Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Julieta Goldstein | Email: julieta.goldstein@utdt.edu
Julieta Goldstein1°2°, Carolina Gattei1°2°3°, Cecilia Calero1°2°4°
1° Área de Educación, Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° Laboratorio de Neurociencia, Escuela de Negocios, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
3° Instituto de Lingüística, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
4° Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Self-regulated learning may be crucial for goal setting, progress monitoring, and adaptive problem-solving. The ability to find and recognize relevant and reliable information has become increasingly valuable with advances in technology. Therefore, to understand self-regulated learning processes, we interviewed 136 9-11-year-olds to analyze their information-seeking behaviors when learning either novel or partially known concepts by themselves. Each student was evaluated twice in a randomized order.
Children’s responses were categorized into two groups: Human-Sources Learners and Platform Learners. Results revealed an overall preference for platforms (73.23%). Interestingly, when learning novel concepts, the proportion favoring human sources increased significantly (34.56% versus 18.80%).
When stuck during the learning process, 79.93% mentioned changing their strategy. Notably, when comparing the responses based on their initial choice, 89.34% of the platform learners were willing to change strategies, compared to 54.17% of students relying on human sources, suggesting differing plasticity.
These findings deepen our understanding of children’s decision-making regarding learning, aiding teachers in guiding their learning processes more efficiently which could prove valuable not only in educational settings, but also in their personal and professional lives.