Self-regulation (SR) is defined as “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and contextual features in the environment” (Pintrich, 2005, p.453). A self-regulated learner is the one who •creates his/her own learning environments according to his/her own goals, •is able to set task-related and reasonable goals, take responsibility for his or her learning, and retain motivation (Heikkila & Lonka, 2006), •uses a number of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, •is able to monitor both their strategy use and their behavior in terms of the identified goals, and, if necessary, adjust or extend their strategies on the way (Butler and Winne, 1995). In the related literature, little is known about pre-service teachers’ self-regulated learning processes.In this manner, the issue being aware of how to learn has gained a greater emphasis by educational researchers. That is regulating the one’s own learning has been taken into consideration with an increased manner. From this perspective, when considering the idea that teachers are expected to guide their students to experience and make them aware of SRL processes, the necessity of examining pre-service and/or in-service teachers’ way of perceiving SRL has emerged. Thus, the current study aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ SRL strategies for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Definition of Important Terms: Self-regulated learning refers to self-generated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are oriented to attaining goals (Zimmerman, 2002). Self-regulated learning strategies refer to students’ various cognitive processes and behaviors when they utilize to achieve their goals (Weinstein & Mayer, 1986, as cited in Garcia & Pintrich, 1994). The current study would focus on cognitive strategies such as rehearsal, elaboration, and organization and metacognitive strategies such as planning and monitoring. Further, goal setting, help seeking, and self-evaluation are the other strategies that would be examined in this study. Purpose of the Study: The current study aims to investigate what type of self-regulated learning strategies pre-service elementary mathematics teachers use for their teaching practices. The Research Question: “What type of self-regulated learning strategies do pre-service elementary mathematics teachers use when they prepare mathematical activities for their teaching practices?”

Qualitative methods will be used to provide rich and holistic descriptions of participants’ SRL strategies without making any manipulation and their natural settings. For this purpose, 10 pre-service mathematics teachers studying at the Elementary Mathematics Education program in a public university in Ankara,the capital city of Turkey, will be interviewed. The interviews will be semi-structured and include questions asking a detailed description of the activity or lesson preparation process. In addition to interviews, the participants will be observed while they teach in training schools for at least 2 times in a semester. Further, the participants’ self-reports which are assigned for the ELE 420 course will be analyzed. By using these multiple data sources, it is aimed to enhance credibility of the findings of the study.

The results of the study might have many contributions to mathematics education in which emphasize the importance of self-regulated learning and its components. Since the study will be conducted with pre-service mathematics teachers, the findings will inform mathematics educators by providing pre-service teachers’ knowledge about self-regulated learning and its strategies they used when they have teaching experiences. In addition to educators, the study also has potential contributions to curriculum makers and Ministry of Education in terms of reviewing the curriculum and analyzing it whether SRL is integrated in mathematics teaching and learning.