An important goal of education at Imperial is to promote the development of students into independent learners. The development of expertise in a discipline or skill requires that an individual must become independent in their learning. Advanced learning is an active and at times challenging and even emotional process, and success requires the development of what psychologists call self-regulated learning strategies – that is, students’ intentional and motivated cognitive activity geared towards desired learning goals, including, ultimately, the ability to self-direct, self-monitor, and self-correct one’s own learning process (Nandagopal & Ericsson, 2012; Schunk & Zimmerman, 1994; Zimmerman, 2008).
Research on students’ learning strategies (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986; Nandagopal & Ericsson, 2012) has identified fourteen distinct strategies. The accordion below details the different strategies and some indicative data from students that define them:
Learning strategies - click to see definition (Nandagopal & Ericsson, 2012, adapted from Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986)
- 1. Self-evaluating
- 2. Organising and transforming
- 3. Goal setting and planning
- 4. Seeking information
- 5. Keeping records and monitoring
- 6. Environment restructuring
- 7. Self-consequences (self regulating)
- 8. Rehearsing and memorising
- 9-11. Seeking assistance from 9. peers; 10. teachers; 11. others
- 12-14. Reviewing records
Tools to evaluate students’ self-regulated learning strategies
If you are interested in evaluating your students’ self-regulated learning strategies, you may wish to adopt similar tools and a similar approach to Nandagopal & Ericsson (2012). Following Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1986), Nandagopal & Ericsson (2012) collected data about students’ self-regulated learning strategies via a structured interview and then analysed the data by coding the frequency with which students adopted the various strategies listed in Table 1. A downloadable version of the Interview Protocol and the accompanying coding frame (based on the categories and strategies in Table 1) are available in the Self-regulated learning interview protocol and coding frame in the box above.
They also analysed this data alongside students’ grades, allowing them to explore the relationship between learning strategies and attainment. Students attaining higher grades were “found to use a larger number of different strategies and were more likely to engage in strategies such as organizing and transforming, seeking information, and reviewing strategies more than low-achieving students” (Nandagopal & Ericsson, 2012, p. 605). You may wish to adopt a similar approach to see what kinds of strategies are associated with higher attainment in your context.
References
Nandagopal, K., & Ericsson, K. A. (2012). An expert performance approach to the study of individual differences in self-regulated learning activities in upper-level college students. Learning and Individual Differences, 22, 597-609. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2011.11.018
Schunk, D., & Zimmerman, B. (1994). Self-regulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2008). Investigating self-regulation and motivation: Historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. American Educational Research Journal, 45, 166-183.
Zimmerman, B. J., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1986). Development of a structured interview for assessing student use of self-regulated learning strategies. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 614-628.