Search

The trajectory of scholarship about self-regulated learning (SRL) originates in mid-19th-century writings about learners’ sense of responsibility in self education. Although Descartes's 17th-century writings implied mental activities consistent with metacognition, a central feature of SRL, these were inarticulate until Flavell and colleagues’ studies circa 1970. Since then, research on metacognition and its role in SRL has approximately doubled every decade. Foundations for modeling SRL include Skinner's behaviorism, which acknowledged learners’ choices about reinforcers for behavior, and Bandura's social learning theory, with its construct of agency. Research in the 1980s gathered data about SRL mainly using interviews, self-report questionnaires, and think-aloud protocols. These methods were quickly supplemented by observations of behavior and traces of learning activities tightly coupled to features of SRL. Today, SRL research is prominent across a broad spectrum of educational topics. Its importance will grow with trends toward lifelong learning and self-directed inquiries that survey vast information on the Internet, where students control what and how they will learn. Implications for future research include reconceptualizing “error variance” as arising partially due to SRL and capitalizing on software technologies that massively increase access to data about how and to what effects learners self-regulate learning.

Background Today's gold standard for identifying what works, the randomized controlled trial, poorly serves each and any individual learner. Elements of my argument provide grounds for proposed remedies in cases where software can log extensive data about operations each learner applies to learn and each bit of information to which a learner applies those operations.Purpose of Study Analyses of such big data can produce learning analytics that provide raw material for self-regulating learners, for instructors to productively adapt instructional designs, and for learning scientists to advance learning science. I describe an example of such a software system, nStudy.Research Design I describe and analyze features of nStudy, including bookmarks, quotes, notes, and note artifacts that can be used to generate trace data.Results By using software like nStudy as they study, learners can partner with instructors and learning scientists in a symbiotic and progressive ecology of authentic experimentation.Conclusion I argue that software technologies like nStudy offer significant value in supporting learners and advancing learning science. A rationale and recommendations for this approach arise from my critique of pseudo-random controlled trials.

Playing the role of constructive critic of articles in this special issue, I adopt the term self-reliance to refer to work habits, work styles, volition, and self-regulated learning. Starting with the belief that developing self-reliance is an important goal of education, I examine key issues that influence the likelihood of reaching this goal. I assume first that learners are agents. This human quality ubiquitously affects theorizing, researching, and teaching. I examine the nature of this influence in relation to three issues: How learners experiment to develop self-reliance, conditions that influence how learners express and extend self-reliance, and considerations about how to advance theory and practice in the service of enhancing self-reliance.

Playing the role of constructive critic of articles in this special issue, I adopt the term self-reliance to refer to work habits, work styles, volition, and self-regulated learning. Starting with the belief that developing self-reliance is an important goal of education, I examine key issues that influence the likelihood of reaching this goal. I assume first that learners are agents. This human quality ubiquitously affects theorizing, researching, and teaching. I examine the nature of this influence in relation to three issues: How learners experiment to develop self-reliance, conditions that influence how learners express and extend self-reliance, and considerations about how to advance theory and practice in the service of enhancing self-reliance.

Articles published in this special section report state-of-the-art research on motivation and related constructs by studying learners in authentic and dynamic situations. Each research team demonstrates the value of using multiple methodologies. I draw out four themes that illuminate critical issues in this area of research: First, learners hold multiple goals simultaneously. Second, holding multiple goals affords opportunities for self-regulation. Third, goals and motivation evolve over time, although we know little about the trajectory of this process. Fourth, investigations that adopt multiple methodologies create opportunities to accelerate progress in the field. I also offer an alternative interpretive stance, a cognitive one, for theorizing about these constructs. I attempt to stimulate alternative but not antithetical views for future research about motivational constructs and their relations to learners' participation in classroom activities and achievements.

Ein Vergleich von Selbstberichtdaten mit verhaltensbasierten Indikatoren des Lernverhaltens und der Leistung von StudierendenZusammenfassung:In dieser Studie verglichen wir Modelle des selbstgesteuerten Lernens, die auf dem Selbstbericht versus der Aufzeichnung von “Verhaltensspuren” des Einsatzes von Lerntaktiken beim Lesen eines Textes beruhen. Die selbst berichteten Lerntaktiken unterschieden sich von den im Verhalten tatsächlich gezeigten Taktiken. In getrennten Regressionsmodellen erwiesen sich sowohl selbst berichtete als auch im Verhalten gezeigte Taktiken als Prädiktoren der Leistung, wobei jedoch unterschiedliche Arten von Taktiken in die beiden Modelle aufgenommen wurden. Getrennte Hauptkomponentenanalysen zeigten, dass verhaltensbasierte Indikatoren andere Formen selbstgesteuerten Lernens beschreiben als selbst berichtete Taktiken. Dies lässt darauf schließen, dass der Selbstbeschreibung des eigenen Lernverhaltens andere Prinzipien zugrunde liegen als der tatsächlichen Ausübung dieses Verhaltens. Wir schlagen daher vor, dass in der Forschung zum selbstgesteuerten Lernen und seiner Beziehung zu Lernleistungen sowohl Selbstberichtsdaten als auch verhaltensbasierte Indikatoren des Einsatzes von Lerntaktiken verwendet werden sollten.

Prior research on learning from instruction has used a three-stage model of effects. The model posits that (1) an instructional stimulus cues the learner to use particular cognitive processes to operate on content, (2) these operations are executed, and (3) the result facilitates learning. While theories focus on all three stages, experiments have provided only indirect evidence about how well each is accomplished and rarely have controlled directly all three key sources of variance. An illustrative analysis of learning from instruction is presented, and a procedure is proposed that probabilistically increases control over the theoretically significant cognitive causes of instructional effects.

Metacognition's roles in self-regulation of cognitive tactics and strategies is explored in relation to five sites where individual difference factors are likely to be observed and affect performance: domain knowledge, knowledge of tactics and strategies, performance of tactics and strategies, regulation of tactics and strategies, and global dispositions. Though the current literature is sparse, tentative hypotheses about kinds of individual differences and their impact are proposed. Directions for future research are noted concerning the need for more sophisticated metacognitively-based models of SRL as a complex collection of individual differences, and some suggestions are made about methodologies for investigating complex, metacognitively regulated approaches to learning.

One purpose of this study was to explore relations of field dependence/independence and locus of control with students' perceptions of a teacher's use of instructional cues and the cognitive responses the teacher intends students to make to these cues. Another purpose was to examine how cognitive style and students' ability to perceive instructional cues and cognitive responses jointly relate to students' achievement. Data from 87 students in Grade 6 indicate that the two cognitive style measures relate neither to students' perception of instructional cues nor to cognitive responses. However, measures of both perceptions were related to achievement, even after statistically controlling for verbal ability. Results are interpreted in terms of students' perceptions as mediating links between teaching events and students' achievement of curricular objectives.

This study used selected qualitative and meta-analytic techniques to synthesize research findings from 11 independent studies of computer assisted instruction in nursing education. The findings were similar to those of reviews of research on computer assisted instruction at other educational levels. Nursing students who used computer assisted instruction learned more than those who had traditional instruction, and did so in less time. The students also developed positive attitudes toward computers as an instructional method. Few relationships were found between the studies' findings and study characteristics. Recommendations were made regarding applications of computer assisted instruction to nursing education, research, and future reviews.

Hypotheses about how readers learn from text augmented by objectives or by adjunct postquestions were operationalized by training students to use specific processes while reading. Achievement on a one-passage and on a four-passage curriculum was analyzed using regression analyses to identify treatment effects and aptitude-treatment interactions. Training students to use theoretically appropriate processes associated with objectives or adjunct postquestions generally reduced aptitude-treatment interaction effects, but it did not yield the expected increments in learning compared to placebo groups. Discussion centers on a pointer effect prompted by objectives and postquestions that relates to aptitude. The methodological difficulties and theoretical advantages of operationalizing students' cognitive responses to instructional stimuli by training are also described.