Teaching Self-Regulation

Daniel Schunk (), Eva M. Berger (), Henning Hermes, Kirsten Winkel () and Ernst Fehr
Additional contact information
Daniel Schunk: Johannes Gutenberg University
Eva M. Berger: German Council of Economic Experts
Kirsten Winkel: University of Applied Sciences Saarbruecken

No 2210, Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Abstract: Children's self-regulation abilities are key predictors of educational success and other life outcomes such as income and health. However, self-regulation is not a school subject, and knowledge about how to generate lasting improvements in self-regulation and academic achievements with easily scalable, low-cost interventions is still limited. Here we report the results of a randomized controlled field study that integrates a short self-regulation teaching unit based on the concept of mental contrasting with implementation intentions into the school curriculum of first graders. We demonstrate that the treatment increases children's skills in terms of impulse control and self-regulation while also generating lasting improvements in academic skills such as reading and monitoring careless mistakes. Moreover, it has a substantial effect on children's long-term school career by increasing the likelihood of enrolling in an advanced secondary school track three years later. Thus, self-regulation teaching can be integrated into the regular school curriculum at low cost, is easily scalable, and can substantially improve important abilities and children's educational career path.

Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2022-10-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-des, nep-neu, nep-reg and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://download.uni-mainz.de/RePEc/pdf/Discussion_Paper_2210.pdf First version, 2022 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Teaching self-regulation (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2210

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