Fostering Self-Regulated Learning: An Introduction

Over the past few decades, a significant and increasing amount of research has been conducted under the umbrella term of “self-regulated learning” (SRL), which is a desirable educational outcome that has been described as “the processes whereby learners personally activate and sustain cognitions, affects, and behaviors that are systematically oriented toward the attainment of personal goals” (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011a, p. 1). This body of research has proved that SRL skills are important for successful learning across school topics as well as being fundamental for lifelong learning. Furthermore, the research has informed educators about several principles, methods, and intervention programs that have been developed for classroom application in diverse topics and for diverse populations of students (e.g., De Corte, Verschaffel, & Masui, 2004; Mevarech & Kramarski, 1997; Tonks & Taboada, 2011; for reviews of the effects on students’ achievement, see Dignath, Buettner, & Langfeldt, 2008; Hattie, 2009). Note that fostering students’ SRL is not a recent idea; since the 1970s, metacognitive theorists have successfully developed and evaluated numerous programs aimed at improving students’ learning strategies and metacognitive knowledge (Brown, 1975). Some of these interventions also included motivation and its regulation as crucial elements (Dansereau, 1975), as current theoretical SRL models and programs also do (see below for a comparison of metacognition and SRL).