Self-regulated learning

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Self-regulated learning (SRL) is one of the domains of self-regulation, and is aligned most closely with educational aims. Broadly speaking, it refers to learning that is guided by metacognition (thinking about one's thinking), strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn. "Self-regulated" describes a process of taking control of and evaluating one's own learning and behavior.

Self-regulated learning emphasizes autonomy and control by the individual who monitors, directs, and regulates actions toward goals of information acquisition, expanding expertise, and self-improvement”. In particular, self-regulated learners are cognizant of their academic strengths and weaknesses, and they have a repertoire of strategies they appropriately apply to tackle the day-to-day challenges of academic tasks. These learners hold incremental beliefs about intelligence (as opposed to entity, or fixed views of intelligence) and attribute their successes or failures to factors (e.g., effort expended on a task, effective use of strategies) within their control.

Finally, students who are self-regulated learners believe that opportunities to take on challenging tasks, practice their learning, develop a deep understanding of subject matter, and exert effort will give rise to academic success (Perry et al., 2006). In part, these characteristics may help to explain why self-regulated learners usually exhibit a high sense of self-efficacy. In the educational psychology literature, researchers have linked these characteristics to success in and beyond school.

Self regulated learners are successful because they control their learning environment. They exert this control by directing and regulating their own actions toward their learning goals. Self regulated learning should be used in three different phases of learning. The first phase is during the initial learning, the second phase is when troubleshooting a problem encountered during learning and the third phase is when they are trying to teach others.

Phases of self-regulation

According to the review of six self-regulated learning models published by Panadero (2017), most models are compounded of three phases: preparatory, performance and appraisal. As stated by Panadero (2017, p. 18): "(a) preparatory, which includes task analysis, planning, activation of goals, and setting goals; (b) performance, in which the actual task is done while monitoring and controlling the progress of performance; and (c) appraisal, in which the student reflects, regulates, and adapts for future performances."

As one example, the model by Winne and Hadwin, self-regulation unfolds over “four flexibly sequenced phases of recursive cognition.” These phases are task perception, goal setting and planning, enacting, and adaptation. According to Panadero's classification, Task definition, goal setting and planning would belong to the preparatory phase, enacting to the performance phase, and adaptation to appraisal phase. During the task perception phase, students gather information about the task at hand and personalize their perception of it. This stage involves determining motivational states, self-efficacy, and information about the environment around them.

Next, students set goals and plan how to accomplish the task. Several goals may be set concerning explicit behaviors, cognitive engagement, and motivation changes. The goals that are set depend on how the students perceive the task at hand. The students will then enact the plan they have developed by using study skills and other useful tactics they have in their repertoire of learning strategies. 

The last phase is adaptation, wherein students evaluate their performance and determine how to modify their strategy in order to achieve higher performance in the future. They may change their goals or their plan; they may also choose not to attempt that particular task again. Winne and Hadwin state that all academic tasks encompass these four phases.

Sources of self-regulated learning

According to Iran-Nejhad and Chissom, there are three sources of self-regulated learning: active/executive, dynamic, and interest-creating discovery model (1992). Active/executive self-regulation is regulated by the person and is intentional, deliberate, conscious, voluntary, and strategic. The individual is aware and effortful in using self-regulation strategies. Under this source of SRL, learning happens best in a habitual mode of functioning.

Dynamic self-regulation is also known as unintentional learning because it is regulated by internal subsystems other than the “central executive.” The learner is not consciously aware they are learning because it occurs “outside the direct influence of deliberate internal control.”

The third source of self-regulated learning is the interest-creating discovery module, which is described as “bifunctional” as it is developed from both the active and dynamic models of self-regulation. In this model, learning takes place best in a creative mode of functioning and is neither completely person-driven nor unconscious, but it is a combination of both.

Social cognitive perspective

Self-regulation from the social cognitive perspective looks at the triadic interaction among the person (e.g., beliefs about success), his or her behavior (e.g., engaging in a task), and the environment (e.g., feedback from a teacher). Zimmerman et al. specified three important characteristics of self-regulated learning:

1. self-observation (monitoring one's activities); seen as the most important of these processes
2. self-judgment (self-evaluation of one's performance) and
3. self-reactions (reactions to performance outcomes).

To the extent that one accurately reflects about one's progress towards a learning goal, and appropriately adjusts the actions to be performed in order to maximize performance and foreseeable outcome; effectively, at this point one'self has become self-regulated. During a student's school career the primary goal of teachers is to produce self-regulated learners by using such theories as Information Processing Model (IPM). By storing the information into long term memory (or a live document like a Runbook) the learner can retrieve it upon demand and apply to tasks, becoming a self-regulated learner.

Involving stages

Zimmerman suggested that self-regulated learning process better with three stages.

1. Forethought, learners' preparing work before performance on their studying;
2. Volitional control, which is also called "performance control", occurs in the learning process. It involves learners attention and willpower;
3. Self-reflection, happens in the final stage when learners review their performance toward final goals. At the same time, focusing on their learning strategies during the process is also efficient for their final outcomes.

Information processing perspective

Winne & Marx posited that motivational thoughts and beliefs are governed by the basic principles of cognitive psychology, which should be conceived in information-processing terms. Motivation plays a major role in self-regulated learning. Motivation is needed to apply effort and continue on when faced with difficulty. Control also plays a role in self-regulated learning as it helps the learner stay on track in reaching their learning goal and avoid being distracted from things that stand in the way of the learning goal.

Student performance perspective

Lovett, Meyer and Thille observed comparable student performance between instructor-led and self-regulated learning environments. In a subsequent study, self-regulated learning was shown to enable accelerated learning while maintaining long-term retention rates.

Cassandra B. Whyte (Whyte, 1978; Lauridsen & Whyte, 1985) noted the importance of internal locus of control tendencies on successful academic performance, also compatible with self-regulated learning. Whyte recognized and appreciated external factors, to include the benefit of working with a good teacher, while encouraging self-regulated hard work, skill building, and a positive attitude to perform better in academic situations.(Whyte,1978) 

To increase positive attitudes and academic performance, expert learners should be created. Expert learners develop self-regulated learning strategies. One of these strategies is the ability to develop and ask questions and use these questions to expand on their own prior knowledge. This technique allows the learners to test the true understanding of their knowledge and make correction about content areas that have a misunderstanding. When learners engage in questioning, it forces them to be more actively engaged in their learning. It also allows them to self analyze and determine their level of comprehension.

This active engagement allows the learner to organize concepts into existing schemas. Through the use of questions, learners can accommodate and then assimilate their new knowledge with existing schema. This process allows the learner to solve novel problems and when the existing schema does not work on the novel problem the learner must reevaluate and assess their level of understanding.

Application in practice

There are also many practical applications for self-regulated learning in schools and classrooms today. Paris and Paris state there are three main areas of direct application in classrooms: literacy instruction, cognitive engagement, and self-assessment. In the area of literacy instruction, educators can teach students the skills necessary to lead them to become self-regulated learners by using strategies such as reciprocal teaching, open-ended tasks, and project-based learning.

Other tasks that promote self-regulated learning are authentic assessments, autonomy-based assignments, and portfolios. These strategies are student-centered and inquiry-based, which cause students to gradually become more autonomous, creating an environment of self-regulated learning. However, students do not simply need to know the strategies, but they need to realize the importance of utilizing them in order to experience academic success.

According to Dweck and Master, "Students use of learning strategies – and their continued use of them in the face of difficulty – is based on the beliefs that these strategies are necessary for learning, and that they are effective ways of overcoming obstacles." Students who are not self-regulated learners may daydream, rarely complete assignments or forget assignments completely. Those who do practice self-regulation ask questions, take notes, allocate their time effectively, and use resources available to them. Pajares lists several practices of successful students that Zimmerman and his colleagues developed in his chapter of Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning: Theory, Research, and Applications. 

These behaviors include, but are not limited to, the following: finishing homework assignments by deadlines, studying when there are other interesting things to do, concentrating on school subjects, taking useful class notes of class instruction, using the library for information for class assignments, effectively planning schoolwork, effectively organizing schoolwork, remembering information presented in class and textbooks, arranging a place to study at home without distractions, motivating oneself to do schoolwork, and participating in class discussions. 

Examples of self-regulated learning strategies in practice: 

Self-Assessment: fosters planning, assess what skills the learner has and what skills are needed. Allows students to internalize standards of learning so they can regulate their own learning (Laskey & Hetzel, 2010).

Wrapper Activity : activity based on pre-existing learning or assessment task. This can be done as a homework assignment. Consist of self-assessment questions to complete before completing homework and then after completion of homework. This will allow the learner to draw their own conclusions about the learning process.

Think Aloud: This involves the teacher describing their thought process in solving a problem.

Questioning: Following new material, student develop questions about the material.

Reciprocal Teaching: the learner teaches new material to fellow learners.

Self-regulation has recently been studied in relation to certain age and socioeconomic groups. Programs such as CSRP target these different groups in order to increase effortful control in the classroom to enhance early learning.

Evaluation of SRL

Data available to ascertain efficacy of SRL is limited to studies on self-assessment, leaning opportunities/processes involvement and different contexts which learning occurs. For instance, a meta-analysis conducted in 2017 concluded that self-assessment interventions have a positive influence on students’ SRL strategies and self-efficacy and, interestingly self-assessment interventions showed larger impact on girls’ self-efficacy whereas self-monitoring has a larger impact in boys.

A qualitative study reported that learners use SRL effectively when provided with enhanced guided notes (EGN) instead of standard guided notes (SGN) by the instructor. Moreover, students tend to use shallow level processing strategies such as rote memorization, rehearsal, and reviewing notes which are largely related to learning culture that they have exposed to. Social influences such as group work and social assistance as a means of developing SRL engaging in self-reflection, not only by receiving help but also by providing help (reciprocal interaction), has also associated largely with the learning context. 

Therefore, it is a challenge for the researchers to develop a suitable framework to evaluate SRL, as learners tends to use particular strategies over the others with specific focus on SRL at different contexts.