What would you demand beyond mathematics? Teachers’ promotion of students’ self-regulated learning and metacognition

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether primary school teachers’ promotion of students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognition changed during the course of a professional development (PD) program that focused on improving the quality of their implementation of mathematical tasks. The study involved three primary school teachers in a private school. The PD program design required teachers to reflect critically on their own practice and learning. Classroom observations and meetings with the teachers were part of the program. A SRL observation instrument was used for coding 36 lessons observed during one academic year. The findings revealed that the program did not have a substantial impact on teachers’ promotion of students’ SRL. In fact, the amount of time teachers had been in the PD program had only a weak correlation with their promotion of students’ SRL and metacognition. The subcomponents of SRL were considered in the interpretation of the results. Possible directions are discussed for further research on developing teachers’ promotion of students’ SRL while focusing on improving the quality of implementation of mathematical tasks.