Promoting Self-regulated Learning in K-12 Schools

1. Lynda Hutchinson University of British Columbia Promoting Self-regulated Learning in K-12 Schools Dr. Allyson Hadwin University of Victoria Stephanie Helm University of Victoria SRL CANADA: Consortium for SRL in Classrooms www.srlcanada.ca

2. Allyson Hadwin PhD student Lynda Hutchinson Introductions • Associate professor in Educational Psychology • Co-director of the Technology Integration & Evaluation Research • Instructor for ED-D101: Learning strategies for University Success Stephanie Helm • Research Coordinator Nancy Perry

3. Agenda

4. What is SRL? Self-regulation vs. Self-regulated learning vs. Self-directed learning

5. Clarifying terms… • Self-regulation • Self-regulated learning • Self-directed learning

6. What is Self-Regulation? • Self-control of thoughts and actions to achieve personal goals and respond to environmental demands (Zimmerman, 2008) • It involves … • Attending to key features of the environment • Resisting distractions • Persisting when tasks are difficult • Responding appropriately, adaptively, flexibly • Controlling or adapting emotions • Delaying immediate gratification to meet a more important long-term goal

7. Often emphasizes behaviour & emotions

8. Developmental vs. Educational Perspectives Developmental Focus Educational Focus • early years primarily • basic (executive processes) • behaviour & emotion control • atypical development • often situated in research labs & involving non-school tasks • school years & beyond • higher order processes • Learning in academic tasks • metacognition • typical and atypical learners • mainly situated in or oriented to classroom tasks & contexts

9. Self-regulation in LEARNING Involves … • Metacognition • Motivation • Strategic action

10. Metacognition • Awareness of learning strengths and weaknesses • Ability to analyze the demands of tasks/activities • Use of effective thinking and problem solving strategies to cope with the challenges tasks present Knowing... What you know What you don’t know What you need to know

11. Motivation • Genuine interest in learning • Belief that ability is incremental • Focus on personal progress • Willingness to try challenging tasks • View that errors present opportunities to learn • Belief that effort and effective strategy use will lead to success

12. Strategic Action • Choosing from a repertoire of strategies those best suited to the learning situation • Applying strategies effectively and efficiently

13. Self-Regulated Learning refers to: • Strategic engagement -- learners are engaged, thinking, proactive, responsive and reflective • It involves … • Complex metacognitive & social processes • Intent, agency, and goal directedness • Dynamic interplay between tasks, teachers, peers, parents, contexts & cultures • Personal history (knowledge, beliefs, experiences) • Adaptively responding to challenges • Reflectively learning from past experiences

14. SRL develops over a lifetime

15. I self-regulate my learning …

16. Self-regulated vs Self-directed • Share similar components… • Process or cycle • Involves self-control • Role of individual agency • Self-assessment • Self-monitoring • Self-management

17. How are they different? Taking control of your LEARNING Processes Strategically regulating learning Taking control of the Learning tasks, objectives and outcomes Task Choice • Self regulated learning • Origins in educational psychology • Self-defined goals + strategies • Choosing strategies for learning • Monitor, evaluate and regulate learning processes and products • Cognition, motivation, metacognition • Monitoring and Evaluation • Regulation or adaptation is the mark of SRL • Self-directed learning • Origins in adult education literature • Self-defined learning objectives + tasks • Choosing means of learning • Select, manage, and assess own learning activities • motivation, self-management • Reflection and Evaluation • Autonomy is the mark of self-directed learning

18. Why is SRL important in my classroom? Why should teachers care about SRL?

19. Why is SRL important? • Self-regulated learners are successful in and beyond school. • Higher motivation and confidence • Productive thinking skills and strategies(cognition) • Better academic performance • On task behaviours • All students benefit from instructional contexts that support SRL, even students with exceptional learning needs. • SRL promoting practices prompt teachers to consider the needs of all learners.

20. ...for early success in school • Low levels of self-regulation before school predict academic difficulties in school. • Emotional regulation (coping with frustration, persisting) • Behaviour regulation (following directions, working independently) • Children with poor regulation have problems with behaviour, completing academic tasks, and relating to peers and their teachers. • Performing well on tasks that require self-regulation predicts early school achievement even more powerfully than IQ scores and knowledge of reading and math. • Successful self-regulation in kindergarten predicts achievement through grade 6.

21. ... for middle years success We need to create environments that are psychologically safe and intellectually challenging—encourage autonomy but provide appropriate levels of support. See J. Eccles & Colleagues writings on the topic stage-environment fit.

22. ... for high school success • Learning to take responsibility for their learning and motivation • Preparing for transitions to work or post-secondary where they will need to work and learn independently & collaboratively • Learn to grapple with complex tasks • Experience learning challenges – challenges are opportunities to learn to SRL • Effort appropriately applied not just more effort • Context of tasks – bigger purpose, not just “things the teacher needs to have a grade”

23. ...for post-secondary success • Self-regulation is associated with: • Higher grade point average • Higher motivation and self-efficacy • Increased effort and persistence • Students who take ED-D101: • Higher GPA after taking the course • Very low risk of dropping out • Increased knowledge of self • Increased knowledge and use of strategies

24. ... in life outside of school • Ian Thorpe talks about goal setting (and self-regulation) in his training. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y9tZy9EXOs

25. Why promote SRL? • Critical 21st Century skills that extend beyond academic work to support learning and success:

26. Self-regulated learning occurs in classrooms where…. Adapted from: Perry, N. & Drummond, L. (2003). Becoming self-regulated readers and writers. The Reading Teacher, 56, 298-310.

27. (1) Students have lots of autonomy • Choices • Control over Challenge • Opportunities to collaborate with peers • Responsibility for evaluating their work

28. (2) Teachers provide instrumental support • Establish routines and consistent participation structures • Model & teach learning and problem solving strategies • Guide students’ thinking & performing • Guide students’ choices • Guide use of learning strategies • Provide informative and corrective feedback • Offer encouragement • Engage students in discussions about learning and self-regulated learning

29. (3) Teachers engage in non-threatening evaluation practices • Embedded in on-going activities • Emphasize processes as well as products • Focus on personal progress • Encourage students to view errors as opportunities to learn • Involve students in setting criteria for evaluation and self-evaluation

30. (4) Students experience complex tasks that provide opportunities to: • Have multiple goals • Focus on large chunks of meaning • Integrate content across curricular areas • Extend over long periods of time • Engage students in a wide range of cognitive and metacognitive processes • Allow for a wide range of processes and products

31. SRL and Personalized Learning • Complex tasks often are manifested through collaborative projects and themes, inquiry and problem-based approaches to learning. • Studying the lifecycles of plants and animals • Developing a school-wide composting plan from a study of ecology and conservation • http://www.teachtoutges.blogspot.com/ • Designing board games that reflect principles of probability and statistics • Creating a school-community garden

32. How can you promote SRL? Adapted from: Perry, N. & Drummond, L. (2003). Becoming self-regulated readers and writers. The Reading Teacher, 56, 298-310.

33. Start with a complex task That includes • Multiple goals that are connected in a meaningful way • Big ideas and large chunks of meaning • Content from across units or curricular areas • Extended work over time so students have opportunities to learn from experience and apply what they have learned • A range of processes and products

34. Create opportunities for… • Choicessuch as: • The topic to be studies • How learning will be demonstrated • Where to work • Who will help or who to collaborate with • How time will be utilized or managed

35. Create opportunities for… • Control over challengesuch as: • Choosing a familiar topic (new but interesting & important) • Drawing from strengths (balance writing, drawing, speaking etc.) • Choosing an appropriate workplace (who to sit with or a low distraction location, or room to spread out) • Choosing an appropriate partner, collaborator, or helper • Access to strategies to help when they get stuck

36. Create opportunities for… • Self-evaluating learning by: • Keeping a learning log or reflective journal • Choosing work samples to submit • Preparing for student-led conferences • Asking good questions • What have I learned • What would be a good topic for me • Where is a good place for me to work • Who would be a good person for me to work with • Rating processes (reading, writing, attention, helping) on a scale of… • Generating criteria for evaluating good learning

37. Consider how to support the development of SRL through… • Talking about learning, making thinking public • Modellingstrategies for SRL • Building conditional knowledge about strategies (when, where, why) • Using coaching rather than telling (What could you do differently? How will you know?) • Helpingstudents make good choices about learning & evaluation

38. Create opportunities for students to support each other by… • Sharing ideas (browse, borrow, build) • Sharing and comparing strategies • Sharing resources • Collaborating on projects • Seeking and giving assistance & feedback (suggestions) • Helpingstudents make good choices about learning & evaluation • Acknowledging each other’s expertise

39. Implement non-threatening evaluation practices… • Embedded in on-going activities • Emphasize processes as well as products • Focus on personal progress, vs. social comparisons • Excellence is defined on an individual basis • Encourage students to view errors as opportunities for learning • Cycles of activity so students can learn from errors and make it count • Involve students in setting criteria for evaluation and self-evaluation • Make expectations explicit

40. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten

41. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten (cont’d)

42. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten (cont’d)

43. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten (cont’d)

44. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten (cont’d)

45. Task: Building Volcanoes in Kindergarten (cont’d)

46. BREAK 9:30-9:45

47. ACTIVITY 1: Planning for SRL 9:45-10:30 Work with 1-2 peers: within your school if you want to design an activity you can do together across grades or subjects, OR from another school (same grade or subject) if you want to design an activity you each try to implement in your own school.

48. Where do learners go wrong? Supporting the emergence of SRL Allyson Hadwin and Stephanie Helm

49. SRL unfolds over 4 phases What you are supposed to do and why. Key processes in SRL Recognizing what is working and what isn’t. Making changes or adapting Task Perceptions Conditions→Operations→Products→Evaluations→Standards→ Monitoring Evaluating Large Scale Adaptation Task approach Strategies used or experimented with Goals & Plans Self-set goals & standards, Planned approach Task Enactment Winne & Hadwin (1998)

50. 5 Challenges students encounter Incomplete or inaccurate Task Perceptions Planning Co Lack of monitoring or inaccurate self-evaluation Failure to adapt or turn challenges into opportunities Goals-Plans without precision or commitment Where we usually intervene Weak strategy choices or no strategy