Scaffolding Self-Regulated Learning in Elementary Education:
A Design-Based Research Study with Fourth Grade Students

Self-regulated learning (SRL), involving learners’ ability to plan, monitor, and reflect on their learning, is widely recognized as essential for academic success. Although research shows that elementary students are capable of engaging in SRL, classroom practices often provide limited explicit support, leaving students to regulate their learning without clear guidance.

This design-based research study examines how scaffolded supports for self-regulated learning can be designed, implemented, and refined in fourth-grade Turkish reading comprehension lessons. Grounded in sociocultural and constructivist perspectives and cyclical models of SRL, the study employs three iterative design cycles that gradually shift responsibility from teacher-supported scaffolding to student independence.

Conducted over one academic year in two fourth-grade classrooms with 50 students and two teachers, the study integrates scaffolded self-regulated learning tools and routines into regular Turkish reading instruction. Classroom observations, student artifacts, adapted self-report measures, and teacher interviews are used to examine learning processes and inform iterative redesign, with the aim of fostering students’ engagement in self-regulated reading comprehension.

Research Questions

1. How do fourth-grade students engage in planning, monitoring, and reflection processes during learning activities supported by scaffolded SRL interventions?
2. How does the gradual fading of scaffolds appear to shape students’ independent use and articulation of SRL strategies across iterative design cycles?
3. In what ways do students’ SRL behaviors and learning-related engagement appear to change over the course of the intervention?

Design Goals

The study aims to iteratively develop scaffolded supports that foster fourth-grade students’ self-regulated learning by making planning, monitoring, and reflection processes explicit and gradually internalized within authentic classroom contexts.

Theoretical Framework

Every child is born with the capacity to self-regulate and this capacity for self-regulation develops with age. Although biological factors like temperament and predisposed reactivity underpin the development of self-regulation in children (Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006; Bodrova & Leong, 2007), early experiences play an important role on this development (Boekaerts, 1997). Research on self-regulated learning emerged more than two decades ago to answer the question of how students become masters of their own learning processes (Zimmerman, 2008). However, over the last decade, various indications have been found for suggesting traces of self-regulated learning earlier than expected. Studies in laboratory settings and studies based on children’s self-report data have been underestimating young children’s abilities (Whitebread et al., 2007). Studies in which children have been observed in their natural settings and/or while performing familiar tasks showed that young children can and do engage in self-regulated learning (Annevirta & Vauras, 2006; Istomina, 1975; Perry, 1998; Perry et al., 2004; Robson, 2010; Sperling, Walls, & Hill, 2000; Whitebread & Coltman, 2010; Whitebread et al., 2007). Prior studies have emphasized that students’ SRL should be supported as early as possible (Perry, 1998; Perry & VandeKamp, 2000), suggesting that a focus on SRL skill development at the elementary school level is needed. During this period, children have not yet fully developed the studying habits and beliefs about their own abilities that might hinder future SRL (Dignath & Büttner, 2008). Moreover, SRL may be easier to learn in elementary education because it allows for more gradual practice in a less complex and demanding context than secondary education (Meneghetti et al., 2007). The advantage of training children how to self-regulate their learning in the beginning of their schooling is that during these first crucial years, students set up learning and self-efficacy attitudes (Whitebread, 2000) which are easier to change than when students have already developed disadvantageous learning styles and learning behaviour (Hattie et al., 1996).

This study adopts a design-based research (DBR) methodology to investigate the design, enactment, and refinement of scaffolded self-regulated learning supports in authentic fourth-grade Turkish reading comprehension lessons.DBR is defined as a systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation, based on collaboration among researchers and practitioners in real-world set- tings, and leading to contextually sensitive design principles and theories. The five basic characteristics: (a) pragmatic; (b) grounded; (c) interactive, iterative, and flexible; (d) integrative; and (e) contextual (Wang & Hannafin, 2005). The study is conducted across three iterative design cycles involving high scaffolding, shared responsibility, and reduced scaffolding. Data sources include systematic classroom observations, student artifacts (planning, monitoring, and reflection tools), adapted age-appropriate student self-report measures of self-regulated learning, and semi-structured teacher interviews. These multiple data sources are used to document learning processes, examine instructional enactment, and inform iterative redesign across cycles.

This study is expected to generate design-based insights into how scaffolded supports for planning, monitoring, and reflection can foster fourth-grade students’ engagement in self-regulated learning during Turkish reading comprehension lessons. The findings are anticipated to identify which instructional tools and routines are feasible and productive in classroom practice and how the gradual fading of scaffolds supports increasing student independence. At a theoretical level, the study is expected to contribute to learning sciences research by clarifying how self-regulated learning develops as a socially supported and scaffolded process in elementary classrooms. Rather than producing generalizable effects, the study aims to generate context-sensitive design principles that inform both theory and instructional practice.

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