Investigating if and how string teachers instruct and support the self-regulation of students’ practice in online lessons

Existing literature indicates that music teachers and educators working online need to encourage students to adopt self-regulating behaviors to succeed in their learning and performance. This study examines if and how string teachers promote selected self-regulated learning (SRL) processes in online lessons; specifically, how they teach and support motivation, self-efficacy, and task strategies for the self-regulation of students’ practice. Five string teachers and seven students at different levels of musical development participated in this study. The data sources included semi-structured interviews with teachers and lesson recordings. We analyzed the data using a coding scheme based on self-regulated learning theory. Our findings report that teachers used practices that can indirectly contribute to the self-regulation of students’ practice, such as using digital tools to help plan practice, discussing repertoire with the student, and requiring recordings to motivate students to practice. However, teachers’ direct approaches to instructing self-regulated learning behaviors did not stimulate students’ reflection; consequently, the development of students’ metacognition was poor. Therefore, a prominent implication underscored by this study highlights the potential created when online music educators take advantage of twenty-first-century technologies and the outstanding need to replace some traditional nineteenth-century approaches to music learning with more student-centered practices in which self-regulated learning plays a central role.