Here’s what self-regulation might look like in a middle school classroom:
1. Choice: what kinds of choices do you recall being given in your elementary/middle school classrooms? (Discuss). What to look for:
- Choice in routines/structures: where to sit, whom to work with, class rules and expectations.
- Choice in process/strategies: is there more than one way to solve/complete the task assigned
- Choice in presentation/product: can they do it their way? To what extent do students have a say in the content of the learning activity
2. Control Over Challenge: look for learning activities that allow students to complete the task at their own level- often referred to as open-ended activities.
3. Opportunities for peer and self-evaluation: with the ability to identify their own strengths and goal areas
4. Complex tasks: learning activities that extend over a long duration and involve multiple curricular/goal areas and products. For example a unit on government that involves elections, speech writing, researching party platforms and issues.
Interested in more info related to SRL, you can also check out the source of all things 100% accurate on the web, Wikipedia, and its SRL page.
Schunk (2001) states in the article Self -regulation through goal setting, the goals should have specificity, proximity and difficulty.
Specificity.
“Specific goals raise performance because they specify the amount of effort required for success.” (Schnuck, 2001, p.3)
Goals need to be specific in order to be achieved. This makes sense because It is important to have a clear understanding of what one is hoping to accomplish and even how they plan to accomplish it. Without clear goals, it becomes to easy to quit along to way as the expectations have yet to clearly be set.
Measurable.
We must be able to monitor progress so that the system maintains sustainability. (Pychyl, 2009, Podcast)
This also makes sense. In order to make sure you are on track to reach your goals, it is important to be able to track progress. I feel that this is an area that many people including myself can work on. Monitoring is important because it allows for changes to be made along the way. Setting proximal goals as a way to help achieve the overall goal can help to boost moral as the individual can see themselves reaching their target by completing the small goals. When it comes to measuring goals, how an individual chooses to do this is reflective of who they are, their strengths, areas for improvement and ultimately the goal. In many ways how an individual chooses to measure themselves along the way is just as important as the goal itself as it is what creates the guidelines.
Difficulty.
“High goals lead to greater effort and/or persistence than do moderate difficult, east or vague goals.” (Schunk, 1990, p.265)
If a goal is too hard, it is less likely to be completed, if a goal is too easy there is less motivation to push ones self to be better. For me this is a balancing act that I am still learning and wonder if others are too. We are all most likely familiar with setting unrealistic goals and either giving up quickly, or trying to achieve them and not succeeding. Although there is nothing wrong with failing. Or as I was once told,
First
Attempt
I
Learn
It can be hard to stick with a goal when it extremely difficult as it can often feel out of reach. On the other hand, easy goals don’t motivate use to see what we are really capable of.
What do you find works for you and doesn’t when it comes to reaching your goals?
Hello, I am currently taking a masters course in Self-Regulated Learning and wanted to share the following:
Eduardo Briceno’s TED Talk titled How to Get Better at the Things You Care About, introduced the idea of the Learning Zone and the Performance Zone to me. Growing up as an athlete, I was constantly in the Performance Zone as I needed to execute a goal as best as I could in order to achieve the best possible results. In my classroom, I know that students often focus on the Performance Zone because they want to achieve the best possible results on their tests, assignments, etc. However, this thought process is limiting students’ ability to make mistakes and learn from them.
My goal moving forward is to show my students all the benefits of working within the Learning Zone. It is within this area that we can set goals, make mistakes and focus on the areas that we have not yet mastered. Reflecting upon my classroom, I believe that the best learning happens within the Learning Zone as students are not afraid to make a misstep and receive constructive feedback. This type of learning is often hands-on, collaborative and messy. For example, my students create a stop motion animation for European Explorers in Social Studies. During this learning task, students often do not know how to create a stop motion animation, so they are regularly setting goals to meet deadlines and receiving critical feedback from classmates, teachers, etc. This activity always produces successful results because students are constantly monitoring their work and are encouraged to make mistakes in order to find the best results.
Moving forward, I want to find learning activities that encourage students to work within the Learning Zone rather than focusing on the final product in the Performance Zone. What has worked well for you in the past?
Resources
Eduardo Briceno (n.d.). How to get better at the things you care about. TED Talk. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about