Abstract
This study investigated how 6th graders regulate their learning activities depending on the difficulty of learning-goals (easy vs. difficult) and available time for learning (short vs. long). We examined children's learning activities in four different experimental conditions: (a) easy-goal & short-time, (b) difficult-goal & short-time, (c) easy-goal & long-time, (d) difficult-goal & long-time. As a result, in all 4 conditions, children chose items that they judged as difficult for their target items to learn. In the difficult-goal & long-time condition (d), they spent the longest time on the items judged worse. In the other 3 conditions, they spent the longest time on the most difficult items. These results suggested that 6th graders could not effectively change their learning strategies depending on the characteristics of the learning conditions. Yet, they regulated their learning activities by allocating study-time to the "region of proximal learning."
