Self-regulated learning: what is it and how does it affect education?

Let's see what self-regulated learning is and how it is embodied in behaviors applicable to education.

People are not mere passive receptacles of the information presented to them, much less in an educational context. As learners we must carry out an active task in processing, organizing and assimilating classroom content.

Self-regulated learning has a lot to do with the way in which we regulate our emotions, cognitions and behaviors as applied in an educational context.The self-regulated learning has a lot to do with how we regulate our emotions, cognitions and behaviors applied to an academic context since learning cannot be detached from our emotional state, motivation and desires.

Developing skills for the self-control of learning processes is fundamental to have a high academic performance, something that we are going to deepen in the following.

What is self-regulated learning?

We talk about self-regulated learning when a learner is capable of deliberately manage the cognitive and emotional processes that are involved in his or her learning.. The learner is able to select those strategies that he/she considers most beneficial and efficient at the moment of learning, regulating his/her emotional state and organizing him/herself to achieve his/her goals. The capacity for self-regulation is closely related to academic success and student performance.

Among the most prominent researchers on the idea of self-regulated learning we find the figure of Barry Zimmermanwho argues that self-regulation is not a mental skill or synonymous with academic performance, but rather a process of self-direction through which the student transforms his or her mental skills, whatever they may be, into academic skills. Self-regulated learning not only implies the mastery of a mental skill, but is also related to possessing great self-awareness and self-motivation.

Within any traditional educational context it is common to see novice learners relying on feedback from others, comparing their performance and seeing how much better or worse they have done compared to others. This type of student usually associates their "failure" with some deficiency they were born with that they cannot remedy. In contrast, more experienced students who do know how to manage their learning identify when and why they have failed, so they can focus on how to correct their mistakes and improve their weaknesses.

Zimmerman argues that self-regulation is not an inherited trait, something that some students simply have and others do not, but rather a way of behaving, a habit.a habit. Self-regulation involves the selective use of specific processes that must be personally adapted to each learning task. When we say that a student performs self-regulated learning we mean that he/she is regulating his/her own behavior, focusing it on the acquisition of a content, skill or academic task.

Characteristics of self-regulated learners

As we said, self-regulation is not a trait that some simply possess and others do not from birth. This ability can be trained if we focus on those capabilities that, if improved, will serve to make learning more efficient and autonomous.

Students who self-regulate their learning become actively involved in the process of acquiring new content, thus making not only that knowledge more personal but also deeper.

Self-regulated learners show active participation during the learning process, developing metacognitive skills, controlling the influence of their emotionsThey control the influence of their emotions in the process and regulate both their motivation and behavior. Thus, teaching and training these skills to non-self-regulated students will provide them with tools to manage their own learning, resulting in higher academic performance.

Below we will look at the main characteristics that define students with a self-regulated learning pattern.

1. Use of cognitive strategies

Students who demonstrate self-regulated learning know, identify and know how to use cognitive strategies that enable them to understand, process, organize, elaborate and retrieve information. cognitive strategies that allow them to understand, process, organize, elaborate, and retrieve information from the content seen in the classroom or extracted from of the content seen in the classroom or extracted from academic resources.

2. Development of metacognitive skills

These students develop metacognitive skills in order to know how to plan the task they are going to doThey develop metacognitive skills to know how to plan the task they are going to do, whether in the form of an academic paper or the study itself. They route various mental processes necessary for the achievement of the goal set.

3. Emotional control

Self-regulated students develop, modify and control those emotions that are positive for learning and feel motivation, enthusiasm, pleasure and satisfaction towards the completion of the task.

4. Homework planning

Self-regulated students plan the task adequately, anticipating how much time it will take them to do itIn case they have not understood the content or have doubts, they are assertive enough to ask their teacher or other classmates about these issues.

5. They pay attention

They make an effort to maintain attention on task, avoiding distractions.

Strategies to promote self-regulated learning

Taking into account all these characteristics we can understand that a self-regulated learner is one who is aware of the importance of assuming an active role in his or her learning. Consequently, will adjust his or her cognitive and emotional processes in order to perform adequately.. Thus, he/she will be able to respond to the task, achieve the goals he/she sets for him/herself and have a positive performance.

Developing a self-regulated learning pattern is something that requires the help of pedagogues, teachers and psychologists involved in educational contexts. requires the help of pedagogues, teachers and psychologists involved in educational contexts.. Although this type of learning is perfected as one grows and progresses through the different educational levels, it is always advisable that teachers, who in addition to being experts in the content they teach, should also be experts in teaching tools that make learning more autonomous and efficient.

For this reason, strategies aimed at fostering self-regulated learning should meet the following objectives:

• Teach metacognitive, cognitive and behavioral skills.
• Develop the ability to recognize when it is useful to use one strategy or another.
• Motivate students to use the strategies taught.

There are several didactic models that can be used to promote self-regulated learning at any age and type of student.. It is essential to provide systematic support that allows students to work independently with the study they have to do. For this reason, we will now look at some strategies to promote self-regulated learning.

1. Self-observation

Students must learn to assess and monitor whether the study strategies they are applying are effective or not. If they are not, they should be able to modify or readjust what is necessary to make their learning effective.. This is why they must become aware of their own cognitive processes in relation to their emotional state, motivations, time on task, and level of effort.

For example, observation would include detecting when they are not understanding the content that has been explained to them, analyzing their level of comprehension of the task and verifying that they are predisposed to learn, among others.

2. Modeling

Human beings learn to behave using the rest of their peers as models, that is, we imitate the behavior of others, whether it is good or bad. Teachers are key figures who have a very important influence on the modeling of their students, since they are their behavioral references.They are their behavioral and knowledge references, apart from their own parents.

For this reason, the teacher must be an example, explaining the contents experimentally, teaching specific behavioral patterns that their students must acquire and, of course, showing autonomous forms of study and expansion of their knowledge, promoting self-regulated learning and emotional and volitional control.

3. Social support

Social support should be provided to students in their learning process. That is to say, both the teacher and the rest of the class group should be a source of protection and teaching for the learner, who during the first steps of learning will not be quite sure what to do, fearing that he/she will make mistakes.During the first steps of learning, the learner will be unsure of what to do, fearing that he/she will make mistakes.

As the student progresses through the course, he/she will gain more confidence in his/her own abilities, understanding that failure does not mean incompetence and that with his/her willpower he/she will be able to assimilate the class contents and overcome the goals and objectives proposed in the academic environment.

As the individual becomes more independent, social support is progressively withdrawn.. This does not mean that they are left aside, but simply that they are not given as much help, nor are they so much attentive to them when they can be actively involved in the construction of their own knowledge.

4. Self-reflective practice

The last part of the self-regulation process is self-reflective practice. The learner should be able to take a moment to think about how he/she has done the task, whether he/she has acquired the required skill or has been responsible enough when studying. Self-regulated learning is only possible when the individual has the ability to reflect on his or her own learning process, selecting and adjusting those strategies that he or she has learned.selecting and adjusting those strategies that can be most useful to him/her.

Bibliographical references

• Nuñez, J.C., Solano, P., González-Pienda, J. and Posarió, P. (2006). Self-regulated learning as a means and goal for education. Papeles del Psicólogo, 27(3), 139-146.
• Ruiz Martin, H. (2020). How do we learn? A scientific approach to learning and teaching (1st edition). Editorial Graó.
• Torrano, F. and González, M. C. (2004). Self-regulated learning: present and future research. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 2(1),1-33.
• Torrano, F., Fuentes, J. L., & Soria, M. (2017). Self-regulated learning: state of the art and psycho-pedagogical challenges. Educational Profiles, 39(156), 160-173.
• Zimmerman, B.J. (2002). Becoming self-regulated learned: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41, 64-72.