Linking learning contexts: The relationship between students’ civic and political experiences and their self-regulation in school

Abstract

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This paper considers the relationship between self-regulation strategies and youth civic and political experiences, assuming that out-of-school learning can foster metacognition. The study is based on a sample of 732 Portuguese students from grades 8 and 11. Results show that the quality of civic and political participation experiences, together with academic self-efficacy, are significant predictors of young people’s self-regulation, particularly regarding cognitive and metacognitive strategies (elaboration and critical thinking). Such effects surpass even the weight of family cultural and school variables, such as the sense of school belonging. There-fore, we argue that the pedagogical value of non-formal civic and political experiences is re-lated to learning in formal pedagogical contexts. This is because civic and political participa-tion with high developmental quality can stimulate higher-order cognitive engagement and, thus, contribute to the development of learning strategies that promote academic success.

Keywords

• Adolescent
• Self-regulation
• Metacogntion
• civic and political participation
• Quality of participation