Improving self-regulated learning of less-prepared college students with lessons about inferences

Students often struggle to accurately monitor their understanding which harms their ability to engage in effective self-regulated learning. This research tested if supporting student skills in monitoring understanding might reduce performance gaps between less-prepared and more-prepared students in Introductory Psychology. In Study 1 (repeated measures), all students were encouraged to self-explain as they completed reading assignments. In Study 2 (mixed design), half the students also received a lesson on inferences and how to use text information to answer inference questions. In Study 1, less-prepared students scored more than a letter grade below more-prepared students on course exams. In Study 2, the inference lesson greatly reduced the preparedness performance gap in exam scores ( d = 1.14). These results suggest that the success of transitioning to college, especially for less-prepared students, may be aided by instruction about how to read for understanding and how to reason with text-based information to answer inference questions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)