Student-centred learning environments supporting undergraduate mathematics students to apply regulated learning: A mixed-methods approach

The importance of students' regulation of learning in university mathematics is widely acknowledged, but research approaching regulation of learning from the perspective of learning environments is scarce. The aim of the present study is to deepen our understanding of how mathematics learning environments can promote regulated learning by investigating the same students in two parallel but pedagogically different student-centred learning environments. The quantitative measurement of students' course-level self-regulation of learning (N = 91) is accompanied with a qualitative analysis of student interviews (N = 16). The results indicate that the learning environments are distinguished by the factor measuring lack of regulation, and that unregulated learning is created by out-of-reach teaching and-tasks causing challenges in goal setting and motivation. In contrast, co-regulation of learning in the form of scaffolding and a positive social environment has a central role in supporting regulated learning. Practical implications for how to support students' regulated learning are discussed.