Abstract
Co-regulation relates to joint work between a coach and a learning athlete that results in increased self-regulatory abilities (Bain & Young, 2019). Scaffolding is an important developmental process of co-regulation for establishing athlete self-regulation, comprising of contingency control, fading, and transfer of responsibility (van de Pol & Elbers, 2010) from the coach to the athlete. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of contingency control and transfer of directionality over time from a coach to figure skater, which would be indicative of a shift from co-regulation to self-regulated learning. An experienced female coach (aged 53, national level) and her competitive male figure skater (aged 15, provincial level) were analysed using a) the Self-regulated Learning-Self Report Scale for Sport Practice (SRL-SP; Bartulovic et al., 2017), and b) participant observation, field notes, and recording and analysis of dialogue at 16 practices. The athlete's SRL-SP scores increased from early in the season to later in the season, t(5) = -5.84, p = .002, indicating greater SRL agency. "Anchors" (the athlete's evaluation of relative success or execution of a skill) and who initiated the dialogue needed to be located within the practice transcripts. Despite attempts to establish reliability in coding anchors, acceptable agreement could not be reached between the PI and critical friend for six out of 16 practices (will provide examples). Findings suggest there is an increase in SRL potentially as a result of co-regulatory scaffolding, and coding naturalistic practice dialogue with regards to co-regulation should be further analysed.
