoCC). Working with the simulation improved knowledge and attitudes across cluster groups, so that prior differences all but disappeared. With regard to guidance, adding directive support improved knowledge gains for the Higher Knowledge group, yet suppressed their attitudinal growth. The same support had no effect on knowledge gains for the Higher PoCC group, yet it boosted their attitudinal growth. A transfer activity, where directive support was no longer available, found that impact on attitudes carried forward, yet impacts on behaviours and knowledge were short-lived. Overall, the study highlights the complex interaction between guidance and student attributes. For some, supporting short-term knowledge gains may inadvertenly lead to longer term negative impact on attitudes towards inquiry.

Context We developed, implemented and evaluated an evidence-based programme of feedback designed to address limitations identified in the current literature. Objectives We sought to advance understanding about how and why feedback processes might be more effective in clinical education. Methods Three faculty members and nine first-year internal medicine residents participated in the pilot programme. To counter challenges identified in the literature, feedback was based on direct observation, grounded in longitudinal faculty–resident relationships, and devoid of summative assessment. We used a qualitative case study design to address three research questions: (i) What benefits did the participants describe? (ii) What elements of the programme facilitated these benefits? (iii) What were the limitations and challenges of the programme? Collected data included audiotapes of interactions between faculty members and residents, field notes written during observations, and semi-structured interviews and focus groups with resident participants. Data analysis moved cyclically and iteratively through inductive and deductive analysis. Results Residents described benefits relating to their ways of working (clinical skills), ways of learning (accountability for learning) and ways of feeling (emotional well-being). According to participants, specific elements of the programme that achieved these benefits included the direct observation of authentic clinical work, the longitudinal relationship with a faculty member and the emergence of feedback as a conversation between the faculty member and learner. Conclusions We conclude that the conditions established within our pilot feedback programme influenced the learning culture for first-year internal medicine residents by grounding direct observation in authentic clinical work and setting the observations in the context of a longitudinal, non-assessment-based relationship between a faculty member and resident. These conditions appeared to influence residents’ participation in the feedback process, their ways of approaching their daily clinical work, their emotional well-being and their engagement in their own learning.

Compte tenu des difficultés associées à la lecture visant l’apprentissage en histoire, cette étude cherche à mieux comprendre la relation entre le choix de la ressource de lecture et l’apprentissage par la lecture (APL) d’élèves de 6e année lors de situations d’APL bénéficiant du soutien des enseignants. Les objectifs poursuivis sont les suivants : 1) décrire l’APL des élèves dans un contexte de recours à un manuel scolaire ou à des œuvres documentaires ou de fiction; 2) comparer les apports et les limites de ces deux choix pour l’APL des élèves; 3) décrire, de manière exploratoire, le recours spontané aux images en tant que support informatif. Pour cette étude, une méthode de recherche mixte a été utilisée : l’analyse de cas multiples (Yin, 2003) insérée dans un design pré/post. Les résultats vont dans le sens de travaux antérieurs qui valident la pertinence du modèle d’APL de Cartier (2007) en montrant l’interaction entre l’activité proposée, les textes choisis, les occasions d’APL et le domaine d’apprentissage. Ils illustrent plus spécifiquement l’effet bénéfique d’une démarche de planification et de soutien à l’APL dans le contexte spécifique du recours à un manuel scolaire et, parallèlement, les nombreux défis soulevés par le recours à un corpus d’oeuvres en contexte d’APL. Les résultats mettent aussi en lumière que les élèves n’utilisent pas spontanément l’apport informatif des images en contexte d’APL, ce qui oblige à penser un soutien spécifique en ce sens., Considering the difficulties associated with learning through reading in history, this study seeks to better understand the relationship between the reading resources made available and the learning through reading (LTR) of Grade 6 students in LTR situations that include teachers’ support. The objectives pursued are to: 1) describe students’ LTR in the context of a textbook or of documentary works and fiction; 2) compare the advantages and limitations of these two choices for the students’ LTR; 3) describe in an exploratory manner, students' spontaneous use of images as informative support. For this study, a mixed research methodology was used: a multiple case study analysis (Yin, 2003) inserted into a pre/post design. The results are consistent with previous studies that validate Cartier's (2007) model of LTR, showing the interaction between the assigned activities, the texts selected, opportunities for LTR, and the field of study. They specifically illustrate the beneficial effect of planning for and supporting LTR in the specific context of textbook use and, simultaneously, the many challenges raised by the use of a body of work in the context of LTR. The results also highlight that students do not spontaneously use background images as informational sources in an LTR context, which requires thinking about how to channel more specific supports in that direction.

Control of Variables Strategy (CVS) is the process of isolating the effect of single variables when conducting scientific inquiry. We assess how CVS can help student achieve different levels of understanding when implemented in different parts of the inquiry process. 148 students worked with minimally-guided inquiry activities using virtual labs on two different physics topics. The virtual labs allowed for exploration, data collection, and graphical analysis. Using student log data, we identified how CVS manifests itself through these phases of students’ inquiry process. We found that students using CVS during data collection and plotting was associated with students achieving more qualitative and quantitative models, respectively. This did not hold, however, for more complicated mathematical relationships, emphasizing the importance of mathematical and graphical interpretation skills when doing CVS.

CONTEXT Transitions, although often difficult, represent integral components of medical training. New postgraduate trainees (first-year residents) find themselves in an especially challenging transition as they are expected to fulfil both learning and service expectations concurrently. Workplace learning theory has been suggested as a lens through which to understand this unique educational, yet service-oriented, role. This tension may be further amplified overnight when residents are on-call with little to no support. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to explore the transition from medical student to resident with respect to the on-call experience, and to provide theory-based suggestions to enhance learning during this unique transition. METHODS We conducted an interpretivist qualitative study by interviewing eight medical students and 10 first-year residents from six different specialty training programmes across four academic sites. Each semi-structured interview was transcribed verbatim and anonymised. Resident interview transcripts were initially coded for major themes, after which medical student interview transcripts were coded for consistencies and discrepancies. RESULTS Four interrelated themes were identified in students' and residents' descriptions of on-call experiences: (i) shift in responsibility; (ii) supervisory support; (iii) contextual conditions, and (iv) clarity of expectations. Generally, students were not able to anticipate the challenges they would face as residents on-call, and residents perceived the transition as sudden with little emphasis placed on learning. CONCLUSIONS First-year residents face multiple challenges during on-call, which may prevent optimal learning in this setting. These challenges are amplified by the large gap between the respective roles of medical students and residents. We identified promoters of and barriers to effective learning in this environment and, by using workplace learning theory, provide recommendations for how we might be able to enhance medical students' preparation for and first-year residents' learning during experiences of being on-call.

Virtual labs are exploratory learning environments in which students learn by conducting inquiry to uncover the underlying scientific model. Although students often fail to learn efficiently in these environments, providing effective support is challenging since it is unclear what productive engagement looks like. This paper focuses on the mining and identification of student inquiry strategies during an unstructured activity with the DC Circuit Construction Kit (https://phet.colorado.edu/). We use an information theoretic sequence mining method to identify productive and unproductive strategies of a hundred students. Low domain knowledge students who successfully learned during the activity paused more after testing their circuits, particularly on simply structured circuits that target the activity’s learning goals, and mainly earlier in the activity. Moreover, our results show that a strategic use of pauses so that they become opportunities for reflection and planning is highly associated with productive learning. Implication to theory, support, and assessment are discussed.

Teacher professional development has been identified as essential to educational reform. Moreover, research suggests the power of inquiry communities in spurring teacher professional learning and shifts in classroom practice. However, not enough is known about what conditions within a community of inquiry might be necessary to inspire, support, sustain, and coordinate educators’ investment in systems-level change. To fill this gap, this article reports findings from the last year of a longitudinal case study of a school district seeking to advance adolescent literacy in subject-area classrooms. We extended from prior findings to investigate whether and how educators’ self-perceptions of efficacy and agency could be related to their engagement in a district-level, inquiry-based initiative. Participants were 43 teachers and school- and district-based leaders. Multiple forms of evidence (i.e., interviews, artifacts, field-notes) were collected and coordinated within a case study design. Findings suggested that the vast majority of participants experienced increases in efficacy that could be associated with their engagement in collaborative inquiry, which in turn had potential to fuel on-going change efforts. At the same time, leaders’ careful attention to preserving teachers’ agency appeared to support their sustained investment in continuous cycles of goal-directed practice improvement. Implications are discussed for structuring professional development within systemic improvement initiatives.

Models of self-regulation describe how individuals engage deliberately and reflectively in goal-directed action in order to achieve valued goals. Studies have found that the consistent use of self-regulation in an academic setting is highly correlated with student achievement. Self-regulation plays a critical role in problem-solving, particularly when unraveling ill-structured problems as is required in engineering design. The primary research question: How did engineering students perceive their self-regulation activities while engaged in a design project? A total of 307 students from three higher education institutions working on their capstone engineering design projects participated in the study. The study evaluated students’ self-regulation in relation to both design and project management skills. We used a self-regulation in engineering design questionnaire (EDMQ) to assess students’ approaches to self-regulation. Quantitative data were analyzed in two parts using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings suggested that: (1) Students focused more consistently on task interpretation than other self-regulatory strategies, particularly during design; (2) Students lacked awareness of the essential need to develop a method to assess the design deliverables; (3) Self-regulation gaps were found during early design phases, but as the design process progressed, a more balanced approach to self-regulation was apparent. Given the importance of task interpretation to successful performance, students attended to identifying tasks during both the design process and project management. However, they did not report engaging in planning, implementing, and monitoring and fix-up strategies as consistently, even when those processes were relevant and called for. Implications are drawn for research, theory, and practice.

This article presents an in-depth case study of a complex community of inquiry. In this community, teachers worked collaboratively to build from situated assessments of students' learning through reading to refine and monitor practices designed to enhance student learning in their subject-area classrooms. In this report, we present evidence to address three questions: (1) What did inquiry look like within this community?; (2) How was collaboration implicated in teachers' inquiry?; and (3) How was engagement in inquiry related to meaningful shifts in teachers' practice and learning? This research contributes by uncovering important links between teacher inquiry, collaboration, and educational change.

Medical Education 2012: 46: 71–79 Objectives In the health professions we expect practitioners and trainees to engage in self-regulation of their learning and practice. For example, doctors are responsible for diagnosing their own learning needs and pursuing professional development opportunities; medical residents are expected to identify what they do not know when caring for patients and to seek help from supervisors when they need it, and medical school curricula are increasingly called upon to support self-regulation as a central learning outcome. Given the importance of self-regulation in both health professions education and ongoing professional practice, our aim was to generate a snapshot of the state of the science in medical education research in this area. Methods To achieve this goal, we gathered literature focused on self-regulation or self-directed learning undertaken from multiple perspectives. Then, with support from a multi-component theoretical framework, we created an overarching map of the themes addressed thus far and emerging findings. We built from that integrative overview to consider contributions, connections and gaps in research on self-regulation to date. Results and conclusions Based on this reflective analysis, we conclude that the medical education community’s understanding about self-regulation will continue to advance as we: (i) consider how learning is undertaken within the complex social contexts of clinical training and practice; (ii) think of self-regulation within an integrative perspective that allows us to combine disparate strands of research and to consider self-regulation across the training continuum in medicine, from learning to practice; (iii) attend to the grain size of analysis both thoughtfully and intentionally, and (iv) most essentially, extend our efforts to understand the need for and best practices in support of self-regulation.

Cette étude a pour but de présenter les portraits d’autorégulation, lors de l’apprentissage par la lecture, de 20 545 élèves du secondaire (12 à 17 ans) fréquentant 59 écoles francophones de milieux défavorisés du Québec. Elle repose sur le questionnaire d’évaluation Lire pour apprendre (Cartier et Butler, 2003). Les résultats montrent que les élèves voient une certaine complexité à la situation, par leur interprétation, leurs objectifs et les critères de performance. Le volet apprentissage de la situation est moins ciblé. Par ailleurs, les élèves présentent des portraits d’autorégulation lacunaires. Des différences d’autorégulation entre les élèves du début et de la fin du secondaire ont été observées., This study presents a portrait of the self-regulated learning-by-reading strategies of 20,545 secondary level students (aged 12 to 17) from 59 Francophone schools in low socio-economic areas in Quebec. The authors applied an evaluation questionnaire, “Lire pour apprendre” (Cartier et Butler, 2003). Results show that students understand the complexity of a situation based on their interpretation, their objectives and their performance criteria. The learning aspect in the situation is less targeted. However, students present self-regulated learning strategies that are inadequate. Differences in self-regulation by students at the beginning and at the end of the secondary level were found., Este estudio tiene por objetivo presentar los perfiles de autorregulación durante el aprendizaje por la lectura de 20 545 alumnos de la secundaria (de 12 a 17 años de edad) provenientes de 59 escuelas francófonas de medios desfavorecidos de la provincia de Quebec. Se fundamenta en el cuestionario de evaluación Lire pour apprendre (Cartier y Butler, 2003). Los resultados muestran que los alumnos encuentran una cierta complejidad a la situación por su interpretación, sus objetivos y los criterios de desempeño. La parte « aprendizaje » de la situación se encuentra menos señalada. Por otro lado, los alumnos presentan perfiles de autorregulación con lagunas. Se observaron diferencias de autorregulación entre los alumnos del principio y del final de la secundaria.

This research examines how engaging teachers in collaboratively constructing situated assessments enhances teacher professional development, fosters meaningful shifts to practice, and supports productive conceptions of accountability. We conducted case studies of six teachers engaged as partners in investigating new approaches to assessing and fostering literacy. Findings suggested that supporting teachers to generate, interpret, and act upon assessment data within instructional change cycles assisted them in monitoring student performance, grounding instructional decisions in data, and enacting changes to practice. We also document how collaboratively constructing assessments with teachers supported conceptions of accountability considered meaningful by individuals adopting differing socio-political perspectives.

The basal 150 cm of lacustrine sediment in a 380 cm core from Pine Hill Pond, eastern Newfoundland, includes the late-glacial and early Holocene and contains strong sedirnentological and paleoecological evidence for a climatic oscillation correlative with the Younger Dryas event. Basal late-glacial minerogenic sediments are overlain by a silty gyttja marking the onset of organic sedimentation. An overlying unit comprising 7 cm of silty clay marks a return to mineral sedimentation prior to subsequent uninterrupted deposition of organic sediments. During this phase, the reversion from shrub tundra to a sparser herb-shrub tundra pollen assemblage (Oxyria digyna, Arremisia) is a strong indicator of climatic deterioration at the site. The paleolimnological expression of the Younger Dryas event at this site is manifested by a sharp decrease of diatom concentrations followed by decreases in the relative frequencies of Fragilaria spp., which are largely replaced by a stratigraph-ically restricted group of unusual benthic forms, a rise in the relative frequency of chrysophyte cysts, and a crash in Pediastrum concentrations. The nature and timing of palynological and diatom changes are interpreted in terms of both the direct and indirect consequences of climatic deterioration, as well as within the stratigraphic context of sediment lithological changes.

Cet article examine l’interrelation entre l’autorégulation et l’apprentissage collaboratif dans le développement professionnel des enseignants. Pour commencer, un cadre théorique est établi afin de définir le développement professionnel chez les individus comme situé dans la pratique, au sein de communautés d’apprentissage collaboratif. Cette discussion fournit les balises pour décrire deux initiatives consécutives de développement professionnel dans lesquelles les enseignants ont cherché à traduire des principes éducatifs innovants dans la pratique. Un aperçu des deux projets est fourni, accompagné d’un rapport de résultats centrés sur l’enseignement de processus d’apprentissage, et sur comment les enseignants sont arrivés à changer leur pratique à travers leur participation à cette recherche collaborative., This article examines the relationship between self-regulation and collaborative learning in teachers’ professional development. Firstly, the author presents a theoretical frame that defines individual professional development as being present in practices within collaborative learning communities. This discussion provides the criteria for describing two series of initiatives for professional development in which teachers were asked to translate innovative educational principles into practice. The author provides a brief description of these projects and a report of results centred on teaching learning processes and specifically on how teachers changed their practices through their participation in this collaborative research project., Este artículo analiza la interrelación entre la autoregulación y el aprendizaje cooperativo en el desarrollo profesional de los docentes. En primer lugar, se establece un marco teórico con la finalidad de definir el desarrollo profesional en los individuos tal como aparece en la práctica, dentro de comunidades de aprendizaje cooperativo. Este examen facilita las pautas para describir dos iniciativas consecutivas de desarrollo profesional dentro de las cuales los docentes han buscado la manera de aplicar los principios educativos innovadores en la práctica. Se presenta un resumen de los dos proyectos, acompañado de un informe de los resultados centrados en la enseñanza de los procesos de aprendizaje, y en cómo los docentes han llegado a cambiar su práctica por medio de su participación a la presente investigación cooperativa.

This article presents three in-depth case studies focused on supporting students with learning challenges to learn math strategically. Participants were three eighth-grade students enrolled in a learning assistance classroom who were of at least average intelligence but who were performing significantly below grade level in mathematics. These case studies document the processes by which these students were supported to self-regulate their learning in mathematics more effectively. We begin by outlining important instructional foci in mathematics education for intermediate or secondary students with learning disabilities, along with what research indicates are effective instructional processes. In that context, we introduce the theoretical principles underlying the instructional model used here—Strategic Content Learning (SCL). Based on analyses of case study data, we describe how SCL instruction was structured to promote strategic learning. Throughout the discussion, intervention processes are described in sufficient detail to be of use to practitioners.

When alternative models for teaching strategies for academic tasks such as reading, studying, writing, and math are compared, certain common pedagogical activities stand out as central to effective instruction. For example, in empirically validated models, instruction is contextualized in meaningful work, long term, explicit, and interactive. At the same time, in devising models, researchers draw on different theoretical assumptions to justify instructional practices, and, correspondingly, the models vary in the degree to which direct instruction of strategies is emphasized. In this article, I describe 1 strategies-training model-strategic content learning (SCL)-that integrates cognitive-behavioral, sociocultural, and constructivist learning theories as a way to shift focus away from the direct instruction of predefined strategies. The article begins with a description of the theoretical rationale for SCL. This description is followed by a review of research documenting SCL efficacy for postsecondary stud...

(2002). Individualizing Instruction in Self-Regulated Learning. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 41, Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner, pp. 81-92.

The articles included in this special issue demonstrate how qualitative methodologies can be profitably employed to enhance understanding related to self-regulated learning (SRL) and the contexts that support it. This concluding discussion underlines ways in which these articles contribute to an understanding of SRL, with a particular focus on the advantages associated with the methodologies employed. Discussion centers on 4 themes that emerged across articles from authors' attempts to view SRL from a qualitative perspective. These themes include consideration of (a) how SRL should be defined, (b) investigating SRL in context, (c) documenting intervention-outcome linkages, and (d) the interplay between researchers', teachers', and students' co-constructions of theories of SRL. As part of the discussion in each section, the article highlights outstanding conceptual and methodological challenges for researchers and educators interested in SRL.

To date, seven intervention studies have been completed evaluating the efficacy of the Strategic Content Learning (SCL) approach as a model for promoting self-regulated learning by postsecondary students with learning disabilities. Summaries of outcomes from those studies suggest that SCL participation can be associated with gains for students in task performance, metacognitive knowledge, motivational beliefs, and strategic processing across a range of academic tasks (i.e., reading, writing, math). Previous SCL research reports have focused on general outcomes across participants and across tasks, rather than describing the details of individual cases. This article redresses that omission by describing the process of SCL intervention and associated outcomes for three SCL participants working on a common task, namely, writing. By reporting three in-depth parallel case studies, this article clarifies how SCL instruction is implemented to promote strategic writing, illustrates how SCL instructional principles can be personalized in response to individuals' needs, and traces the relationship between SCL instructional activities and outcomes. The article closes with a discussion of implications for theory, research, and practice.

This article reports findings from three studies investigating the efficacy of an instructional model designed to promote self-regulation, the Strategic Content Learning (SCL) approach. Participants were post-secondary students with learning disabilities who ranged in age from 19 to 48 years. Each study comprised multiple in-depth case studies (total N = 34) embedded within a pre-posttest design. Students were provided with individualized SCL tutoring for two to three hours per week during at least one semester. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence converged to reveal consistent improvements across time in students' metacognitive knowledge about key self-regulated processes, perceptions of task-specific efficacy, attributional patterns, task performance, and strategic approaches to tasks. Students were also found to transfer strategic approaches across contexts and tasks. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

In this article, I accept Stone's invitation to reevaluate the metaphor of scaffolding, building on his helpful analysis. Specifically, I identify what has been appealing about the scaffolding metaphor by describing how, as an intervention researcher working with students with learning disabilities, I have used the metaphor to describe a specific instructional approach in my own research. Then, I revisit and critique scaffolding as an instructional metaphor. I also comment on Stone's assertion that a more explicit description of communicative interchanges is required to more clearly describe instructional scaffolding. Finally, I conclude that the scaffolding metaphor is fundamentally flawed and advance an alternative view that may more successfully promote correspondence between instructional activities and our emerging vision of the dynamics of teaching and learning.

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal project in which secondary teachers were working collaboratively to support adolescents' self-regulatedlearning through reading(LTR) in subject-area classrooms. We build from prior research to “connect the dots” between teachers' engagement in self- and co-regulated inquiry, associated shifts in classroom practice, and student self-regulation. More specifically, we investigated whether and how teachers working within a community of inquiry were mobilizing research to shape classroom practice and advance student learning. Drawing on evidence from 18 teachers and their respective classrooms, we describe findings related to the following research questions: (1) While engaged in self- and co-regulated inquiry, what types of practices did teachers enact to support LTR in their subject-area classrooms? (2) How did teachers draw on research-based resources to inform practice development? (3) What kinds of practices could be associated with gains in students' self-regulated LTR? In our discussion, we highlight contributions to understanding how teachers can be supported to situate research in authentic classroom environments and about qualities of practices supportive of students' self-regulated LTR. We also identify limitations of this work and important future directions.

A total of 38 problem learners comprising adolescents with learning disabilities and low achievers participated in this study. Of these, 20 were untrained control participants; the remainder were trained to plan, write, and revise opinion essays. Trainees were randomly divided into pairs and taught to collaboratively use interactive dialogues to plan and revise their essays (but they wrote their essays separately). The results from multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) and effect sizes indicated that trainees improved significantly from pretest to posttest in clarity and cogency of written opinion essays, and maintained such gains. Additional analyses indicated that they surpassed the untrained control group. Questionnaire data indicated trainees improved in self-efficacy of writing only. The same finding held true in comparison with untrained participants. The discussion integrates the trainees' performance data with the questionnaire data and considers the research implications and limitations of the study.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a pivot upon which students’ achievement turns. We explain how feedback is inherent in and a prime determiner of processes that constitute SRL, and review areas of research that elaborate contemporary models of how feedback functions in learning. Specifically, we begin by synthesizing a model of self-regulation based on contemporary educational and psychological literatures. Then we use that model as a structure for analyzing the cognitive processes involved in self-regulation, and for interpreting and integrating findings from disparate research traditions. We propose an elaborated model of SRL that can embrace these research findings and that spotlights the cognitive operation of monitoring as the hub of self-regulated cognitive engagement. The model is then used to reexamine (a) recent research on how feedback affects cognitive engagement with tasks and (b) the relation among forms of engagement and achievement. We conclude with a proposal that research on feedback and research on self-regulated learning should be tightly coupled, and that the facets of our model should be explicitly addressed in future research in both areas.

The research described here investigated the effectiveness of an intervention model designed to promote self-regulated and strategic learning: Strategic Content Learning (SCL). In SCL, rather that focusing on teaching students specific cognitive strategies, instruction focuses on supporting students to develop a strategic approach to learning. The study comprised six parallel case studies embedded within a single-group, pre-post design. Each student chose a task of importance to current or future academic work, and individualized support was provided on those tasks. Participants were adults with learning disabilities (5 women and 1 man, ages 18 to 36 years) enrolled in postsecondary education programs. Results indicated, that students' task performance improved. Additionally, gains in metacognitive knowledge about tasks and strategies, increased perceptions of self-efficacy, and shifts in attributional patterns were observed. Most critically, the evidence suggested that students became more self-regulated in their learning: They were active in developing and modifying strategies, they transferred strategies across contexts, and they began to attack noninstructed tasks strategically. The particular suitability of SCL as an intervention for adults with learning disabilities is described, and implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.

Publisher Summary This chapter emphasizes the importance of adopting a lifespan developmental perspective for understanding Learning Disabilities (LDs) and overviews research in each of these topic areas. Research on LD in adulthood is not only relevant to researchers, practitioners, community members, and policymakers concerned with adult populations; understanding how LDs play out over time also provides important benchmarks for parents and educators charged with preparing youngsters for the adult years. Three general approaches have been used to examine challenges faced by adults with LDs.