Primary teachers‘ beliefs about the promotion of self-regulated learning with at risk students

Research repeatedly illustrated the positive effect of self-regulated learning (SRL) on students' intrinsic motivation as well as academic performance. Regardless of teachers' overall positive orientation towards the promotion of SRL, several processes still obstruct congruence between teachers' beliefs and their actual SRL practices. The present paper focuses on student background as a potential obstacle in or incentive for SRL promotion. The study explores teachers' personal beliefs about student influences on the introduction SRL-oriented learning environments. A total of 121 teachers were questioned through semi-structured interviews. Results reveal the impact of, for example, pupils' age, (meta-)cognitive abilities, socio-economic background, ethnicity and learning motivation on the implementation of SRL classroom practices. However, teachers differ in their beliefs about the nature and extent of the impact of these student characteristics. Data partly explain these variations by revealing teacher differences in teachers' trust in students, knowledge and skills to promote SRL, self-efficacy feelings, and SRL school policy and support. Furthermore, teachers appear to vary in their susceptibility to pupil influences, which might suggest a partial mediation of the impact of pupil traits on SRL promotion. Based on the research analysis, it is hypothesized that the extent to which teachers consider SRL promotion as a personal teaching objective and their capacities to self-regulate partly explain the extent to which teachers experience the impact of student background. The study contributes to school policy and practice by providing input for the advanced introduction of learning environments that are conducive to SRL development.