Teacher judgments of student self-regulated learning – Examining the effect of student and teacher characteristics

Students skilled in self-regulated learning (SRL) can plan, monitor, and reflect on their learning, using strategy knowledge (SK) to select and apply strategies. Teachers often struggle to assess SRL and rely on non-diagnostic cues, particularly when their knowledge of SRL is limited. Biased evaluations could affect how teachers support students and impact their performance. This study investigated teachers’ accuracy in judging students’ SK across five SRL components (cognition, metacognition, time management, management of the learning environment, and motivation regulation) by comparing teachers’ SK judgments with students’ SK test scores. Specifically, we explored judgment biases related to students’ academic achievement, gender, and socioeconomic status. Further, teacher characteristics that may contribute to biased judgments were examined (knowledge of SRL, self-concept, experience, and gender stereotypes). The sample included 200 students and 69 teachers. Teachers’ relative judgment accuracy was assessed using correlations with cluster-robust standard errors. Multilevel models were used to analyze how student characteristics affected teachers’ SK judgments. Cross-level interactions were employed to investigate the impact of teacher variables on judgment biases. Results indicated low accuracy and component-specificity of teachers’ judgments. Furthermore, their judgments were affected by achievement and gender biases. These may be attributed to a halo effect, in which teachers’ overall impression of a student influenced their SK judgments. Teachers’ knowledge of SRL, self-concept, and experience were not associated with reduced biases, but were (trend-wise) associated with stronger biases, albeit not consistently across components. These findings question teachers’ ability to distinguish between students’ SRL skills and their overall impressions of students.