Young Children’s Emergent Self-regulated Learning Skills in a Primary Science Investigation

Research on self-regulation of children's learning is seldom set at lower primary school levels. Indeed, there are conflicting views about the ability of young children to self-regulate their learning. We have found that, with appropriate teacher support, and the use of purposefully constructed learning materials, Year 1, 2, and 3 children were able to demonstrate what we consider to be foundational aspects of self-regulated learning (SRL). This paper reports on an exploratory study of a sequence of four lessons in one Year 1–3 class.