Five Strategies to Promote SRL Strategies for Helping Students Become More Effective Self-Regulated Learners Bruce Harris Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence

Introduction To be discussed in session.

Objectives of Workshop Recognize the importance of helping students go beyond basic study skills to help students become more effective self-regulated learners. Recall five self-regulated learning strategies that we can teach our students.

Workshop Agenda Background and Nature of Self-regulated Learning Five Self-regulated Learning (SRL) Strategies

What is a Self-regulated Learner? Students who are academically successful tend to be self-regulated. The term self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by executive processing (metacognition, conditional awareness, self-monitoring, etc.), cognitive processing (planning, declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, etc.), and motivation (self-efficacy, goal orientation, attributional orientation, etc.) to learn.

What is a Self-regulated Learner? Self-regulated learners systematically direct their thoughts, feelings, and actions toward the attainment of their goals. They are cognizant of their academic strengths and weaknesses, they have a repertoire of strategies they appropriately apply to tackle the day-to-day challenges of academic tasks, and they are self-motivated.

Basic Model of Self-Regulated Learning

Dual System Model of Cognition/Learning Contemporary cognitive psychologists distinguish between two levels of cognition*: Level1 (S1): Implicit cognition – largely intuitive, hard-wired, effortless; focused on typical, stable problems and skills. Level2 (S2): Explicit cognition - conscious, effortful; focused on novel problems and skills. * L1 processing is the default mode.

Example of two systems interacting To be discussed in session.

Academic Cognition/Learning To be discussed in session.

Five SRL Strategies Conditional Awareness Self-monitoring Self-evaluation Self-motivation Self-explanation

Conditional Awareness Defined a student’s ability to identify and execute appropriate learning strategies by recognizing contextual clues in a particular learning situation and context.

Conditional Awareness Instructional Strategies Encourage students to set goals and develop a strategic plan based on contextual clues. Sources of contextual clues: Syllabus Instructor’s lessons Help seeking resources

Conditional Awareness

Self-monitoring Defined as a student’s awareness of their comprehension or performance during or shortly after completing an academic task.

Self-monitoring Instructional Strategies Encourage students to review their work to determine whether it meets all the criteria specified by the instructor. Encourage students to ask themselves: “Have I identified all of the key points in this article?” “I didn’t do as well as I thought I would on the last test. What learning strategies do I need to use to prepare for the next exam so I get an A on the exam?” “My attention is beginning to drift. I need to stay focused for the next 45 minutes and then I will take a 10 break.”

Self-monitoring

Self-evaluation Defined as a student’s self-judgment on their performance by comparing it to their goal.

Self-evaluation Instructional Strategies Encourage students to review their strategic plan and determine what adjustments, if any, they need to make. Encourage students to ask themselves: “If I were to take a quiz on this topic right now, what grade would I expect?” “Now that I have finished reviewing my notes, I need to ask myself how well am I understanding this topic.” “Now that I know my score on this exam, what would I do differently for the next exam to do better?” “To what degree am I following the plan I made for achieving my goal?

Self-evaluation

Self-motivation Defined as a student’s awareness of his/her motivation level in regards to achieving his/her goal.

Self-motivation Instructional Strategies Encourage students to assess their motivation level and to increase their motivation if necessary. Encourage students to say to themselves: “I feel like my motivation is low. I need to remind myself that I have been a successful student in the past and that I have overcome difficult challenges on other occasions.” “As soon as I complete the self-test, I am going to reward myself.” “Even though this article is taking much more time than I anticipated, I am not going to give up until I complete it.”

Self-motivation

Self-explanation Defined as a type of metacognitive activity wherein students attempt to analyze, clarify, amplify, draw inferences, interpret, and then explicate to themselves the subject matter of the course.

Self-explanation Instructional Strategies Encourage students to attempt to generate self-explanations as they study. Encourage students to ask themselves: “How would I describe the situation, problem, concept, activity, etc.?” “What possible implications or predictions can I draw from the information thus far?” “How would I sum up, interpret, or explain the situation, problem, concept, activity, etc. thus far to someone else?

Self-explanation

Review We can help our students to become more effective self-regulated learners in both F2F classes and online courses; however, it will not happen overnight. Five self-regulated learning strategies we can teach our students: Conditional Awareness Self-monitoring Self-evaluation Self-motivation Self-explanation