The term
self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by
metacognitionMetacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving...
(thinking about one's thinking),
strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and
motivation to learn (Butler & Winne, 1995; Winne & Perry, 2000; Perry, Phillips, & Hutchinson, 2006; Zimmerman, 1990; Boekaerts & Corno, 2005). 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 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 (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck, 2002). 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-efficacySelf-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
(Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). In the
educational psychologyEducational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
literature, researchers have linked these characteristics to success in and beyond school (Corno, et al., 2002; Pintrich, 2000; Winne & Perry, 2000).
Social Cognitive Perspective
Self-regulation from the
Social CognitiveSocial cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, in the brain, of information relating to conspecifics, or members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the...
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:
- self-observation (monitoring one's activities);
- self-judgment (self-evaluation of one's performance) and
- self-reactions (reactions to performance outcomes).
To the extent that one accurately reflects on his or her progress toward a learning goal, and appropriately adjusts his or her actions to maximize performance, he or she has effectively self-regulated. During a students school career the primary goal of teachers is to produce self-regulated learners by using such theories as
Information ProcessingInformation processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
Model (IPM). By storing the information into long term memory (or a live document like a
RunbookIn a computer science system or network, a runbook is a routine compilation of the procedures and operations which the administrator or operator of the system carries out. Runbooks are often used in information technology departments of commercial companies and NOCs as a reference for system...
) the learner can retrieve it upon demand and apply to tasks, becoming a self-regulated learner.
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.
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.
http://jime.open.ac.uk/2008/14/
Cassandra B. Whyte (Whyte, 1978; Lauridsen & Whyte, 1980) noted the importance of internal locus of control tendencies on successful academic performance, also compatible with self-regulated learning.
Application of self-regulated learning in practice
Edirippulige & Marasinghe (2011) reviewed evidences of blending of self-regulated learning with new educational programmes such as e-Health teaching using different ICT technologies.
See also
- Self (psychology)
The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the...
- Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
- Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
- Learning by teaching
In professional education, learning by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lessons, or parts of lessons...
(LdL)
- Reflective practice
Reflective practice is "the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning", which, according to the originator of the term, is "one of the defining characteristics of professional practice"....
- Sudbury Valley School
The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. There are now over 30 schools based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The model has two basic tenets: educational freedom and democratic...