BUILDING SUCCESSFUL SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS: WHAT 2000+ STUDENTS HAVE TO TELL US

Late in the spring semester of 2011 a ten-question self-regulation survey was administered to an upper-level meteorology class at a large southeastern university. The survey assessed which study habits students used in an effort to determine the cause for a lackluster exam performance. When prompted to consider how they might change their study habits, the primary response was that they would try harder and study longer in the future. Students who had survived several years of higher education exhibited little evidence of the application of self-regulated learning (SRL), skills that have consistently been shown to correlate with higher levels of achievement.

Self-regulated learners employ effective cognitive and metacognitive strategies, use various motivational prompts to persist when engaged in specific tasks, and adopt monitoring and regulating behaviors. Students do not enter university with these skills, and often don’t develop them during a traditional curriculum.

The stable (unchanging) nature of SRL skills is illustrated by results from three years of GARNET (Geoscience Affective Research Network) data from introductory geology classes. Thousands of students leave class with the same learning strategies that they identified upon entry to the course. Unlike some of their motivational (e.g., self-efficacy) and resource management (e.g., effort regulation) traits which begin the semester averaging higher scores and then consistently decline, learning strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking) and metacognitive skills begin the semester with moderate scores and show little change. Specific motivational constructs (e.g., self-efficacy) and resource management skills (e.g., effort management) consistently correlate with academic achievement. At first glance, this result may suggest that motivational constructs are more dynamic (unstable) factors that would benefit from increased attention. However, we will present the case that, in introductory courses at least, we may be limited in what we can change regarding motivation and would be better served by focusing attention on the development of effective self-regulation skills through an emphasis on integrating effective cognitive and metacognitive strategies into course assignments.