Predominantly, research on self-regulated learning is focussing on the competences which learners need in order to succeed in their learning efforts and on how the development of these competences can be fostered. Investigations referring to this question rely on self reports of the learners by questionnaires or interviews (Veenman 2011) on the one hand and on measurements of the learning outcome on the other hand. The processes of self-regulated learning and what happens while they are unfolding from one moment to the other remain a black box within this research paradigm.

There is, however, an increasing interest on researching self-regulated learning in situ „as it occurs in real contexts and real time“ (Perry 2000). The first studies within this approach aimed for taking „snapshots of students’ actions embedded in a larger, longer series of situations that unfold over time.“ (Perry et.al. 2002). Only certain aspects of the learning process were highlighted and picked out for further scrutiny. Studies focused, for instance, on teacher activities fostering self-regulated learning (Perry et.al. 2002), on interpersonal relationships (DeGroot 2002), or on forms of student's participating in explanations (Kumpulainen/Vasama/Kangassalo 2003).

Recently the focus of studies widened, however, from observing only single moments of the learning process to tracing whole trajectories of learning in their temporal progression in order to learn more about the dynamics in which they are unfolding (Perry/Wine 2006, Aufschnaiter/Rogge 2010, Faizal et al. 2010).

In the research workshop we will review these newest approaches including those developed by ourselves (Dinkelaker 2010a, b, Maier/Wrana 2008, Maier/Ryter/Wrana forthcoming; Wrana 2011). Based on a video sequence documenting a trajectory of learning activities we will discuss the different ways in which learning is conceptualised within these studies and we will question the decisions about the „units of research“ (Säljö 2009) founding their observational strategies. 

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