Forethought Phase: 

• Pre-task phase

• Includes Task analysis and self-motivation 

• Task analysis involves goal setting and strategic planning 

• Self-motivation requires self-efficacy - the belief that one can complete a task (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) 

  • Intrinsic interest: 

    • The students' valuing of the task skill for its own merits 

• Learning goal orientation:

  • Valuing the process of learning for its own merits 

EXAMPLE: Someone who enjoys the subject of English is going to be more motivated to learn about it through self-regulation. 

• Mid-task phase 

• Includes Self-control and self-observation 

• Self-control is the deployment of specific methods or strategies that were selected during the forthought phase 

  • Imagery, self-instruction, attention focusing, etc. 

  • EXAMPLE: Using pictures to simplify a challenging concept  

• Self-observation is the self-recording of personal events or self-experimentation to find out the cause of events

  • Taking note of behaviors during a task and recording their frequency to analyze later

• Post-task phase

• Includes self-judgment and self-reaction 

  • Self-evaluation is a form of self-judgment (comparisons of self-observed performances against a standard) 

  • Causal attribution - beliefs about the cause of one's errors or successes 

    • EXAMPLE: Believing that a failed grade is a result of inability to learn. This causes problems by limiting self-efficacy 

• Self-reaction involves feelings of self-satisfaction and positive affect

  • Increases in self-satisfaction ENHANCE motivation

  • Decreases undermine efforts to learn  

  • Self-reactions take the form of defensive or adaptive reactions

    • Defensive: efforts to protect one's self-image by avoiding opportunities to learn/perform 

    • Adaptive: adjustments designed to increase effectiveness of learning 

Diagram: Cyclical Nature of SRL

CONSIDER THIS:

• Self-reflective behaviors must be fostered before they will be purposefully engaged with

  • Educators must explicitly teach the procedures for journaling, planning, reflecting, and observing before expecting students to perform these tasks on their own 

  • Fostering self-regulated learning might look like providing this explicit instruction and modeling what it looks like to self-reflect through a think-aloud

• If self-regulation is NOT being utilized, students may engage in maladaptive behaviors

  • Maladaptive behaviors are behaviors that are used to cope with stress, traumatic situations, anger, etc. 

    • EX: Substance abuse, attention-seeking, withdrawal from social situations 

  • Teaching self-reflective behaviors helps to avoid maladaptive coping skills and provide strategies to combat frustration, sadness, and helplessness when approaching a challenging task

Barry J. Zimmerman (2002) Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner: An Overview, Theory Into Practice, 41:2, 64-70, DOI: 10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2