Measuring strategy use with self-report instruments: theoretical and empirical considerations

Abstract

Learning strategies . Assessment methodsFor many years educational research and practice have paid attention to learners' learning strategies and their improvement.Both researchers and practitioners use different kinds of measuring methods to assess learning strategies (Van Hout-Wolters 2000, 2009;Veenman 2011;Veenman et al. 2006;Winne and Perry 2000).Learning strategies can be defined as certain combinations of goal-oriented activities applied to learning in school settings.A distinction is regularly made between cognitive, metacognitive and affective learning strategies.Numerous specific learning strategies are distinguished, and diverse overviews of learning strategies have appeared in several publications (see e.g., Alexander 2006;Pintrich 2004; Van Hout-Wolters et al. 2000;Winne and Hadwin 1998).The ongoing focus on conceptualizing learning strategies, especially metacognitive strategies, is paralleled by ensuing debates about how to measure these strategies, and the usability of self-report instruments is particularly prone to heated scientific discussions.This special issue is contributing to the discussion of strategy assessment by presenting five empirical studies in which pros and cons of self-report instruments are demonstrated.All articles attend to validity issues surrounding the measurement of cognitive and metacognitive strategies with self-report instruments.The reasons for measuring learning strategies are diverse.For example, teachers may administer questionnaires to obtain information about the strong and weak points of learners' strategies and provide the learners with individual support accordingly.Learning strategies can also be measured to determine whether the formulated (sub)goals of strategy