Social origins of self-regulatory competence

This article reviews the social origins of students' development of self-regulatory skill with special emphasis on observational learning through modeling. A social cognitive perspective on self-regulation is presented. In this view, students' academic competence develops initially from social sources of academic skill and subsequently shifts to self sources in a series of 4 levels: observational, imitative, self-controlled, and self-regulated. The effects of models on observers depend in part on perceptions of self-efficacy, or beliefs about one's capabilities to learn or perform designated behaviors. Research on social influences is reviewed, and includes factors such as cognitive modeling, coping and mastery models, self-modeling, learning goals, and progress feedback. Related theoretical perspectives are discussed along with suggestions for future research.