Children’s perspectives on self‑regulated learning: A co‑design study on children’s expectations towards educational technology

Self-regulated learning is hard for children. And it is even harder to do so using smartphones, where distractions are just a click away. Our research aims to investigate and develop tools to improve children’s self-regulated learning on mobile devices. In particular, we are developing an evidence-based app that focuses on supporting children’s planning of their learning.

For such an app to be effective, it must not only be evidence-based, but children must also want to use it over a longer period of time. Therefore, using a participatory design approach, we worked with an intergenerational team of six German children (ages 10–12) and three adult facilitators to understand children’s perspectives on self-regulated learning. Over three weeks, we conducted three 90-minute co-design sessions focused on identifying learning needs, evaluating existing study tools, and creating paper prototypes for study-planner apps.

Our findings highlight children’s need for better study organization and tools that help them stay focused. They also emphasized that support systems for self-regulated learning should be engaging and fun. The children’s evaluations of app features and their prototypes reflected these priorities. Overall, our study shows that children can clearly express their preferences for self-regulated learning support in educational technology. Involving children in the design process helps create tools that meet their needs, improve learning experiences, and support self-regulation and academic success.

At the moment, we are conducting a follow-up study with Ghanaian children. most research on self-regulated learning has been conducted in western societies, but self-regulated learning clearly has culturally specific aspects (e.g., learning beliefs). The current project will identify the barriers and facilitators to improved self-regulated learning with smartphones among Ghanaian children in both rural and urban areas.

Sample publications:
Amaefule et al., 2024, Education and Information Technologies
Amaefule et al., 2023, British Journal of Educational Technology