Self-Regulated Learning to Promote Student

AchievementMiranda Fiore

SOE 115 Psychology of Teaching and LearningKendall College

Overview of the Strategy“A Major goal of formal education is to equip students with the intellectual tools, self-beliefs, and self-regulatory capabilities to educated themselves throughout their lifetime. The rapid pace of technological change and accelerated growth of knowledge are placing a premium on capabilities for self-directed learning” (Bandura, 2007, p. 10). Self-regulation is key to success in our lifetime. People change jobs many times before retirement and with a new job, comes new skills that need to be learned. A lot of this learning must be self-initiated and self-directed. We also need to be able to control and monitor behavior based on demands of the current situation. Teachers in early childhood education need to successfully start the development of effective life long learners, by teaching strategies of self-regulated learning to promote student achievement.

Credible Source #1In the explanation of Self-regulated leaning by Zumbrunn, Tadlock, & Roberts, (2011), it has three stages to help guide the teacher on creating a successful environment to cultivate self-regulated learning. The stages include forethought and planning, performance monitoring, and reflection on performance. Strategies for students to learn include goal setting, planning, self-motivation, attention control, flexible use of strategy, self-monitoring, help seeking, and self-evaluation. To encourage the use and learning of these skills teachers should create an effective environment through direct instruction and modeling, guided and independent practice, social support and feedback, and reflective practice. Social identity of students and curriculum are factors that pose challenges for teaching this method. The ultimate goal of self-regulated learning to develop skills for successful life-long learning.

Credible Source #2

In the article The Secret of Self-Regulated Learning, Linda Nelson (2014) introduces self-regulated learning as the “ultimate control of one’s learning in order to maximize it”. The strong positive affect on student achievement through self-regulated learning is seen through cognitive and metacognitive skills developed, the mastery of learning, and has even more impact than other teaching strategies such as cooperative learning and computer assisted instruction. The reflection and emotional aspect of self-regulated learning has a positive impact on development of the thinking process that moves new knowledge into long-term memory. Many students believe that their learning capabilities are based on the quality of their faculty’s instruction, so it is extremely important to set up an environment to encourage and motivate self-regulated learning. Explaining what it is, and providing them with strategies and activities to do self-regulated learning on their own, will enable students to reflect and see the positive impact for themselves.

Credible Source #3

Paris & Paris (2001), claim, through research, that self-regulated learning should be taught through reflective and scaffolding instruction, and also emphasize the importance of explaining the strategy being taught and the benefits that will follow. They found that students who learned self-regulated learning were also developing many other skills needed such as metacognition, motivation, and domain-specific knowledge. Research also showed that students of any age can learn self-regulated learning and can benefit greatly in doing so, and with the variety of strategies that can be used it is also very diverse and can easily train many different learners to be self-regulated. There again, are many strategies and techniques that teachers can use to create an atmosphere that encourages self-regulated learning. The research in this article also shows there are many influences outside of the classroom that can deter the development of self-regulated learning.

Analysis of Information

All sources explained the diversity available in the strategies to teach self-regulated learning, meaning there are many different strategies for all ages and types of learners. They also all agree that in developing self-regulated learning many other skills needed to be life-long leaners are being developed as well, such as metacognition and motivation. The strategies have to be reflected on and changed to empower the class and learners at hand, but since there is such a variety of strategies it is possible to make those changes. There was a unanimous belief that there are many outside influences that can hinder self-regulated learning as well, such as social identity, social and cultural influences, and personal cognitive development. Overall, it is proven through research and experience that self-regulated learning helps student achievement by helping them develop strategies to more effectively learn and hold knowledge.

ConnectionsLearning about the many strategies and influences that self-regulated learning can have on all people, children and adults, I think it can easily be taught to all ages while keeping in mind Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Depending on the age and what students are learning at that time should depend on what self-regulated learning strategy is being taught. For young children, they can be taught strategies to help associate pictures with words, and for high school or college students they can be taught strategies to help with studying, learning the information effectively, and completing homework in a timely manner. Overall, there are many different types of self-regulated learning and one has to be learned before the other to be successful in being a life-long learner.

Conclusion After reading these articles I believe there is evidence that self-regulated learning helps accelerate and create student achievement. Students are developing many strategies to reach goals and problem solve. In academics, the future, and in reality every problem will not be the same and students will have to be able to decide which method to use to get the best outcome. I also think self-regulated learning benefits student achievement as students are learning many different skills at once that are necessary to understand the information being learned. There are many strategies to help students reflect on information and control their learning and maximize it. When students are taught self-learning they are more motivated and gratified with the work because they did it and achieved it themselves. They have been able to come up with the plan, achieve the goal, and reflect on the knowledge they gained from the experience.

Communication with Families

To explain to the families of the students my reasoning behind teaching and encouraging self regulated learning I may respond this way:“Self-regulated learning has been researched and shows that students academic performance will benefit from it. Through self-regulated learning students are able to learn many strategies to learn the information at hand and develop skills to hold the knowledge and truly understand it. It encompasses reflection as well so students can see where they are at and make a plan to complete goals and tasks in a timely manner. They are also able to see the benefits for themselves as most of the learning is will be project or problem based which places the responsibility on the student to reach and monitor their goals. These skills are just a small portion of a skill set that will be beneficial not only in their academic career but in the success of being a life-long learner. Learning doesn’t stop after school ends and we all know that to be true!”

References Nilson, L. B. (2014, June 16). The secret of self-regulated learning.

Retrieved February 16, 2017, from Teaching and Learning, http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/secret-self-regulated-learning/

Paris, S., & Paris, A. (2001). Classroom Applications of Research on Self-Regulated Learning. Self Regulated Learning Paris and Paris. Retrieved Februrary 16, 2017, from www.unco.edu, http://www.unco.edu/cebs/psychology/kevinpugh/motivation_project/resources/ paris_paris01.pdf

Zumbrunn, S., Tadlock, J., & Roberts, E., Danielle. (2011). Encourage Self Regulated Learning in the Classroom. Retrieved February 16, 2017, from Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass, http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=merc_pubs