Over the years, self-regulated learning has become increasingly important in primary education. Dignath, Buttner and Langfeldt (2008) stress the importance of helping students in early academic years to develop self-regulation skills, which turn out to be a key ability for being successful in following levels of education. Successful self-regulated learners enhance in learning strategies to improve their learning (Boer, Bergstra, & Kostons, 2012). If pupils in primary education learn strategies to self-regulate learning processes, they can be empowered in becoming successful learners, and will be better prepared for the demands in secondary education. In secondary education, students are expected to self-represent and plan task, monitor and assess whether its execution is adequate, assess performances, cope with difficulties and make adjustments concerning the cause of the outcomes (Efklides, 2011). If a student is not able to regulate their learning process, it might lead to lower learning outcomes, poor knowledge, less understanding, decrease of motivation and lower self-esteem (McManus, 2000).

Pupils in primary education should be supported and trained specifically in building a strategy repertoire (Cromley, Snyder – Hogan, & Luciw - Dubas, 2010; Dignath and Buttner, 2008). According to Clark (2012) self-regulation can be effectively learned by means of formative assessment. The question is whether this is also the case for primary school pupils. Formative assessment gives opportunities  to provide rich feedback and support for learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998). It demands a student-centred instructional approach, in which students’ progress and performance coincide (Stiggins, 2005). As a result, it can help to improve students’ performance and enable students to take responsibility for their learning (Black & William, 2003). By means of formative assessment learners improve self-regulated learning skills, such as planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting (Sluijsmans, Joosten-ten Brinke, & van der Vleuten, 2013). Various formative assessment forms can be implemented to increase students’ responsibility for their own learning and assessment process. According to Black, and Wiliam (2003), self assessment and peer assessment are two key methods to improve learning. Self assessment requires students to judge own progress and performances by previously established criteria, in order to learn from the current tasks and improve future tasks (Efklides, 2011). Whereas peer assessment is focussed on the process of evaluating peers on previously established criteria (Van Zundert, Sluijsmans, & van Merrienboer, 2010). Both self and peer assessment can be considered valuable learning tools, which help students develop strategies for self regulated learning. Peer and self assessment can help learners understand what their learning goals are, what approaches are needed to meet the goals, and can make revision more effective (Black & Wiliam, 2003).

The present study focuses on the impact of formative assessment on self-regulated learning in upper primary education. The following research questions were addressed: Do formative assessments affect the development of self-regulation (intrinsic and extrinsic), motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) of sixth grade students? Are there differences between peer- and self assessment in relation to the development of self-regulation, and motivation? Does the development of self-regulated learning affect motivation?

In general, we hypothesized that the formative assessment intervention was effective on developing self-regulation skills with the full range of participating students in sixth grade classrooms. We expected that students in the peer assessment intervention would derive the greatest benefit from the intervention and develop a higher level of self-regulated learning skills in comparison with students who assessed themselves. We predicted motivation and self-efficacy to be positively affected by both formative assessment interventions.

Black, P. J., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 5(1), 7-73. Black, P. J., & Wiliam, D. (2003). In praise of educational research: Formative assessment. British Educational Research Journal, 29(5), 623-638. Clark, I. (2012). Formative assessment: Assessment is for self-regulated learning. Educational Psychology Review, 24, 205-249. Cromley, J. G., Snyder – Hogan, L. E., & Luciw- Dubas, U. A. (2010). Reading comprehension of scientific text: A domain-specific test of the direct and inferential mediation model of reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 678-700. Dignath, C., & Buettner, G. (2008). Components of fostering self-regulated learning among students. A meta-analysis on intervention studies at primary and secondary school level. Metacognition and Learning, 3, 231-264. Dignath, C., Buettner, G., & Langfeldt, H. P. (2008). How can primary school students learn self-regulated learning strategies most effectively? A meta-analysis of self-regulation training programs. Educational Research Review, 3(2), 101-129. De Boer, H., Donker – Bergstra, A. S., Kostons, D. D. N. M. (2013). Effective strategies for self-regulated learning: A meta-analysis. Groningen: GION, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Efklides, A. (2011). Interactions of metacognition with motivation and affect in self-regulated learning: The MASRL model. Educational Psychologist, 46(1), 6-25. McManus, T.F. (2000). Individualizing Instruction in a Web-Based Hypermedia Learning Environment: Nonlinearity, Advance Organizers, and Self-Regulated Learners. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 11(2), 219-251. Sluijsmans, D. M. A., Joosten - ten Brinke, D., & Van der Vleuten, C. P. M. (2013). Toetsen met leerwaarde. Een reviewstudie naar de effectieve kenmerken van formatief toetsen. [Assessment for learning. A review study to effective aspects of formative assessment]. Den Haag: NWO. Stiggins, R. (2005). From formative assessment to assessment for learning: A path to success in standards-based schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(4), 324-328. Van Zundert, M., Sluijsmans, D., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2010). Effective peer assessment processes: Research findings and future directions. Learning and Instruction, 20(4), 270-279.