What is Self-Regulated Learning?

[Anxious student]
As a a first-generation college student and a single mom, Tina strives for a better life for herself and her daughter. She knows that a college education will set her on a path to a rewarding livelihood, but juggling college, work, and family puts many different demands on her time. Tina is dedicated to her studies and she dutifully highlights her textbook readings, memorizes vocabulary words, and spends long hours studying the night before her first exam. And yet, she earns only a mediocre grade. I guess I'm not cut out for college after all, she muses. I work so hard, but I still don't have what it takes to earn the grades I need.

What Tina doesn't realize is that not all forms of studying are equal. For students like Tina, learning to direct time and energy to the most productive ways of studying and learning will result in a more effective and rewarding learning experience, which in turn can boost self-efficacy and motivation. The key, particularly for first-generation students and those who do not come from a background of academic rigor, is to learn how to reflect on one's own process of learning. It's not something that comes naturally to most students, and that is where the right teacher can literally change the course of a student's life.

[The cycle of self-regulated learning]
The Cycle of Self-Regulated Learning

Self-regulated learning is a cyclical process, wherein the student plans for a task, monitors their performance, and then reflects on the outcome. The cycle then repeats as the student uses the reflection to adjust and prepare for the next task. The process is not one-size-fits-all; it should be tailored for individual students and for specific learning tasks (Zimmerman, 2002).

The figure to the right illustrates the key steps of the process. These steps are performed by the student, but instructors play a vital role in guiding and coaching students through each step. The bullet points below provide additional information, and are drawn from Zimmerman (2002) and Zumbrunn et al. (2011).