Let Learners Monitor the Learning Content and Their Learning Behavior! A Meta-analysis on the Effectiveness of Tools to Foster Monitoring

Self-monitoring is an integral part of self-regulated learning. Tools that foster learners’ monitoring, such as learning journals, portfolios, or rubrics, are supposed to promote self-regulation and to improve performance. The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness of tools designed to foster monitoring on learning-related variables (academic achievement, self-regulated learning, and motivation). As these tools vary greatly in their design and the addressed components, this meta-analysis aims to uncover how such tools should be implemented to foster monitoring most effectively. The results of this meta-analysis, integrating 109 effect sizes with 3492 participants from 32 intervention studies, supported a reactivity effect by revealing a moderate effect size on academic achievement (d = 0.42), and low effects on self-regulated learning (d = 0.19) and motivation (d = 0.17). These effects were moderated by characteristics of the tool and their implementation. Effect sizes were highest for tools that (1) focused on the monitoring of both learning content as well as learning behavior, (2) stimulated metacognitive monitoring, and (3) were implemented in shorter studies. On a descriptive level, higher effects were found in favor of monitoring interventions that included teacher feedback on self-monitoring entries and allowed learners to directly revise their work based on this feedback. The findings show that there is substantial variation across tools, which yield theoretical and methodological implications on how to foster monitoring as important parts of the self-regulation cycle.