This project focuses on the role of self-regulated learning (SRL) in students' understanding of science with hypermedia. SRL is emerging as a significant issue in educational and psychological research. SRL is an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior in the service of those goals. SRL is guided and constrained by both personal characteristics and the contextual features of the environment (Pintrich, 2000). The focus of SRL research over the last three decades has been on learners' academic learning and achievement and has progressively included emphases on cognitive strategies, metacognition, motivation, and task engagement (for a recent review see Paris & Paris, 2001). The broad scope of SRL appeals to educational researchers who seek to understand how students become adept and independent in their educational pursuits. Whether SRL is viewed as a set of skills that can be taught explicitly or as developmental processes of self-regulation that emerge with experience (within a domain, topic, or task), teachers can provide information and opportunities to students of all ages that will help them become strategic, motivated, and independent learners. There are, however, several theoretical and empirical issues that need further research before practical classroom implications can be put forth. How do students' regulate their own learning when using a hypermedia environment to learn about complex science topics? Which processes related to self- and co-regulation do student pairs and teachers use during collaborative learning of complex science topics with hypermedia? What kinds of instructional conditions are more effective in fostering SRL? How can science teachers provide information and opportunities to students of all ages that can help them become more strategic, motivated, and independent learners? Can SRL be taught explicitly as a set of skills or is it a developmental process that emerges from experience (within a task, topic, or domain).This NSF Career project will explore these questions through research that forges new directions in the area of students' self-regulated learning of two complex science topics (the circulatory system and ecological systems) with hypermedia environments (CircSysWeb and RiverWeb). In doing so, the research goals will be: (1) To scale-up research on self-regulated learning across developmental levels and contexts; (2) To examine the role of self- and co-regulation during individual and collaborative learning with hypermedia environments; (3) To examine the effectiveness of co-construction of goals (between teacher and students) during learning of science with hypermedia environments; (4) To examine the effectiveness of strategy instruction training in fostering students' self- and co-regulated learning with hypermedia; and, (5) To examine the effectiveness of adaptive web-based hypermedia environments in detecting, modeling, and fostering students' self- and co-regulated learning of science.
