Research questions, objectives and theoretical framework

It has been widely recognised that in order to explain processes of self-regulated learning, consideration of the social regulatory aspects should not be left behind especially when we try to explain the quality and effectiveness of collaborative learning processes. The inclusion of the social dimension in the traditional self-regulation of learning models have had two directions: on one side, the socio-cognitive models conceive the social as influencing self-regulatory processes and, on the other side, the sociocultural models define regulatory processes as intrinsically social. It has been argued that in order to give a more complete account of the regulation processes occurring during collaborative learning, there must be an explicit consideration of self and social aspects of regulation, and the avoidance of reductionism to the individual or the collectives to which they belong (Akkerman et al, 2007; Hadwin & Oshige 2011; Iiskala et al, 2004; Volet, Vauras & Salonen, 2009).

From the literature of learning in groups, research on collaborative interactions indicates that learning is facilitated by groups’ coordinated engagement in the shared problem space or in a joint activity (Roschelle & Teasley, 1995; Volet, Summers & Thurman, 2009). Therefore, the social regulation phenomenon seems to be a key issue when we try to explain learning outcomes through group-work interactions.

Following the conceptualization of self, co-regulation, and shared regulation described by Iiskala et al (2004), and the concept of co-regulation defined by Volet et al (2009) the current paper presents a study attempting to integrate the self and social aspects of regulation in learning contexts through an integration of analysis models applied to collaborative learning activities in primary school. Thus, the research questions are basically, How can we integrate individual and social levels in the analysis of collaborative learning activities in primary school? In which ways these two levels are related? How can the episodes of social regulation be described and which dimensions are related to their emergence?  In which way the specific contexts of activity facilitate – or not- the development of shared regulation?

The relevance of the study relates to 3 issues: the attempt to develop a framework of analysis integrating self and social aspects of regulation using an innovative methodology of data analysis; the advance on the description of shared regulation episodes during collaborative activities in natural contexts and the conditions of emergence; and the contribution to the study of children working together and regulating each other during the first years of schooling, who are relatively under-represented in studies of self-regulated learning as much as collaborative group-work.

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