Self-regulation strategies used by students with brain injury while transitioning to college

Students with TBI enter college with strategies that they have used prior to being injured yet often without knowing which ones will be effective in helping them to be successful. The purpose here is to describe how semi-structured interviews were used to identify self-regulated learning strategies, to demonstrate the utility and reliability of coding self-regulated learning strategies, and to provide examples of student-centered goals derived from survey and interview responses.

College students completed the College Survey for Students with Brain Injury (CSS-BI) and were interviewed before and after coaching support that focused on teaching self-regulated learning. Responses to interview questions about strategies were coded using a modified version of Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons's (1986) schema. Coders also rated strategies for specificity.

Strategies were reliably coded into 16 categories of self-regulation. Inter and intra-reliability were strong. Four of the five students reported using a larger variety of self-regulation strategies and strategies that were more specific after coaching support.

It is possible to reliably code self-regulation learning strategies reported by college students with TBI. These measures have potential as functional 'outcomes' for students who are transitioning to college. Interview responses can be used to collaboratively create student-centered goals.