A study of lesson design strategies to promote regulated learning in science considering the social context

Going beyond merely imparting information and actually equipping children with the skills to engage in scientific enquiry is important. This is a focus area in Japan, through which scientific literacy and critical thinking in education can be improved. With the right environment, children can be encouraged to pursue self-driven inquiry, reflect on their learning and collaborate with their peers. Professor Ichiro Wada, Division of Advanced Professional Practice in Education, Yokohama National University who is interested in improving children’s ability to regulate their own learning based on metacognition and the right environment for this to happen. His current research concerns how the regulation of learning is established within a social context and he is homing in on three important concepts: self-regulation (SRL); co-regulation (CoRL); and socially shared regulated learning (SSRL). Focusing on these types of regulation, Wada and his collaborators developed and examined a science lesson design strategy integrating instruction and evaluation to develop children's ability to solve problems independently and collaboratively. The researchers found that the children's metacognition function was a hub which connected them to one another and enhanced their function through interaction with others. They also discovered that the teacher's feedback function was promoted by the children's evaluation and judgement. This work enabled Wada to capture the interrelated cognitive, metacognitive and motivational variables of these concepts. He has modelled the formation of the internal structure and interaction processes. A key current focus for Wada is evaluative judgement, which requires children to have their own evaluative criteria related to the selection and choosing of information.