Self-Regulated Learning

1. Self-Regulated Learning

2. Thought Starters 1. Without prior notification, you were given an article to read to prepare for a test which was to be held 15 minutes later. The article was 5-page long with a topic in social science. How would you tackle the test?

3. Probable Answers • You will ask your teacher what type of test it is, multiple choices, short questions, long questions, drawings, computations, or what? • You will ask your teacher what approach should you read the article. • Then you will look at the topic title & the author. Have I read something related to this topic before? What do I know about the viewpoints of the author? • Then you will look at the abstract, the introduction, the conclusion, the sub-headings, the topical sentences, the figures, tables, highlighted words, repeated phrases etc.

4. 2. You were given an article to read by your teacher. After 3 hours of reading you could only finish half of the article, and even worse, it seemed you did not quite understand the article. What would you do?

5. Probable Answers • You may ask someone for help. • You may assess the importance of the article to this specific learning goal and its relative importance to your other learning goals. If it is not important, for reference only, then discard the reading. • You may check if you have missed some prior knowledge that is necessary for you to understand this reading. Then you may attain the prior knowledge first and then come back to read this one.

6. Self-Regulated Learning • The answers direct you to the importance of using cognitive tactics and strategies in learning. • And very important, the tactics to be used have to be closely related to your goal of learning. • Goal of learning refers to those immediate tasks of learning related to a specific learning goal, not to remote goals like career or earning a degree.

7. Cognitive Strategies & Tactics • Simple focusing • Structured focusing • Hypothesizing • Summarizing • Mental imagery • Keyword method • Chunking • Positive self-talk

8. Some more questions: • What are the characteristics of effective learners? What do effective learners do in their learning? • What are the characteristics of ineffective learners? What do they do in their learning?

9. Questions • Characteristics of students with learning or mastery goals: • (Yes/No) They persevere. • (Yes/No) They experience less anxiety. • (Yes/No) They use more strategies. • (Yes/No) They attribute their success to controllable causes (e.g. effort, not luck).

10. Answers • The answers should all be yes. • The answers describe the characteristics of effective learners in terms of cognitive as well as affective factors.

11. Questions (simple yes/no answers) • Characteristics of gifted students: • Have a small repertoire of cognitive styles • Have flexibility and adaptability in using cognitive styles • High use of strategies for organizing & transforming information • They perceive themselves cognitively competent • They do less rereading than average students • They do more predicting than average students • They are more intrinsically motivated • They believe their successes are dependent on their luck

12. Answers • All except e) are yes. • Contrary to ordinary understanding, gifted students do much rereading to detect misunderstandings or to get better understanding of their reading. • Although they have a small repertoire of cognitive tactics, they have a high flexibility in utilizing their tactics in view of situational demands & goals. • Finally, you can see that gifted students are more self-confident. But this confidence is rationally perceived in terms of self-effort, planning, & strategies rather than in terms of external luck or their gifted talents.

13. Questions • _____readers fail to recognize that they do not understand. They have not learned how to modulate their own activities to correct their inability to learn. (good/poor)

14. Answers • A big problem with low achieving university students is that they attribute non-intentional factors or amount of time factors to their low achievement. • They do not believe that their cognitive strategies have an influence on their performance. • They do not critically examine their cognitive strategies & therefore will not be able to adjust them to learning demands. (Romainville, 1994)

15. Theoreticians seem unanimous --- The most effective learners are self-regulating. (Butler & Winne, 1995)

16. What is Self-Regulation? The process whereby students activate and sustain cognitions, behaviors and affects that are systematically oriented toward the attainment of goals. Zimmerman (1990)

17. Self-Regulation: Principles & Concepts Cognitions: • Set & define learning goals • Activate relevant strategies & tactics Behaviors: • Enact, monitor, regulate, & evaluate learning Affects: • Persevere, self-motivated, attribute to self-effort, believe you can accomplish the task

18. Contrast of High & Low Self-Regulators Regarding Case-Based Instruction HighLow • Value  fluctuate • Needs  fluctuate • Efficacy of learning  • Focus on mastery facts/correct • Self-regulatory strategies  habitual Ertmer et al. (1996)

19. High-Achieving Students • Have more rules • Rules are set in temporal sequence • Rules are hierarchically organized ~ strategies into rules ~ rules into sub-rules • Know more cognitive processes & results • Justify their strategies in complex sequences of reasons connected to each other (Romainville, 1994)

20. Examples of Cognitive Rules • I do that after that. • I do that but not that.

21. “If there is an unfamiliar word, I expect to see it explained in the following sentences; if it is not, then ask for its meaning or look it up in a dictionary.”

22. “If I detect an implicit inconsistency, then I’ll check the what inferences lead to the inconsistency.”

23. IF time & effort are on target & IF judgment of learning is below standard, THEN attribute the negative difference to high task difficulty. If task difficulty is high, THEN quit the task. (Winne & Hadwin, 1998)

24. Rules for Cognitive Processes IF…. THEN IF…. THEN NOT IF…. THEN ELSE

25. Self-Regulation: Principles • Self-regulation in learning does not only refer to these few rules but to a sequences of steps for monitoring, regulating and evaluating learning. • And these steps involve affective elements of confidence, effort, & interest and value in the learning.

26. Self-Regulated Learning : Major Steps Planning • Goal Setting • Task Analysis • Sequencing • Time Scheduling • Resource Allocation • Environmental Structuring (Judgment of Learning)

27. Execution, Monitoring, Regulating • Organizing &Transforming • Checking Goal Direction • Coping with Difficulties • Rehearsing & Memorizing • Effort Management

28. Self-Evaluation • Check quality of work & effort • Self-test • Reflect on competence

29. Self-Regulated Learning: An Example This example shows the whole process for self-regulated learning. You may print the example to aid your learning.

30. Self-Instructional Training Self-regulation requires self-instruction of what to do. Self-instruction can be learned through training by asking yourself these questions while you learn: • Problem definition “What is it I have to do?” • Focusing of attention “I need to pay attention to what I’m doing.”

31. Self-Instructional Training • Self-reinforcement “I’m doing fine.” • Self-evaluation “Am I doing things in the right order?” • Coping “I need to try again when I don’t get it right.”

32. Self-Regulated Learning • The following slide shows the components of self-regulated learning. Can you guess what each picture represents? Can you review the whole process with the pictures?

34. Self-Regulation as Split-Mind Cognition • Self-regulation is like getting someone to watch over your learning. • That person is ? YOURSELF.