Author: Made Hery Santosa

Self-regulated learning refers to one’s ability to understand and control one’s learning environment. Self-regulation abilities include goal setting, self-monitoring, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement (Harris & Graham, 1999). Self-regulation should not be confused with a mental ability or an academic performance skill. Instead, self-regulation is a self-directive process and set of behaviors whereby learners transform their mental abilities into skills (Zimmerman et al., 2002) and habits through a developmental process that emerges from guided practice and feedback (Paris & Paris, 2001).

Elements of self-regulated learning effective learners are self-regulating, analyzing task requirements, setting productive goals, and selecting, adapting or inventing strategies to achieve their objectives (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). These learners also monitor progress as they work thorough the task, managing intrusive emotions and waning motivation as well as adjusting strategies processed to foster success. These are the students who ask questions, take notes, and allocate their time and their resources in ways that help them to be in charge of their own learning (Paris & Paris, 2001).

The following video shows a brief presentation of the topic.

Self-regulated learning is important in the instructional process as it helps students to learn more independently, have control of their own learning, and be responsible toward their learning journey. One of the strategies to teach the concept to students is modelling. Below is a video from Edutopia for you to watch to help you learn the concept deeper.

To sum up, self-regulated learning is a broad field that provides an umbrella to understand variables that influence students’ learning. Over the last two decades, this concept has become one of the major areas of research in educational psychology, and the current advances in the field are a signal that its relevance will continue. Self-regulated learning refers to someone’s ability to be responsible for their own learning. It is very important to teach self-regulated learning abilities to students, like analyzing, monitoring learning, and self-reflection. One of the strategies is modelling.  

Additional Material

To enrich your understanding on the topic, please read the following materials.

1. A review of Self-regulated Learning: http://bit.ly/selfrl1.
2. What is Self-regulated learning? http://bit.ly/selfrl2.

References

Harris, K., & Graham, S. (1999). Programmatic intervention research: Illustrations from the evolution of self-regulated strategy development. Learning Disability Quarterly, 22, 251–262.

Paris, S., & Paris, A. (2001). Classroom applications of research on self-regulated learning. Educational Psychology, 36, 89–101.

Zimmerman, B., & Schunk, D. (2001). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Zimmerman, B., Bonner, S., & Kovach, R. (2002). Developing self-regulated learners: Beyond achievement to self-efficacy. American Psychological Association.

Note: This section is Part 4 of 5 of New Paradigm in Language Teaching and 21st Century Skills writing series.

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