Slavica Šimić Šašić ^* Maša Atlaga

• University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia

Self-regulated learning significantly impacts academic achievement and learning effectiveness; however, a significant portion of students do not engage in optimal self-regulated learning. Teachers can influence self-regulated learning in various direct and indirect ways, such as teaching students effective learning strategies or structuring the learning environment. Research indicates that teachers moderately encourage self-regulated learning, with direct/explicit teaching methods being underutilized despite their stronger contribution to fostering learning self-regulation. Teachers often overestimate their encouragement of learning self-regulation compared to students' perceptions. There is a scarcity of research on encouraging self-regulated learning in teaching practices, particularly from the students' perspective. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine how students perceive teacher encouragement of self-regulated learning and its association with their own self-regulated learning. The research was conducted on a sample of 2154 students who assessed the teacher's encouragement of self-regulated learning and their own self-regulated learning in a specific subject. Students perceive that teachers moderately to relatively highly encourage self-regulated learning. Statistically significant moderate correlations were found between students' assessments of learning self-regulation and the encouragement of self-regulated learning. Girls perceive that teachers encourage self-regulated learning to a greater extent, as do secondary school students compared to primary school ones. Teacher encouragement of self-regulated learning explains from 0% to 32% of the variance in self-regulated learning strategies. Defensive self-regulation strategies (avoiding work, self-handicapping, and focusing on minimal demands) are explained to the least extent, while proactive self-regulation strategies (orientation towards acquisition, elaboration, and goal setting) are explained to a considerably greater degree. The research results suggest that students' perception of teacher encouragement of self-regulated learning is a significant predictor of learning self-regulation in students. The data obtained in the research contributes to understanding the encouragement of selfregulated learning from the students' perspective and highlights the importance of students' assessments of encouragement of self-regulated learning.