Individual differences in student teachers' self-regulated learning: An examination of regulation configurations in relation to conceptions of learning to teach

•Student teachers vary in their activeness of regulation.•Student teachers differ in how prospective or retrospective they regulate.•Often large variation within student teachers across experiences has been found.•Five regulation configurations can describe individual differences in regulation.•The relation between learning conceptions and regulation activities is multifaceted.

This study aimed at describing the individual differences in student teachers' self-regulated learning to teach in postgraduate professional teacher education programmes. Cross-sectional data were collected from 28 student teachers about their regulation activities and conceptions of learning to teach through open question logs from multiple learning experiences and interviews. The findings showed that the self-regulation activities of student teachers could be represented by five different configurations. In addition, it appeared that student teachers' regulation relate differently to their conceptions of learning then expected from the literature. The implications of these findings are discussed for a better understanding of the role of self-regulated learning in the professional development of student teachers.