Developing Self-Regulated Learners

Abstract

An important characteristic of human beings is our ability to understand and regulate our own behavior.Theologians, philosophers, and psychologists have long viewed self-control as a distinguishing characteristic of the human species, and for a variety of religious, political, philosophical, and practical reasons, the call to personally cultivate self-understanding and self-control has been sounded repeatedly throughout the ages (Zimmerman & Schunk, 1989).The philosopher Aristotle, for instance, praised the virtues of self-awareness.Likewise, the notable American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin was a staunch proponent of self-regulation.He used an assortment of self-regulation procedures in his own struggles for self-improvement.At one point during his life, he defined 13 virtues (e.g., temperance, order) that he wished to develop, established the goal of increasing each virtue in tum during the space of a week, monitored instances of success and failure, and recorded the daily results.If, at the end of the week, no offenses were recorded against the virtue, he extended his goal to include the next virtue listed ( cf.Zimmerman & Schunk, 1989).Students with special needs can use the same types of self-regulation procedures to improve their academic performance and interactions in social situations (cf.Gresham, 1985; Hallahan & Sapona, 1983; Harris, 1982; Harris & Graham, in press a).They can apply selfregulation procedures such as goal setting, self-monitoring (which includes self-assessment and self-recording of performance), self-instructions, and contingent self-reinforcement to academic tasks. THE RATIONALE FOR SELF-REGULATIONPeople use self-regulatory procedures such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and selfevaluation to help them accomplish specific tasks.Just as self-regulation procedures such as goal setting can be used to organize a person's overall approach to a task, they also can play a contributing, but less persuasive, role in how a person accomplishes a task.Self-regulatory mechanisms often are combined (as basic building blocks), for instance, with other cognitive routines to form a program for accomplishing a specific task (Brown & Campione, 1981 ).Scardamalia and Bereiter ( 1985) suggested that in addition to contributing to the immediate accomplishment of a task, self-regulatory mechanisms can further contribute to development.

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