Toward Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner

1. Toward Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner Jim Borgford-Parnell Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching UW College of Engineering

2. Self-Regulated Learning A fundamental component of professional practice, self-regulation relates to an ability to recognize a need for further learning as well as to be proactive in gaining access to knowledge and accomplishing learning.

3. Skills of self-regulated learners Include the ability to: • Set specific proximal [achievable] goals for oneself • Adopt powerful strategies for attaining the goals • Monitor one’s performance selectively for signs of progress • Restructure one’s physical and social context to make it compatible with one’s goals • Efficiently manage one’s time • Attribute causation to results • Adapt new methods Source: Zimmerman, B.J. (2002).

4. “Learning is viewed as an activity that students do for themselves in a proactive way rather than as a covert event that happens to them in reaction to teaching… learners are proactive in their efforts to learn because they are aware of their strengths and limitations and because they are guided by personally set goals and task-related strategies.” Learning is active Source: Zimmerman, B.J. (2002).

5. “How People Learn” http://books.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ Source:National Resource Council. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

6. What is it? The nature of knowledge

7. Students have preconceptions “Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.” Source:National Resource Council. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

8. Organization of Knowledge To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: • have a deep foundation of factual knowledge • understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework • organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application Draws on research on expert/novice differences Source:National Resource Council. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

9. Engineering Student Knowledge Networks Source: Turns, J. et al. (2000).

10. Engineering Student Knowledge Networks Source: Turns, J. et al. (2000).

11. Student One: Student Two: Engineering Student Knowledge Networks Source: Turns, J. et al. (2000).

12. Metacognition “A ‘metacognitive’ approach to instruction can help students take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.” Source:National Resource Council. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

13. Learning is viewed as an activity that students do for themselves in a proactive way rather than as a covert event that happens to them in reaction to teaching… learners are proactive in their efforts to learn because they are aware of their strengths and limitations and because they are guided by personally set goals and task-related strategies. Learning is active Source: Zimmerman, B.J. (2002).