Self-regulated, teacher-scaffolded: Employing self-regulated learning in the classroom
Posted October 17, 2011 · by Jonathan Bartels · in self-regulated learning, teaching and learning
When I first heard of self-regulated learning, I pictured my students hard at work while I kicked back in my comfortable teacher-chair. But then I remembered two things: 1) Every time I thought my students were guiding their own learning they never ended up where I hoped they would be, and 2) my chair really wasn’t that comfortable. Neither of these things were my students’ fault. I failed to see the support my students needed in monitoring their own learning and progress.
Dr. Jeffrey Greene, assistant professor of educational psychology at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, has recently been researching the implementation of self-regulated learning in hypermedia learning environments.
Self-regulated learning
Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a field of work that promotes student autonomy in the learning process. While there are many different SRL models, they all share a few key features. First, SRL is comprised of a series of proactive processes that include setting goals, making plans, and selecting and implementing learning strategies. Second, for students to achieve the goals they have set they must be self-cognizant and effectively control and adjust their behavior, motivation, and context. And third, the SRL processes can help all students, no matter their individual differences or situation, achieve success.
To more efficiently study SRL, some researchers, including Dr. Greene, identify macro- and micro-level SRL processes. The macro-level processes include planning, monitoring, strategy use, task difficulty and demands, and interest. Each macro-level process has its own set of micro-level SRL processes, as the table below illustrates.
| Macro-level processes | Micro-level processes |
|---|---|
| Planning | Sub-goal: Identifying and articulating specific things that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the overall goal |
| Recycle goal: Restating the goal | |
| Monitoring | Content evaluation: Identifying if content is or is not useful to achieve the overall goal |
| Expectation of adequacy of content: Identifying what type of content would or would not be useful to achieve the overall goal | |
| Judgment of learning: Stating what is or is not understood | |
| Monitor progress toward goals: Assessing if previously set goals have been met | |
| Monitor use of strategies: Identifying the usefulness of a strategy | |
| Time monitoring: Being aware of time constraints | |
| Strategy use | Source manipulation: Interacting with source material in a way to better identify, locate, or understand content (this could be in the form or dog-earing pages, pausing and rewinding a video, or sorting materials) |
| Coordinate informational sources: Negotiating multiple mediums | |
| Draw: Drawing or sketching to increase understanding | |
| Inferences: Making inferences based on content | |
| Knowledge elaboration: Elaborating on content | |
| Memorization: Memorizing an aspect of content | |
| Prior knowledge activation: Using prior knowledge or experiences to inform the achievement of the current goal(s) | |
| Read notes: Reviewing notes taken | |
| Re-reading: Re-visiting sections of content | |
| Summarization: Summarizing content that was just consumed | |
| Taking notes: Independently making notes on content being consumed | |
| Task difficulty and demands | Help-seeking behavior: Seeking assistance regarding outcomes or performance |
| Interest | Interest statements: Recognizing one’s own level of interest |
Dr. Greene has recently been working with other researchers to explore the role of SRL in hypermedia learning environments, like the Internet. While today’s students are often called “digital natives,” in fact they often struggle when using the Internet for anything more than gaming or social networking.
Research findings
Dr. Greene’s research has focused on using SRL in hypermedia learning environments to help students gain content and conceptual knowledge. One of his studies centered on high school students in a history class. These students used the Documenting the American South website to learn about the Regulator Movement. Another study centered on undergraduate students in an education course learning about the circulatory system using the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia. In both studies, pre-tests and post-tests were used to assess the students’ learning. Dr. Greene’s research team also promoted the use of the think-aloud process to students as a way to report what they were thinking.
The results of these studies indicated that the frequency of the use of SRL strategies have a direct impact on learning outcomes. Students who engaged in more SRL strategies, particularly planning strategies, showed greater gains from pre-test to post-test.
So what?
SRL can be applied to any content field and environment. With the educational use of hypermedia spaces on the rise, it’s important to find ways to ensure that digital tools serve as valued additions and not as mere distractions. Dr. Greene’s research illustrates the importance of teaching all learners how to successfully utilize hypermedia environments like the Internet.
Dr. Greene’s tips
- Self-regulated learning needs to be taught to students of all ages.
- Often, teachers feel that their students should already have some SRL skills before entering their classroom. This belief is more frequent in higher grades as the students have been in school longer. However, SRL skills need to be taught, reinforced, and supported at all learning levels.
- SRL skills are content-specific.
- Just as reading a textbook is different than reading a novel, the specific SRL skills used for a science classroom are different than those needed for a history classroom. While the general skills do remain the same, the way they are approached can differ wildly. So when thinking about how to employ SRL strategies in your classroom, think about your content and what knowledge and skills your students need to be successful, and then teach that knowledge and those skills.
- Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold.
- Simply telling students to use SRL strategies isn’t enough. The students need support to develop and employ SRL strategies. For instance, if students are not given a clear goal, their planning may not be appropriate for the desired learning outcomes. Dr. Greene identifies the initial goal as one of the more important factors in the effectiveness of SRL. That type of teacher input is required throughout the process in order for students to continue to develop and refine their SRL skills.
- Self-regulation is hard.
- Being self-aware of your own thinking can be very challenging, especially when learning new content. Think of when you first learned to drive. It was hard to focus on much more than the gas, brake, wheel, and not hitting anything. As you had more practice and became more familiar with driving, you were able to focus on more things like street signs, the radio, or conversation with your passengers. It is the same with learning. When trying to understand a new topic, nearly all of your attention is focused on making sense of the new materials. As you become familiar with the topic, you are able to be more cognizant of yourself and your own learning process. It can be hard for novices to self-regulate, so sometimes teachers have to help them with these processes until they gain more knowledge and skill in the area.
Researcher bio
Dr. Jeffrey Greene’s research focuses upon student cognition, regulation, and beliefs in science and history domains. Specifically, he studies self-regulated learning, or how students’ knowledge, beliefs, and characteristics interact with their ability to actively and adaptively monitor and control their learning, motivation, behavior, and context. He also examines epistemic and ontological cognition, or how students think about knowledge and the ways in which those views influence learning.
A full biography can be found at the School of Education website.