Self-regulation skills learning in children aged 5 to 7

Self-regulation is a component of metacognition that is related to effective learning. This may be especially relevant in social disadvantaged environments. The objectives of this work are: (a) To check whether the teaching of self-regulation strategies to young children with social disadvantage, improves their problem solving skills; (b) To evaluate the effectiveness of a self-regulation strategies teaching program from the teachers' perspective. For this purpose, a sample of 43 subjects aged between 5 and 7 was used. The results indicate that there are significant differences in skills involving attention, guided and autonomous state planning, covert planning and self-evaluation in cognitive and social problem-solving. Similarly, teachers consider that the program improved attention levels and generalization of strategies towards other curricular activities in their pupils. Consequently, the self-regulation strategies teaching program is considered as an effective and motivating tool for teaching in compensatory education environments (socially disadvantaged children).