Impact of general and special education teachers' knowledge on their practices of self-regulated learning (SRL) in secondary schools in Riyadh, Kingdome of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Teachers of students with disabilities have been assessed from various perspectives. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge and practice of self-regulated learning (SRL) of teachers who teach students with learning disabilities (SLD) in secondary schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study focuses on the impact of teachers’ knowledge in their practices of SRL and identified the moderating effect of teachers’ gender on this impact. Using Pintirich’s model of SRL, the study designed the Teachers’ Knowledge of Self-Regulated Learning Scale, and it adopted Huh’s Teachers’ Practices Related to Developing Students’ SRL questionnaire to examine teachers’ knowledge and practices of SRL. The questionnaire was distributed online to over 318 Saudi teachers in secondary schools in Riyadh who were selected by using stratified sampling techniques. Teachers demonstrated high knowledge of SRL in all domains (cognition: M = 5.2, motivation: M = 5.38, behavior and emotions: M = 5.44) and medium SRL practices level in their classes (M = 3.5) with some reservation on their reaction and reflection, which were at the lowest average level. Furthermore, results revealed a direct and significant influence of teachers’ knowledge on the practice of self-regulated learning (SRL) (β = 0.183, t = 3.301, p = 0.000), and there was no moderate effect of teachers’ gender on the impact of teachers’ SRL knowledge on teachers’ SRL practices (β = −0.004, t = 0.064; p = 0.949). The results suggest the demand for more practical training programs for SLD teachers to increase their SRL application in practice.