Abstract

This thesis study presents an exploration of the development of graduate learners' monitoring proficiencies and task understandings in the context of a complex writing task. Participants were seventeen students enrolled in a graduate Learning Theories course, engaged in writing six, weekly learning logs; logs were based on the content being covered in the course. Data was collected primarily using a self-assessment tool, the Task Analyzer and Performance Evaluator, which accompanied each learning log. Measures analysed included instructors' performance assessments, students' predicted performances, students' prediction confidence scores, independently scored performances on the logs, criteria justification scores, and monitoring proficiencies, which included bias and discrimination. Results suggest that learners showed improved monitoring proficiencies as instruction progressed. Findings also reveal that while learners exhibited signs of a general monitoring ability across the six logs, prediction confidence, bias and discrimination abilities were mostly unrelated to one another. While learners showed improved criteria justification scores as instruction progressed, there were no relationships found between this measure of task understanding and monitoring abilities. The findings are discussed in relation to recent research on the domain-generality of monitoring and instructional features that promote self-regulation. Due to the exploratory nature of this study and the small sample size, findings cannot be generalized and must be treated with caution. Further research is needed to better characterize monitoring abilities in adult learners engaged in complex, writing tasks.