Abstract

This study researched the relationship between the way primary teachers’ teach in Chile and England and the level their 8-9 year old students develop self-regulatory abilities. Eight teachers from eight different schools divided across both countries participated of the study. A group of six students participated per each studied classroom, reaching a total of forty-eight participants. Students’ self-regulation was researched through observation and rating of their problem solving behaviours in a series of experimental tasks. A qualitative appreciation of the way teachers taught within each culture, based on three hours of videoed lessons per teacher, was used as information to understand the educational cultures of each country. Statistical modelling and tests showed important differences between Chilean and English students in relation to their self-regulatory activity. In general, the found differences suggest inconsistencies of the observed behaviours in the Chilean students with widely spread western models of self-regulation to which actions of the participating English students did fit. Specifically, the results suggest an inadequacy of considering the act of evaluation as a self-regulatory action for the Chilean case. There were also differences between the two countries in the functional meaning given to the action of referring back to the activity goal/objective. Moreover, some self-regulatory behaviours were found to be conducive to better results in one culture but not the other, with only the English considering the following of a plan and the monitoring of their own activity as paths for success. Results are discussed against the observed educational cultures.