Self-regulation definition

The concept of self-regulation emerged from Albert Bandura’s seminal theory of self-efficacy (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2003), which was later incorporated into social cognition theory.

This theory claimed that human functioning is the result of the interacting influence of personal (e.g., biological, affective, cognitive), environmental, and behavioural factors (Bandura, 1986). Yet, we can create the life we desire if we take the appropriate steps and regulate our behaviours, thoughts, and emotions.

So, self-regulation is about self-control or self-discipline. It is the process of unceasingly monitoring progress toward a goal, checking results, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts (Berk, 2003).

It involves goal-directed activities such as planning, directing strategies to attain self-set goals, self-monitoring, action and attention control, and evaluation and correction of the results.

However, self-regulation is not just about exerting self-control over cognitive processes, thoughts, and behaviours. It also covers the emotional aspect.

So, self-regulation is often associated with emotional regulation which covers states and processes linked to the regulation of stress, moods, thoughts, attention, emotions, and impulses (hunger, aggression, sexual arousal) (Gross, 2007).

According to Baumeister & Vohs (2007), there are four components involved in self-regulation:

1. Standards of desirable behaviours should be clear and well-defined.
2. Monitoring or comparing the self with the standard and evaluating how much the self is changed and what is needed for further progress to achieve the goal.
3. Willpower to keep going.
4. Motivation to regulate the self.

 

Self-regulation processes cover, for instance, adapting to complex professional activity in extreme conditions, managing professional stress, self-motivating to persist until the goals are reached, and within education; students monitoring their actions in relation to the learning process.

What is self-regulated learning?

Self-regulated learning involves monitoring and managing one’s cognitive processes through setting learning goals, applying specific strategies as one learns, thinking about how well these strategies are working, and then modifying strategies according to their success.

Therefore, researchers (e.g., Pintrich, 2002) identified three types of knowledge students need to have to self-regulate their learning:

• Strategic knowledge or learning strategies for planning, minoring, evaluating learning, memorizing, linking new learning to prior knowledge, and organizing information (mind mapping).
• Knowledge about cognitive tasks, which includes knowing how to accomplish a task, assessing its difficulty, and deciding wisely which learning and thinking strategies to use when.
• Self-knowledge or awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses as a learner and the strategies that work best to accomplish a given task.

 

This means that self-regulated learning includes metacognitive processes and cognitive strategies. Besides, it also encompasses awareness of and control over one’s emotions, motivations, behaviour, and environment as they relate to learning.

A student has to motivate himself, maintain his self-confidence, and develop a positive attitude towards learning. He has to control his study-related behaviour and find out what kind of environment works best for his learning.

So, self-regulated learning requires a range of activities—cognitive, affective, and even physical—that go far beyond reading and understanding instruction.

It starts with students setting their learning goals, and then planning how to go about achieving them.

While executing the plan, students experience different emotions, motivations, behaviours, environments, and cognitive processes. So, they must decide which ones maximize or impede their learning, and then exercise self-control in creating the optimal cognitive, affective, and physical settings for effective learning.

So, full attention and concentration, self-awareness and introspection, honest self-assessment, openness to change, genuine self-discipline, and acceptance of responsibility for one’s learning are the core elements of self-regulated learning.

Therefore, considerable literature suggests that character, or at least some aspects of it, plays a major role in defining self-regulated learning.

Those positive traits that constitute self-regulated learning characters or attitudes were referred to as ‘intellectual virtues’ (Schwartz and Sharpe, 2012).

To this end, it was contended that the process has little to do with measured intelligence and anyone can develop it (e.g. Davidson, 2003; Tinnesz, Ahuna, & Kiener, 2006).

Why is self-regulation important for students?

Self-regulation can improve students’ performance and academic achievement as it increases their conscious focus on their learning (Ottenhoff, 2011) and supports them in developing reflective and responsible professionalism (Sluijsmans, Dochy, & Moerkerke, 1999).

In fact, empirical evidence suggests that the ability to self-regulate predicts SAT scores more strongly than IQ, parental education, or parental economic status (Goleman, 1996).

Self-efficacy theory also tells us that a sense of control, choice, and volition enhances a person’s self-efficacy and motivation to perform a task.

Besides, gratification (one aspect of self-regulation) fosters goal-setting, planning, self-esteem, ego resiliency, stress management, educational attainment, and social and cognitive competency (e.g., Mischel & Ayduk, 2002).

So, developing self-regulation capacity can have positive academic and interpersonal outcomes in education. To this end, we should incorporate self-regulated learning in every aspect of teaching.

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (2007). Self-Regulation, Ego Depletion, and Motivation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, (1), 115—128.

Berk, L.E. (2003). Child development. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Davidson, R. J. (2003). Affective neuroscience and psychophysiology: Toward a synthesis. Psychophysiology, 40, 655–66.

Goleman, D. (1996). Working with emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. London: Bloomsbury.

Gross, J.J. (2007). Handbook of Emotion Regulation. New York: The Guilford Press.

Mischel, W., & Ayduk, O. (2002). Self-regulation in a cognitive-affective personality system: Attentional control in the service of the self. Self and Identity, 1(2), 113–120. doi: 10.1080/152988602317319285

Ottenhoff, J. (2011). Learning how to learn: Metacognition in liberal education. Liberal Education, 97(3/4). Retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://www .aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sufa11/ottenhoff.cfm?utm_source=pubs&utm _medium=blast&utm_campaign=libedsufa2011

Pintrich, P. R. (2002). The role of metacognitive knowledge in learning, teaching, and assessing. Theory into Practice, 41(4), 219–225.

Schwartz, B., & Sharpe, K. (2012, February 19). Colleges should teach intellectual virtues. Chronicle of Higher Education.

Sluijsmans, D., Dochy, F., & Moerkerke, G. (1999). Creating a learning environment by using self-, peer-, and co-assessment. Learning Environments Research, 1, 293–319.

Tinnesz, C. G., Ahuna, K. H., & Kiener, M. (2006). Toward college success: Inter[1]analyzing active and dynamic strategies. College Teaching, 54(4), 302–306.

Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (2003). Albert Bandura: The scholar and his contributions to educational psychology. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Educational psychology: A century of contributions (pp. 431–457). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.