Abstract

This study explores the relationship between teachers' classroom thinking-regulation discourse and the self-regulation processes of their eight-to-nine year old students. It includes an exploration of the role of pedagogical cultures in this relationship by studying two highly distinctive contexts, the English and Chilean primary classrooms. The regulatory discourse from eight teachers was analyzed in naturalistic conditions through around twenty-four hours of Literacy lessons. Students’ self-regulation was researched through observational methods, considering a group of six diverse students per classroom, forty-eight all together. Based on Dermitzaki’s SBOS scale (2009), a more “pedagogically sensitive” scale, the PS-SBOS, was specially designed in order to attempt to capture self-regulation processes potentially internalized by students from classroom processes. Results show higher levels of various self-regulation aspects in English students over Chileans. This includes higher focus on relevant aspects of the goal, effective control of errors, and thinking autonomy. There are other tendencies (near to significant) which also favor English students, such as higher awareness of errors and use of questions to ask for clarifications. Chilean students only demonstrated higher tendency for concentration. The analysis of teaching thinking discourse for self-regulation is still being carried out, but preliminary observations and analysis seem to indicate in English teachers a higher level of discourse that promotes more self-regulation and guidance of students' thinking rather than external-regulation of thinking. Final results will be presented at the conference and discussed with special attention to the Vygotskian hypothesis regarding the internalization of higher psychological processes.