Self-regulated learning and intercultural competence: examining the role of self-regulation in supporting preservice teachers’ intercultural learning outcomes

ABSTRACT This mixed-methods study examines how 15 preservice teachers’ self-regulated learning (SRL) skills relate to their ICC development in a teacher education course. ICC was assessed using a standardised exam and an open-ended cultural dilemma. Participants’ SRL was assessed along 7 dimensions: planning, goal orientation, task strategies, self-efficacy, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptiveness. Quantitative analyses demonstrate that participants’ SRL abilities were significantly associated with higher ICC outcomes on the exam (r = .69, p < .01) and dilemma assignment (r = .87, p < .01). Higher performance on the exam was associated with the planning, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation processes, whereas higher performance on the cultural dilemma was associated with planning, goal orientation, strategy use, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptiveness. To compare ICC development across participants at varying levels of SRL abilities, we conducted a content analysis of participants’ dilemma responses. Only participants with the highest self-regulation skills demonstrated proficiency in all four cognitive intercultural competencies. Participants who were less adept at self-regulation were more likely to make ethnocentric statements in their responses, suggesting minimal evidence of ICC development. Overall, the findings supported our hypothesis that more skilled self-regulators would be further developed along the cognitive dimension of ICC.