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. 2021;24(2):367-391.
doi: 10.1007/s11618-021-01011-w. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Homeschooling during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: the role of students' trait self-regulation and task attributes of daily learning tasks for students' daily self-regulation

Friederike Blume  1   2 , Andrea Schmidt  1   2 , Andrea C Kramer  1   2 , Florian Schmiedek  1   2   3 , Andreas B Neubauer  1   2
Affiliations

Homeschooling during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: the role of students' trait self-regulation and task attributes of daily learning tasks for students' daily self-regulation

Friederike Blume et al. Z Erziehwiss. 2021.

Abstract
in English, German

As a means to counter the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic, schools were closed throughout Germany between mid-March and end of April 2020. Schooling was translocated to the students' homes where students were supposed to work on learning tasks provided by their teachers. Students' self-regulation and attributes of the learning tasks may be assumed to have played important roles when adapting to this novel schooling situation. They may be predicted to have influenced students' daily self-regulation and hence the independence with which they worked on learning tasks. The present work investigated the role of students' trait self-regulation as well as task difficulty and task enjoyment for students' daily independence from their parents in learning during the homeschooling period. Data on children's trait self-regulation were obtained through a baseline questionnaire filled in by the parents of 535 children (M age = 9.69, SD age = 2.80). Parents additionally reported about the daily task difficulty, task enjoyment, and students' learning independence through 21 consecutive daily online questionnaires. The results showed students' trait self-regulation to be positively associated with their daily learning independence. Additionally, students' daily learning independence was shown to be negatively associated with task difficulty and positively with task enjoyment. The findings are discussed with regard to students' daily self-regulation during the homeschooling period. Finally, implications for teaching practice during the pandemic-related school closures are derived.

Um die SARS-CoV-2-Pandemie einzudämmen, wurden zwischen Mitte März und Ende April 2020 deutschlandweit alle Schulen geschlossen. Während dieser Zeit wurden die Schüler*innen zu Hause beschult (‚Homeschooling‘) und arbeiteten an Lernaufgaben, die von ihren Lehrkräften bereitgestellt wurden. Bei der Anpassung an diese neuartige Beschulungssituation könnten sowohl die Selbstregulation der Schüler*innen als auch die Eigenschaften der Lernaufgaben eine wichtige Rolle gespielt haben. Es ist anzunehmen, dass diese insbesondere die tagtägliche Selbstregulation der Schüler*innen beim Bearbeiten der Lernaufgaben und damit die Selbstständigkeit, mit der sie an den Lernaufgaben arbeiteten beeinflusst haben. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchte, welche Rolle die dispositionelle Selbstregulation von Schüler*innen, die Schwierigkeit der Lernaufgaben und die Freude an den Aufgaben für die tagtägliche Selbstständigkeit der Bearbeitung der Aufgaben während des Homeschoolings spielten. Die dispositionelle Selbstregulation der Schüler*innen wurde zunächst über einen Eingangsfragebogen erfasst, der von den Eltern von 535 Kindern ausgefüllt wurde (M Alter = 9,69; SD Alter = 2,80). Die Eltern berichteten anschließend an 21 aufeinander folgenden Tagen über die tägliche Aufgabenschwierigkeit, die Freude an den Aufgaben und die Selbstständigkeit, mit der ihre Kinder die Lernaufgaben bearbeiteten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die dispositionelle Selbstregulation der Schüler*innen positiv mit ihrer täglichen Selbstständigkeit beim Lernen assoziiert war. Darüber hinaus war die tägliche Selbstständigkeit der Schüler*innen beim Lernen negativ mit der Aufgabenschwierigkeit und positiv mit der Freude an den Aufgaben verbunden. Die Ergebnisse werden im Hinblick auf die tägliche Selbstregulation der Schüler*innen während der Beschulung zu Hause diskutiert. Abschließend werden Implikationen für die Lehrpraxis während der pandemiebedingten Schulschließungen abgeleitet.

Keywords: Ambulatory assessment; Homeschooling; SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic; Self-regulation; Task attributes.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scatterplot illustrating the association between individual students’ trait self-regulation and daily learning independence adjusted for students’ age, gender, school type attended, and parental education (each point represents one student; data points were jittered to facilitate the display)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The figure depicts the predicted association between task difficulty and daily learning independence (each point represents one daily data point; data points were jittered to facilitate the display)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The figure depicts the predicted association between task difficulty and daily learning independence separated by values on trait self-regulation (a) and separated by values on task enjoyment (b; person-mean centred) (levels of the moderators were split at trait self-regulations’ grand mean and task enjoyments’ person mean ±1 SD)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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