Self-Regulated Learning

Self-regulated learning is a pedagogical approach to learning that effectively puts the impetus and method for learning fully in the control of the individual learner. The closer the learner is to choosing what they want to learn, when they learn it and how they learn it, the closer they are to self-regulated learning. And it has advantages. Apart from the obvious advantage of studying something you are interested in learning about, this we know leads onto encouraging studying other related topics, because to understand one thing, you discover that you need to know about something else. You ‘might’ not be so interested in that topic, but you do.

We know that for many, being able to study when they want to, not just what time of day, but which days is preferable, it allows for days when you’re not feeling well or just unable to concentrate or particular times of the day when your concentration is less focussed and able to solve problems or remember things.

Choosing how you want to study is also very valuable. We are still a bit indoctrinated that learning in classrooms, using a chalkboard (or white board) and books is the only way or best way to learn, because it was the way we were taught at school and obviously that ‘must’ be the correct way. Except that it ignores individual differences in processing and memory (eg phonic loop, working memory, visual memory, tactile memory, etc). For instance some of us have much better visual memories than verbal encoding. Visualising something is much easier than trying to remember tracts of text. For others it’s the tracts of text they remember, but not diagrams… There’s a whole slew of differences in learning styles out there. It does not mean you can not learn if materials are presented in a way that does not suit your learning style, it’s just that it’s harder to do so and you may need to encode it differently to understand and/or remember it and that takes time. Or as in many cases

Thankfully many classrooms where resources allow are moving on. Think about how televisions and video recorders started to be introduced into classrooms, because there was greater understanding about the power of video as a different medium to help teach and instruct as well as use of overhead projectors and video projectors. Although the cost of the latter at the time, meant these were restricted to the main assembly hall. As technology moved on, televisions and projectors have been replaced by smartboards – interactive white boards, that allow teachers to present images, slides and connect to the internet to show relevant resources. Letting students use laptops or pads in class or managed use of how students use their own smart phones (the bring your own device concept), has taken this a step further letting students interact with the teacher through pop-quizzes, and questions which the students can do on their device with results immediately available on the screen, do their own research online, use external teaching resources, etc.

However, while this improves the range of ways in which students learn, it still restricts them to learning what the teacher wants them to learn, when to learn it and how to learn it… and removes another intrinsic value of self-regulated learning that is often postulated… instilling a desire to learn and ‘learning how to learn’ amongst things. While it’s true that the higher up in education you go, learning becomes more self-regulated, because you learn what you are interested in and gain a better understanding of your own individual learning style preferences. The question is whether self-regulated learning can be used in schools, and that’s something I’ve been interested in since finding out about Streatham Secondary School/Rosa Bassett School.

Previous posts on self-regulated learning

• 
  Wet, messy, muddy
  How do you react to the idea of children being wet or messy or muddy? Do worry about the actual state of being messy? The hassle of sorting them out?…
• 
  Keller Plan
  The Keller Plan was a model of Higher Education instruction devised by Fred Keller (1968) and later the Personalised System of Instruction (PSI) (Sherman et al, 1978; Sherman et al…
• 
  Schools before their time: Self Regulated Learning and the Dalton Plan
  Self-regulated learning (SRL) is effectively how you go about learning something, in your own way, in your own time and ideally what subjects you learn. It’s also very individual, some…
• The Dalton Plan
  The Dalton Plan is an organisational framework/educational model developed by Helen Parkhurst at the turn of the 20th century that supports self-regulated learning in schools. It had the objectives of…
• 
  The curious case of St Trinians
  This is where I show my age. Okay, I’m not that old, but do you remember the fabulous St Trinians films? The Belles of St Trinians, Blue Murder at St…