Estudar e aprender em instituições de acolhimento
: o papel de variáveis individuais e contextuais

  • Catarina Isabel Moura de Oliveira (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

The literature about education and residential care has pointed to the existence of several fragilities, in the school and learning dimensions, in young people in care, namely, poor academic performance, high retention rates, absenteeism, school instability and low school involvement. This research aimed to analyze and understand the processes of studying and learning of children and young people in care, examining the role of individual and contextual variables. We analyzed the relationship between self-regulated learning and various individual variables (gender, grade retention, self-efficacy, value of learning and educational aspirations), as well as the relationship between self-regulated learning and contextual variables (institution’s dimension, study site, study time and difficulties in studying). The sample consisted of 248 adolescents of both genders, from 5th to 12th grade, aged from 10 to 20, who were in 20 residential care institutions located in northern Portugal, who filled a Personal and Academic Data instrument and Self-Regulation of Learning Processes Inventory (Rosario et al., 2010). The professionals of each institutions filled a Institution Characterization Facility sheet. Regarding individual variables, results showed significant differences in learning self-regulation in gender, with girls presenting higher values, and in retention history, where young people who had retention experience had lower values in the learning self-regulation. The results highlighted the importance of individual motivational variables (self-efficacy, learning valorization, educational aspirations) in the process of learning self-regulation. In terms of contextual variables, the location and the time of study seem relevant to the processes of learning self-regulation and studying difficulties, reported by young people, are negatively related to self-regulation. The size of the institution did not assume relevance. Implications of these results in the promotion of better education and learning in this context are discussed.
Date of Award25 Jul 2014
Original languagePortuguese
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorLuísa Ribeiro Trigo (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Study and learning
  • Foster care institutions
  • Learning self-regulation
  • Contextual variables and individual variables

Designation

  • Mestrado em Psicologia

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