Abstracts - Earli

specific academic domain in the initial formative phase c) community life was affected by theparticipants’ professional predilection to act individually, without seeking help from colleagues.Age differences in self-directed work-related learning competencyChristian Rossnagel, International University Bremen, GermanySelf-directed learning is an important ingredient of informal workplace learning, the importance ofwhich has grown markedly since the 1990s. Little is known, however, about the competenciesunderlying successful self-directed learning, and how they change across work life. Therelationship between learning, control and self-regulation strategies is likely to be hierarchical: adeficit in learning strategies may be compensated by appropriate control strategies, whereasinsufficient control or regulation strategies will adversely affect learning even if a person’slearning strategies repertoire is complete. Thus I hypothesised that age differences in workplacelearning will be a function of differences in self-regulation strategies, rather than in learningstrategies. In an on-line survey of three age groups (young, 18-35yrs, middle-aged, 36-50yrs andolder, 51-65yrs) of workers, 300 participants rated their most recent episodes of workplacelearning for how well self-set learning goals had been attained and for contributing personal andorganizational factors. In addition, several measures of individual learning, control and selfregulationstrategies were administered. Independent of age and education, successful learnersscored higher on approach-performance-approach goal orientation and work-related self-efficacy,which was significantly correlated with epistemological malleability beliefs. Unsuccessful learnersdid not differ in their learning strategies, but had lower control strategies scores, and reportedhigher cognitive load. A pronounced age effect was found for negative affect which increased forboth successful and unsuccessful learners, and was coupled with a marked decline in self-efficacyfor unsuccessful learners. Cognitive load showed significantly less increase in both groups.Findings provide first starting points for age-differentiated Human Resource development methodsin the workplace learning domain.B 2228 August 2007 17:30 - 18:50Room: 0.100DPaper SessionSelf-regulationChair:Alexander E. M. G. Minnaert, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, NetherlandsDoes using logbooks foster self-monitoring in university students?Sabine Fabriz, University of Frankfurt, GermanyCharlotte Dignath, University of Frankfurt, GermanyGregory Poarch, University of Frankfurt, GermanyGerhard Büttner, University of Frankfurt, GermanyResearch on metacognition and self-regulated learning has revealed the impact of metacognitivestrategy use on the efficiency of learning. Learning independently and being able to evaluate theown learning process is of primary significance, especially in university students. Providingstudents with the opportunity to self-monitor their learning behaviour is one possible way to– 114 –