The effectiveness of self-regulated learning instruction on students' classical Chinese reading comprehension and motivation

In this study, an intervention program was designed based on the instructional principles of self-regulated learning (SRL), and its effectiveness in enhancing Hong Kong secondary three students' classical Chinese (CC) reading comprehension and motivation was evaluated. A pretest-posttest treatment-control group quasi-experimental design was used. During the study, 191 students between the ages of 13 and 16 years were assigned to three groups and received different treatments: in the experimental group (EG), teachers implemented all the instructional practices designed based on SRL instructional principles in the intervention package; in the control group (CG1), teachers used the traditional teacher-centered approach to teach the same instructional materials from the intervention program; and in the baseline control group (CG2), teachers adopted traditional teacher-centered, text-based instruction to teach the CC texts in students' original textbook. Reading comprehension tests, questionnaires, and interviews were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The findings indicated that the EG and CG1 students had significantly better CC reading comprehension performance and prior knowledge than the CG2 students. The EG students also showed positive attitudes towards the intervention program. Implications of the findings are discussed to provide insights into the potential applicability of SRL instruction in the Chinese context.