The development in self-regulated learning behaviour of first-year students in the lowest level of secondary school in the Netherlands

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Abstract

This study focuses on development in self-regulated learning behaviour of students in the first year of the lowest level of secondary school in the Netherlands. Students from low socio-economic backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, are overrepresented at this level and their motivation has often been reported to be quite low. Furthermore, the percentage of dropouts is highest at this level: three times higher than in more academically oriented levels. 735 students filled in a questionnaire at the start, the middle and at the end of the school year. Development in self-regulated learning behaviour was best explained by the degree to which students intrinsically valued school work.

Introduction

Students in the lowest level of secondary school in the Netherlands have often been reported to lack motivation. Educators have been concerned for years about the decline in achievement, self-regulated learning behaviour (e.g. effort put into school work and strategy use) and motivational beliefs of children, particularly after the transition from primary to secondary school, though it also occurs at other stages of the educational career (van der Veen, De Jong, Van Leeuwen, & Korteweg, 2005). The reported decline has been found to be clearest in self-regulated learning behaviour and is echoed in several countries (Peetsma, Hascher, Van der Veen, & Roede, 2005). The decline in self-regulated learning behaviour is expected to be more extensive at the lowest level, as this is where the highest percentage of dropouts is found: three times higher than in more academically oriented levels of secondary education (Dutch Inspectorate of Education, 2005). Moreover, more than half of the children in the Netherlands attend schools at this level. In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the reasons for the higher dropout rates at this school level, this paper focuses on the development in self-regulated learning behaviour of students attending these schools and investigates the reasons for changes in this development.

Section snippets

Theoretical background

This section first discusses the concept of self-regulation and explains which aspects are of concern here, before addressing the explanations for the decline in self-regulated learning behaviour offered in the literature. There is no simple and straightforward definition of students' capacity to self-regulate (Boekaerts & Corno, 2005). Raffaelli, Crockett, and Shen (2005) offer a fairly broad definition, defining self-regulation as an internally directed capacity to regulate attention, affect

Data

735 students in the first year of the lowest level of secondary schools distributed all over the Netherlands took part. 13 schools and 37 classes were involved (average 2.8 classes per school). 58% were boys and 42% were girls. At the first measurement the average age was 12 years. Table 1 shows the ethnic background of the students and their parents' education. Most of the students in the study were of Dutch background and had parents who had attended intermediate vocational education.

The data

Descriptive data

The mean scores for the parent's expectations of their children's educational career (mobility orientation) are shown in Table 4: higher scores for the students from ethnic minorities than the students of Dutch origin.

The development on the dependent variables by gender, ethnic background, parents' education and the four groups distinguished on the basis of scores on mastery approach and performance approach achievement goals is shown in Table 5.

The total scores on the dependent variables from

Conclusions and discussion

We did find an overall decrease in students' perception of their self-regulated learning behaviour. The largest average decrease was in students' indications of their academic delay of gratification, followed by reported maths investment; the decrease in indicated metacognitive strategy use was quite small. The smaller decrease in reported metacognitive strategy use may be related to changes in the Dutch secondary school system at this level, which have led to an increased emphasis on students'

Acknowledgement

This research was made possible by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-PROO).

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