Promoting metacognitive strategies with educational technology: Primary teachers’ beliefs and practices

The integration of educational technology into classrooms significantly changes the learning context and offers the potential to support students' metacognitive strategies and thus enhance self-regulated learning (SRL). However, little is known about how teachers leverage this potential. This study examines the beliefs and reported practices of primary school teachers in Switzerland and Germany regarding their promotion of metacognitive strategies through a digital learning environment (DLE, i.e. LearningView ). DLEs offer various technological features that can be used to support students’ planning, monitoring, and reflecting on their learning processes. The aim of the study is to understand the teacher’s role in these aspects through the DLE LearningView . Qualitative content analysis of 20 teacher interviews reveals that most teachers adopt a combined approach to the promotion of metacognitive strategies, utilizing both digital and analog methods. In general, teachers used a greater degree of implicit over explicit promotion activities to promote students’ metacognitive strategies in DLEs. The findings suggest a connection between teachers' beliefs and reported practices and highlight the importance of teachers’ perception of themselves as coaches during learning. Our study underscores the need for teacher training to effectively integrate digital and analog approaches for promoting SRL. Given the rapidly changing learning environments due to digitalization, future research should prioritize exploring adaptive learning technology and the role of digital feedback, employing methodologies such as classroom observations or a quantitative methodological approach. Achieving a balanced interplay between teachers, students, and digital tools seems imperative to optimize metacognitive learning in the 21st century classroom.