Enhancing self-reflection and mathematics achievement of at-risk urban technical college students

A classroom-based intervention study sought to help struggling learners respond to their academic grades in math as sources of self-regulated learning (SRL) rather than as indices of personal limitation. Technical college students (N = 496) in developmental (remedial) math or introductory college-level math courses were randomly assigned to receive SRL instruction or conventional instruction (control) in their respective courses. SRL instruction was hypothesized to improve students’ math achievement by showing them how to self-reflect (i.e., self-assess and adapt to academic quiz outcomes) more effectively. The results indicated that students receiving self-reflection training outperformed students in the control group on instructor-developed examinations and were better calibrated in their task-specific self-efficacy beliefs before solving problems and in their self-evaluative judgments after solving problems. Self-reflection training also increased students’ pass-rate on a national gateway examination in mathematics by 25% in comparison to that of control students.