Beliefs about learning, self-regulated strategies and text comprehension among Chinese children

Background Most studies have investigated college and high school students' epistemological beliefs in Western contexts, with few studies examining how beliefs about learning are related to children's strategies and comprehension in the Chinese cultural context. Aims The present study investigated Chinese elementary school children's beliefs about learning and examined their relations with self‐regulated learning strategies and text comprehension. Sample The participants were 417 Grade 5 (mean age = 10.8 years) and 420 Grade 6 (mean age = 11.9 years) elementary school children in Hong Kong. Methods A questionnaire assessing children's beliefs about learning was constructed; children were also asked to complete the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and several text comprehension tasks assessing deep understanding. Results Factor analysis indicated two contrasting factors of constructivist and reproductive beliefs about learning. High achievers outperformed low achievers on beliefs, strategy and comprehension scores. Multiple regression indicated that constructivist beliefs contributed to text comprehension over and above the effects of grade and strategy. Conclusions This study corroborates current research on the roles of beliefs and strategies in text comprehension and suggests that meta‐cognitive beliefs and strategies examined in English reading can also be identified among Chinese children in text comprehension.