Resumen de Mother's, father's regulation and child's self­ regulation in a computer-mediated learning situation

Nathalie Nader-Grosbois, Sylvie Normandeau, Marcelle Ricard, Germain Quintal

• This study has explored the parents' regulation strategies that were more likely to support children's self-regulation in learning situations with computers. These strategies have been analysed by means of new grids involving seven categories ofbehaviour: cognitive strategies relat­ ing to identification of objective, exploration of means, attention and eval­ uation; motivational strategies; and socio-communicative strategies such as joint attention and request. 62 7-year-old children from Quebec fami­ lies were examined with their mothers and fathers. The children were asked to complete two learning tasks that involved using LOGO soft­ ware to draw a picture. Results indicated that parents' regulation varied depending on their gender; a higher directivity was observed in moth­ ers, more specifically through some specific strategies. Analysis ofvari­ ance on repeated measures showed that, during the session, there was a dec~base in the specification of the objective, the initiation of joint atten­ ti0l1 tmd of behaviour regulation in parents; and an improvement of the iden fication of the objective, planning and self-evaluation in children. Correlations between parental regulation and children's self-regulation strategies indicated positive links concerning strategies relating to joint attention and to motivation; and negative links concerning strategies relat­ ing to the exploration of means and evaluation. A good adjustment of the parents' regulation and the children's self-regulation correlated positivel with success in the task. Methodological implications are proposed for research and psycho-educative intervention.