Signaling task awareness in think-aloud protocols from students selecting relevant information from text

• Published in: Metacognition and learning Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 65 - 82
• Main Authors: Schellings, Gonny L. M., Broekkamp, Hein
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.04.2011; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Child Development; Cognition & reasoning; Education; Evaluation Methods; Grade 10; Learning; Learning and Instruction; Learning Strategies; Protocol Analysis; Questionnaires; Reader Text Relationship; Reading Comprehension; Research Methodology; Speech Communication; Student Attitudes; Students; Task Analysis; Teaching and Teacher Education; Teaching Methods; Text studying; Task awareness; Thinking aloud
• ISSN: 1556-1623; 1556-1631
• DOI: 10.1007/s11409-010-9067-z

Self-regulated learning has been described as an adaptive process: students adapt their learning strategies for attaining different learning goals. In order to be adaptive, students must have a clear notion of what the task requirements consist of. Both trace data and questionnaire data indicate that students adapt study strategies in limited ways and that their awareness of task demands seems to be low. In the present think-aloud study we examined task awareness of tenth-graders who selected text fragments in three different selection tasks. Students’ task awareness was analysed at a global and a local task level. Awareness at the global task level refers to processing the instruction and reflecting about general selection goals; awareness at the local task level includes spontaneous reasoning about selecting specific text fragments. On either level, students showed difficulties in verbalizing task demands. In line with previous work, tenth-graders apparently experience a limited awareness of task demands.