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American Educational Research
http://aer.sagepub.com/content/45/1/166
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.3102/0002831207312909
2008 45: 166Am Educ Res J
Barry J. Zimmerman
Methodological Developments, and Future Prospects
Investigating Self-Regulation and Motivation: Historical Background,
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Investigating Self-Regulation and Motivation:
Historical Background, Methodological
Developments, and Future Prospects
Barry J. Zimmerman
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
The topic of how students become self-regulated as learners has attracted
researchers for decades. Initial attempts to measure self-regulated learning
(SRL) using questionnaires and interviews were successful in demonstrating
significant predictions of students’ academic outcomes. The present article
describes the second wave of research, which has involved the development of
online measures of self-regulatory processes and motivational feelings or
beliefs regarding learning in authentic contexts. These innovative methods
include computer traces, think-aloud protocols, diaries of studying, direct
observation, and microanalyses. Although still in the formative stage of devel-
opment, these online measures are providing valuable new information
regarding the causal impact of SRL processes as well as raising new questions
for future study.
KEYWORDS:self-regulated learning (SRL), motivation and SRL, event mea-
sures of SRL, cyclical analyses of SRL
Research on self-regulation of academic learning and performance emerged
more than two decades ago to answer the question of how students
become masters of their own learning processes. Unlike measures of mental
ability or academic performance skill, self-regulated learning (SRL) refers to
the self-directive processes and self-beliefs that enable learners to transform
their mental abilities, such as verbal aptitude, into an academic performance
skill, such as writing. SRL is viewed as proactive processes that students use to
acquire academic skill, such as setting goals, selecting and deploying strate-
gies, and self-monitoring one’s effectiveness, rather than as a reactive event
BARRY J. ZIMMERMAN is a Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
10016-4309; e-mail: bzimmerman@gc.cuny.edu. His research interests include the role
of social-cognitive and self-regulatory processes in students’ learning and motivation.
American Educational Research Journal
Manth 2008, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 166 –183
DOI: 10.3102/0002831207312909
© 2008 AERA. http://aerj.aera.net
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Emerging Issues in Self-Regulated Learning
167
that happens to students due to impersonal forces. Although SRL was viewed
as especially important during personally directed forms of learning, such as
discovery learning, self-selected reading, or seeking information from elec-
tronic sources, it was also deemed important in social forms of learning, such
as seeking help from peers, parents, and teachers. The core issue is whether
a learner displays personal initiative, perseverance, and adaptive skill. These
proactive qualities of learners stem from advantageous motivational feelings
and beliefs as well as metacognitive strategies (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2007).
Research on SRL has evolved as a result of developments in theoreti-
cal paradigms and methodologies (Boekaerts, Pintrich, & Zeidner, 2000;
Zimmerman & Schunk, 1989, 2001). During the 1970s and 1980s, researchers
such as Ann Brown, Joel Levin, Donald Meichenbaum, Michael Pressley,
Dale Schunk, and others focused on the impact of individual self-regulatory
processes, such as strategy use, goal setting, imagery, or self-instruction.
Typically, a student was trained to use a strategy, such as imagery, during
subsequent efforts to learn. These studies showed that these strategies were
usually effective in producing superior learning—even with young children.
However, these students seldom used the strategies spontaneously in non-
experimental learning contexts, such as when studying at home (Pressley &
McCormick, 1995). Clearly, other self-regulatory processes needed to be con-
sidered when explaining students’ failures to apply these strategies effec-
tively on their own.
An early defining moment in research on self-regulation was a sympo-
sium at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting in
1986 that was published in a special issue of Contemporary Educational
Psychology (Zimmerman, 1986b). It sought to integrate under a single rubric
research on such processes as learning strategies, metacognitive monitoring,
self-concept perceptions, volitional strategies, and self-control by researchers
such as Monique Boekaerts, Lyn Corno, Steve Graham, Karen Harris, Mary
McCaslin, Barbara McCombs, Judith Meece, Richard Newman, Scott Paris,
Paul Pintrich, Dale Schunk, and others.
An outcome of the 1986 symposium was an inclusive definition of SRL
as the degree to which students are metacognitively, motivationally, and behav-
iorally active participants in their own learning process (Zimmerman, 1986a).
This definition focused on students’ proactive use of specific processes or
responses to improve their academic achievement.
A number of instruments were developed during the 1980s that assessed
SRL as a metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral construct. For example,
the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI; Weinstein, Schulte &
Palmer, 1987) is an 80-item self-report inventory of students’ strategies for
enhancing their study practices. The LASSI involves 10 scales that assess skill,
will, and self-regulation strategies—a classification system that corresponds with
a metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral definition of self-regulation.
Scales classified as skill (or metacognition) include Concentration, Selecting
Main Ideas, and Information Processing. Scales classified as will (or motivation)
include Motivation, Attitude, and Anxiety. Scales classified as self-regulation
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Zimmerman
168
(or behavior) include Time Management, Study Aids, Self-Testing, and Test
Strategies. Students respond to items in each subscale using 5-point ratings that
range from not at all typical of me to very much typical of me.
Another questionnaire measure of SRL that was widely used is the
Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ; Pintrich, Smith,
Garcia, & McKeachie, 1993). This 81-item questionnaire is composed of two
major sections: Learning Strategies and Motivation. The Learning Strategies
section is further divided into a Cognitive-Metacognitive section, which
includes rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacog-
nitive self-regulation, and a Resource Management section, which includes
such behaviors as managing time and study environment, effort management,
peer learning, and help seeking. The Motivation section involves scales that
involve valuing, expectancy, and affect. The Valuing scales include Intrinsic-
Extrinsic Goal Orientation and Task Value. The Expectancy scales include
Self-Efficacy and Control of Learning, and the Affect section includes Test
Anxiety. The Motivation section, the Cognitive-Metacognitive section, and the
Resource Management Strategy section correspond to the three elements in
the definition of SRL: motivation, metacognition, and behavior. Students
respond to questions on these scales using 7-point ratings that range from not
at all true of me to very true of me.
A third instrument that was used to assess SRL as a metacognitive, moti-
vational, and behavioral construct was the Self-Regulated Learning Interview
Scale (SRLIS; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986, 1988). During this struc-
tured interview, students are presented six problem contexts to which they
are asked to respond, such as preparing for a test or writing an essay. The
answers to these open-ended questions are transcribed and coded into 14
self-regulatory categories that focus on motivation, metacognition, or behav-
ior. Included among the motivation categories are self-evaluation reactions
and self-consequences. Included among the metacognitive categories are goal
setting and planning, organizing and transforming, seeking information, and
rehearsing and memorizing. Included among the behavioral categories are
environmental structuring; keeping records and monitoring; reviewing texts,
notes, and tests; and seeking assistance from peers, teachers, and parents.
Students’ answers to each learning context were recorded for their frequency,
and students were also asked to rate their consistency in using a particular
strategy using a 4-point scale that ranges from seldom to most of the time.
Each of these three instruments measured processes that can be classi-
fied as self-regulatory according to the three defining SRL criteria, but some
of the names of these processes varied. For example, both the LASSI and the
MSLQ listed anxiety as a component of motivation, whereas the SRLIS interview
would have coded anxiety responses as a form of self-evaluation reactions.
These variations in names are probably due to differences in the assessment
instruments. The LASSI and the MSLQ were both retrospective reports, whereas
the SRLIS involves prospective answers to hypothetical learning contexts.
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Emerging Issues in Self-Regulated Learning
169
Research using these interview and questionnaire measures of students’
self-regulatory strategies revealed them to be significantly correlated with mea-
sures of course performance (Pintrich et al., 1993; Zimmerman & Martinez-
Pons, 1986). A self-regulation strategy measure also predicted students’
academic grades and their teacher’s ratings of their proactive efforts to learn
in class (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988). There was also evidence that
self-regulatory strategies mediated the effects of students’ verbal ability mea-
sures on their outcomes in writing (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994). Research
also showed that students who were high in their overall use of self-regulation
strategies sought help more frequently from peers, teachers, and parents and
learned more than students who did not seek help (Pintrich et al., 1993;
Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986).
These early studies produced clear evidence that SRL was an important
construct that merited further research. Winne and Perry (2000) classified the
LASSI, MSLQ, and SRLIS as aptitude measures of self-regulation, which they
defined as a relatively enduring attribute of a person that predicts future
behavior. Items on aptitude scales are designed to aggregate self-regulatory
responses over time by using ratings such as “most of the time” or that “is typ-
ical of me.” An alternate approach assesses SRL as an event, which is defined
as a temporal entity with a discernable beginning and an end. Although an
event spans time, it is demarcated by a prior event and a subsequent event.
An example of an event approach to the assessment is a phase model of SRL,
which separates students’ efforts to self-regulate into phases, such as before,
during, and after attempts to learn (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman, 2000). Because
event measures can assess sequential dependency of responses, they are well
suited for making causal inferences about online changes in self-regulation in
real time and authentic contexts.
This article will discuss recent efforts to assess students’ SRL online, such
as computer traces, think-aloud protocols, structured diaries, direct observa-
tions, and microanalytic measures. Because of this methodological emphasis,
I will focus on a limited number of innovative studies to describe in detail.
These new methods for conducting online research on SRL have given
rise to several key questions regarding changes in students’ use of self-
regulatory processes during the course of learning. A first emergent question
concerns how trace measures of SRL compare to self-report measures in
assessing changes in self-regulation during learning. A second emergent
question deals with whether increases in students’ level of SRL in personally
managed contexts, such as at home or in the library, are linked to improve-
ments in their overall academic achievement. A third emergent question
involves whether teachers can modify their classrooms to foster increases in
self-regulated learning among their students. A final emergent question con-
cerns the role of students’ motivational feelings and beliefs in initiating and
sustaining changes in their self-regulation of learning.
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Methodological Innovations and SRL Findings
Trace Logs of SRL Processes in Computer-Assisted Environments
A first emergent question concerns comparison of trace measures of SRL
to self-report measures in assessing changes in self-regulation during learn-
ing. One of the most technologically advanced efforts to answer this question
has been reported by Winne and his colleagues (Winne et al., 2006). They
have developed an innovative software program called gStudy that enables
learners to make notes, create glossaries, label and index content, construct
concept maps, search for information, chat and collaborate, and receive
coaching. This software environment serves as a shell that allows students to
upload texts and other materials for learning on virtually any topic.
For example, a student could use the note-taking function of the pro-
gram to extract key information or write a summary of a section of the text.
The notes are automatically keyed to the section to which they refer. They
can also be cut and pasted to form a personalized account of the material by
the learner. Supportive software features of gStudy, such as note taking, can
remain in the background or can be opened as a separate window. If a part
of the text is unclear, the student can use other features of gStudy to search
for relevant information in resident or Web-based sources.
This program also allows learners to seek help from social sources, such
as guided chats with a knowledgeable tutor or fellow student. This commu-
nicative feature permits learners to collaborate more effectively, such as
when two students are jointly writing a report from different locations. It
allows them to critique each other’s work, share insights, and paste their sec-
tions together. Clearly, the gStudy computer environment can provide stu-
dents with many more ways to self-regulate their learning than provided by
traditional instructional software.
In addition to its capability to offer diverse supports to enhance learn-
ing, gStudy also provides a log analyzer that unobtrusively records traces of
students’ methods of learning, such as the frequency and pattern of high-
lighting text, accessing various supports for learning, and obtaining feedback
from efforts to learn. Traces are defined as observable indicators about cog-
nition that students create as they engage in a task (Winne & Perry, 2000).
Researchers can reconstruct an event description of a student’s methods of
study from these traces. These logs can be used to link students’ methods of
study to academic outcomes in real time. This trace information can also be
used pedagogically to help struggling learners see which strategies work best
for them. Measures of students’ self-regulatory processes and their outcomes
can be depicted in terms of simple frequencies or in graphic form. The
gStudy program also permits learners to keep a personal diary regarding
metacognitive judgments, such as not understanding certain material and
deciding to return to it later. The capacity of the computer to record all of
these events unobtrusively is extraordinary, and it provides researchers with
a high level of detail about learners’ methods of studying, their self-beliefs
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about their competencies, and their progress. This leads us to ask, How
effective is the gStudy environment, and how do trace measures of SRL com-
pare with self-report measures?
The accuracy of college students’ self-reports of their study methods and
achievement gains while using the gStudy software environment was inves-
tigated by Winne and Jamieson-Noel (2002). The academic task involved a
seven-paragraph description of how lightning develops. After the students
studied the text, they were administered a questionnaire about their meth-
ods of studying. For example, they were asked how often they used various
study methods that the software had recorded as traces of studying. The dis-
parity between students’ traces and the self-report measures was quantified
in terms of two indices of calibration: bias and accuracy. Bias refers to the
direction of students’ misjudgments of knowing, namely, to over- or under-
estimates of their knowledge. Accuracy refers to the absolute levels of cor-
rectness of students’ judgments (ignoring the direction of these judgments).
These two indices of calibration were applied to students’ reports of using
self-regulatory processes, such as planning, setting objectives, highlighting,
taking notes, creating organizers, and reviewing. The students were also
given a posttest on the subject matter and were asked to make estimates of
the correctness of their answers to each item on the test. This measure was
labeled students’ calibration of achievement judgments.
Regarding these achievement judgments, the students’ index of bias
indicated that they were slightly overconfident, but the students’ index of
accuracy indicated that they were very accurate in an absolute sense. Despite
this high overall level of accuracy, there were sizable individual differences
between the students, which indicated that certain students were at risk
when judging their level of achievement. The students’ calibration of the
accuracy of their achievement was significantly correlated with their actual
posttest total score.
In contrast to the students’ success in monitoring their achievement, they
experienced great difficulty in tracking their use of self-regulatory strategies.
For example, with regard to bias, students reported overestimates of planning
by 29% and overestimates of reviewing figures by 26%. Interestingly, the trace
logs revealed that contrary to students’ reports, few resident strategies in
gStudy were used during this study. These strategies included creating analo-
gies, examples, mnemonics, and questions. The accuracy of students’ self-
regulatory judgments was uncorrelated with their scores on the academic posttest.
Collectively, these results indicate that self-reports are often incongru-
ent with trace measures of self-regulatory processes when studied in a spe-
cialized learning environment, such as gStudy. Winne and colleagues (Winne
& Perry, 2000) have cautioned that trace measures should be interpreted in
conjunction with other measures of SRL. For example, a high frequency of
note-taking trace could mean that a student is not selective in recording
information, instead being comprehensive. When additional measures, such
as interviews, are used in conjunction with trace measures, more valid con-
clusions can be drawn. The development of high-tech study environments
Emerging Issues in Self-Regulated Learning
171
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is yet in its infancy, but its potential for assisting students to use SRL strate-
gies is impressive.
Think-Aloud Protocol Measures of SRL in Hypermedia Environments
A second emergent question concerns whether increases in students’
level of SRL in personally managed contexts, such as at home or in the
library, are linked to improvements in their overall academic achievement.
Azevedo and his colleagues (Azevedo & Cromley, 2004; Azevedo, Cromley,
& Siebert, 2004) developed an elaborate think-aloud method for assessing
students’ self-regulated learning processes as an online event in a hyperme-
dia learning environment (HLE). A think-aloud protocol involves students’
reports about their thoughts and cognitive processes while performing a task
(Ericsson, 2006).
HLEs have much potential for improving learning, but they require per-
sonal initiative and skill, because hyperlinks are nonlinear in format and
require students to integrate multiple representations (e.g., text, diagrams, and
animations). Azevedo and colleagues have concluded that learning in a
hypermedia environment requires self-regulation skills to navigate, organize,
and combine information into viable mental models. These skills include goal
setting, monitoring, and controlling cognition, motivation, and behavior.
In recent research, Greene and Azevedo (2007) studied learning from a
science module on the human circulatory system by middle and high school
students. The module was selected from an Encarta DVD on the topic, and it
involved nearly 17,000 words, 107 hyperlinks, and 35 illustrations. The instruc-
tional session lasted 40 minutes. After receiving instructions regarding the
learning task and features of the Encarta program, the students were told to
say everything that they were thinking while they were working on the task.
An advantage of the think-aloud methodology is that it is open-ended,
and the students’ responses are coded into self-regulatory process categories
by trained observers at a later point in time. A high degree of reliability was
attained in coding nearly 18,000 verbal segments. Clearly, this is a very labor-
intensive methodology. The coding system involved 35 SRL categories that
were grouped conceptually into five major areas: planning, monitoring, strat-
egy use, task difficulty and demands, and motivation. These major process
areas have been widely recognized and included in other research method-
ologies. The primary dependent measure was the quality of the student’s dia-
gram of the human circulatory system.
The results showed that six of the categories of SRL were significant pre-
dictors of the quality of the students’ mental model. These categories fell in
three major process areas. Within the area of strategy use, the following four
of the categories attained significance: coordinating informational sources,
inferences, knowledge elaboration, and expectation of adequacy of informa-
tion. Regarding the area of monitoring, the category of feelings of knowing
proved to be significant predictors of the students’ mental model, but no cat-
egories within the areas of planning or motivation were significant predictors.
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Within the task difficulty and demands area, the category of control of con-
text unexpectedly correlated negatively with the quality of students’ mental
models. This category was scored each time a student accessed a hyperlink,
and apparently students who accessed it frequently were not integrating the
material into their mental model of blood circulation.
Clearly, the think-aloud methodology is an effective way to assess stu-
dents’ self-regulatory processes online, but this research needs to be extended
to see if planning and motivation will emerge as significant predictors of
students’ mental models.
Structured Diary Measures of SRL
The third emergent question concerned whether teachers can structure
their classroom instruction to foster increases in SRL among their students.
Several recent innovative intervention studies have addressed this question
using structured diaries and time-series data. For example, Schmitz and Wiese
(2006) studied a sample of civil engineering students at a German university
over a 5-week period. The study was designed on the basis of a cyclical
model of self-regulated learning involving three sequential phases: preaction,
action, and postaction (Zimmerman, 2000).
The intervention was composed of four weekly 2-hour training sessions
that focused on key self-regulatory processes, such as goal setting, time man-
agement, planning, behavioral self-motivation, cognitive self-motivation, and
concentration. The first weekly session trained students to set goals that were
concrete, realistic, challenging, and proximal. The second session trained stu-
dents to avoid procrastination by daily and weekly planning using prestruc-
tured time-management forms. The third weekly session taught behavioral
self-motivation along with further time-management training. Self-motivation
involved setting self-rewards and arranging a supportive environment. The
fourth weekly session focused on cognitive self-motivation and concentra-
tion. The former measure of SRL involved self-instruction designed to stop
negative thoughts and encourage positive ones. Concentration training
involved the use of systematic relaxation. The diaries were collected at the
end of each week during the study.
The SRL diaries were structured using a series of event questions regard-
ing the students’ study session. The questions pertaining to the before phase
dealt with the learning goal that was set for the day (i.e., goal setting) and
their thoughts about how to proceed (i.e., planning). The student’s motiva-
tion for studying was queried using items such as “I find the topic interest-
ing” (i.e., intrinsic interest), “I want to do well on the next test” (i.e., extrinsic
interest), and “I can remain calm when facing learning difficulties because I
can rely on my abilities” (i.e., self-efficacy). Questions regarding the after
phase dealt with the following issues: How much total time was spent in
studying, how much time was spent studying effectively, and whether the
students reached the individual goal that they had listed before studying.
Other questions concerned how much of the material was actually mastered
Emerging Issues in Self-Regulated Learning
173
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and whether the students skipped some of the tasks that they wanted to
accomplish.
In addition to the online diary of SRL events, the students completed a
questionnaire at the outset and the end of the study that involved an apti-
tude measure of self-regulation. The questionnaire included items that
assessed affect and motivation, learning strategies, and volitional strategies.
The Affect and Motivation scales assessed positive and negative affect, intrin-
sic and extrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy. The Learning Strategies scale
assessed monitoring, management of internal resources, attention, and time
management. The Volitional Strategies scale measured self-motivation, atten-
tion, procrastination, and handling distractions. The control group students
were pre- and posttested but did not receive SRL training or use the diaries.
The authors conducted three types of analyses. First, pretest and posttest
measures were compared for the experimental and control groups. Students
who received self-regulatory training displayed significant improvements
in the following questionnaire measures: intrinsic studying motivation, self-
efficacy, effort, attention, self-motivation, handling distractions, and procrasti-
nation. Students in the control group displayed increases in only self-motiva-
tion during the study. A second analysis analyzed linear trends in self-regulation
that were reported in the diaries during the course of the 5-week intervention.
These trend analyses revealed significant increases in the following forms of
self-regulation and motivation: self-efficacy, positive affect, personal under-
standing, and satisfaction. The third method of analysis involved interrupted
time-series analyses. These event analyses compared changes from the week
before a particular self-regulatory process was taught to 2 weeks after train-
ing. According to the diaries of students in the training group, there were sig-
nificant improvements in time management, planning, and concentration and
a significant decrease in procrastination during the week following training
to use those specific self-regulatory processes.
The diary proved to be a more sensitive online measure of studying than
traditional questionnaire measures. The average amount of studying per day
by these engineering students was nearly 4 hours, although they did not study
every day. Of particular methodological interest was the comparison of the
results of a control-group analysis with those of the time-series analysis. When
diary measures were analyzed using time-series methodology, they were
shown to be of equal or greater sensitivity to change than pre- and posttest
questionnaire measures of SRL by students in the training group. In contrast,
control-group students displayed virtually no changes in use of SRL processes
from pre-to posttesting. Clearly, a diary time-series methodology has much to
offer as an online way to assess training effects in ecologically valid contexts.
Although this study did not include measures of academic achievement, it did
show that college students who were trained in SRL processes were effective
in reaching the study goals that they set for themselves.
Diary measures of SRL have also been used with elementary school chil-
dren in Germany. A recent study by Stoeger and Ziegler (2007) addressed
the emergent question of how teachers can structure their regular classroom
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Emerging Issues in Self-Regulated Learning
175
assignments to convey SRL processes. These researchers trained teachers of
fourth-grade students to implement SRL processes during mathematical
instruction according to a cyclical model (Zimmerman, Bonner, & Kovach,
1996). This instructional model emphasizes such self-regulatory processes as
monitoring and self-evaluation, goal setting and strategic planning, strategy
implementation and monitoring, and strategic outcome monitoring.
Teachers were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control
group. Nine classroom teachers were trained to convey the underlying cycli-
cal model and to develop homework exercises, quizzes, and a final exami-
nation in arithmetic skill. The control group of eight teachers gave the same
homework assignments and tests but received no self-regulation training. The
students in both experimental conditions kept diary accounts of SRL events,
such as when and for how long they studied, what kinds of breaks were
taken, what types of distractions were present, whether they studied alone,
and where studying takes place. Teachers in the SRL training condition gave
students a copy of the cyclical model of self-regulation along with a picture
of a “learning expert,” who recommended self-regulatory practices that the
teacher modeled for them. Students were given daily feedback regarding their
homework and quiz scores and were encouraged to set challenging goals and
choose an effective strategy for themselves. Students in the experimental
group were given points on the basis of their homework answers.
The students also completed an aptitude questionnaire that assessed
their interests, attitudes, and self-related cognitions before and after a 5-week
training program. All scales were adapted to focus on the domain of mathe-
matics. Self-efficacy beliefs were assessed as well as time management skills.
Items measuring feelings of helplessness were included as well as items
assessing students’ learning goal orientations and their willingness to exert
effort. The math achievement test covered the subject matter that had been
presented in the classes during the 5-week training period.
The results showed that students in the training group reported signifi-
cantly greater increases in time management skill and self-reflection on their
learning than those in the control group. Students in the self-regulation train-
ing condition also displayed increases in several measures of motivation.
Their willingness to exert effort, their task interest, their learning-goal orien-
tation, and their perceptions of self-efficacy all increased after training, and
their feelings of helplessness declined significantly. Students in the self-
regulation training group displayed significantly greater gains in math achieve-
ment than students in the control group. Interestingly, all students in the
self-regulation training group passed an entrance exam for admittance to a
higher level school, which was an increase of 50% compared to past cohort
groups of students.
Stoeger and Ziegler (2007) also conducted an event analysis of the
growth rate in students’ homework scores and quizzes during the course of
the study. Hierarchical statistics revealed a linear increase in math skill over
the 5-week training period, but this growth curve did slow as the students
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approached mastery toward the end of the training period. Students’ self-
efficacy perceptions prior to training were also significantly related to their
growth in math skill. The variables of self-efficacy beliefs, learning-goal ori-
entation, and time-management skills were linked to an increase in math skill.
Thus, the results of this training study showed that multiweek training
in time-management skills can be implemented by teachers as part of their
classroom math assignments. When compared to control students, SRL
trained students displayed significant increases in homework effectiveness,
time-management skills, a broad array of self-reflection measures, and math
performance skill. The study showed that self-regulation interventions
involving diary logs of self-regulatory events can be used effectively with ele-
mentary school youngsters, and this classroom training conducted by teachers
enhanced not only students’ use of SRL processes but also their achievement
in mathematics.
Observation and Qualitative Measures of SRL
Another approach to answering the emergent question of whether
teachers can adapt their regular classroom activities and assignments to fos-
ter increases in their students’ SRL was reported by Perry and her colleagues
(Perry, Vandekamp, Mercer, & Nordby, 2002). They used a variety of quan-
titative and qualitative measures, such as observation forms, portfolio assess-
ments, and interviews of teachers and students, to study changes in SRL
during classroom learning events.
For example, in a study of writing acquisition by second and third graders,
Perry (1998) trained teachers in SRL during weekly classroom visits over a
6-month period. Three of the teachers were designated as high in support for
SRL, and two teachers were labeled as low in support for SRL, on the basis of
their answers to a questionnaire regarding five criteria. These included giving
students choice of writing tasks, permitting them to designate the level of chal-
lenge of the writing task, allowing them to self-evaluate, and soliciting support
from teachers and peers. Students of the three high-SRL teachers were sur-
veyed using a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of personal con-
trol and teacher support in their classroom. The students were also asked
about their beliefs, values, and expectations regarding writing. Finally, the
teachers ranked their students in terms of their achievement levels, and five
high and five low achievers were selected for further assessment in each
teacher’s class. These students were observed in classroom contexts and were
interviewed subsequently.
The results revealed that students in high-SRL classes were more engaged
in their writing than students in low-SRL classes. The former students also
monitored and evaluated their writing progress more productively than con-
trol students. Finally, students in the high-SRL classrooms sought instrumen-
tal support from one another and their teachers more frequently than students
in low-SRL classes. Unexpectedly, students in the high- and low-SRL classes
did not display significant differences in measures of motivation (i.e., beliefs,
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values, and expectations regarding writing), which Perry attributed to the inef-
fectiveness of these measures. Thus, high-SRL teachers offered their students
more opportunities for controlling their learning experiences than low-SRL
teachers. Unfortunately, there was no standardized measure of students’ writ-
ing achievement, and this limitation precluded determination of the effects of
students’ SRL on their writing competence.
Although the motivation measures that Perry included in her study
(beliefs, values, and expectations regarding writing) did not distinguish
between high- and low-self-regulated learners, these measures have gener-
ally shown relatively strong correlations with students’ use of specific self-
regulatory processes (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007). For example, Stoeger
and Ziegler (2007) found that students given SRL training displayed a greater
increase in effort, task interest, learning-goal orientation, and perceptions
of self-efficacy than control-group students. Schmitz and Wiese (2006) also
reported significant improvements due to SRL training on a number of mea-
sures of motivation, such as intrinsic studying motivation, self-efficacy,
effort, attention, self-motivation, handling distractions, and procrastination.
Microanalytic Measures and Cyclical Analyses of SRL
A fourth emergent question concerns the role of students’ motivational
feelings and beliefs in initiating and sustaining changes in their self-regulation
of learning. To investigate this and other issues as an event during online
efforts to learn, my colleagues and I developed a microanalytic methodol-
ogy for assessing SRL in three sequential phases (Cleary & Zimmerman, 2001;
Kitsantas & Zimmerman, 2002).
In this approach, specific questions are used to measure well-established
self-regulatory processes and motivational beliefs or feelings at key points
before, during, and after learning. The learner is asked open- or closed-ended
questions that produce both qualitative and quantitative data, respectively.
The questions are brief and task specific in order to minimize disruptions in
learning. For example, self-efficacy can be assessed during a math problem-
solving session by showing the learner a scale that ranged from 0 to 100 (with
10 =not sure, 40 =somewhat sure, 70 =pretty sure, and 100 =very sure) and
asking, “How sure are you that you will be able to solve these math prob-
lems?” Notice that this self-efficacy measure pertained directly to the next per-
formance event (i.e., the solution of these problems) rather than to a learner’s
overall mathematical aptitude. A key feature of these measures is that they
can be used during repeated efforts to learn, and changes in a learner’s self-
efficacy over practice efforts can be plotted to show trends. In addition, the
learner’s estimates of self-efficacy can be calibrated against his or her actual
performance.
This methodology has been used to study the effects of SRL processes
and motivational beliefs as an event within and across the three phases of a
cyclical model of SRL (Zimmerman, 2000). To date, microanalytic measures
have been created to assess all SRL processes and motivational beliefs in the
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Zimmerman
178
cyclical model in Figure 1 except for goal orientation, which focuses on the
purposes of achievement tasks rather than on a specific event. Despite their
brevity, these microanalytic measures have proven to be reliable and pre-
dictive of changes in functioning (Kitsantas & Zimmerman, 2002).
The model assumes significant correlations between variables within a
particular SRL phase, and it assumes potentially causal influences of SRL
processes across phases. The before, or forethought, phase involves a num-
ber of well-known motives to self-regulate, such as self-efficacy beliefs, out-
come expectations, task interest or value, and goal orientation as well as two
Figure 1.
Phases and subprocesses of self-regulation. From “Motivating Self-
Regulated Problem Solvers” by B. J. Zimmerman and M. Campillo, 2003, in
J. E. Davidson and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.),
The Nature of Problem Solving
, p. 239.
New York: Cambridge University Press. Copyright 2003 by Cambridge University
Press. Adapted with permission.
Forethought Phase
Task Analysis
Goal setting
Strategic planning
Self-Motivation Beliefs
Self-efficacy
Outcome expectations
task interest/value
Goal orientation
Self-Reflection Phase
Self-Judgment
Self-evaluation
Causal attribution
Self-Reaction
Self-satisfaction/affect
Adaptive/defensive
Performance Phase
Self-Control
Self-instruction
Imagery
Attention focusing
Task strategies
Self-Observation
Metacognitive monitoring
Self-recording
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key self-regulatory processes: goal setting and strategic planning. There is
growing empirical support for this model. For example, research has shown
that students’ level of self-efficacy about their writing performance was pos-
itively correlated with the grade goals they set for themselves as well as with
the grades they actually received in a writing course (Zimmerman & Bandura,
1994). In addition, there is evidence that students’ performance-phase strategic
processes and self-recorded outcomes are linked causally to self-reflection-phase
outcome attributions and feelings of satisfaction (Zimmerman & Kitsantas,
1997). Finally, research (Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 1999) has shown that
students’ self-reflection-phase feelings of satisfaction with their writing per-
formance were predictive of two forethought-phase sources of motivation
regarding further efforts to improve their writing skill: self-efficacy and task
interest or valuing. Clearly, students’ use of high-quality SRL processes can
enhance their motivation to continue additional cycles of learning.
To date, microanalyses of SRL processes and sources of motivation have
been used most frequently to investigate learning of athletic skills, such as
free-throw shooting, volleyball serving, and dart throwing, and these mea-
sures of SRL revealed significant differences between experts, nonexperts,
and novices (Cleary & Zimmerman, 2001; Kitsantas & Zimmerman, 2002).
When compared to nonexperts and novices, experts made the most exten-
sive use of SRL processes and reported the most positive motivational
beliefs and feelings. Although high levels of expertise take years to develop
(Ericsson, 2006), there is recent evidence (Cleary, Zimmerman, & Keating,
2006) that novices who are taught multiphase SRL strategies displayed sig-
nificantly greater athletic skill and improved motivational beliefs during rel-
atively brief practice sessions than novices in an untutored control group.
Implications and Topics for Future SRL Research
The first emergent question concerned how closely trace measures of SRL
would compare to self-report measures in assessing changes in self-regulation
during learning. Winne and his colleagues (Winne & Jamieson-Noel, 2002)
addressed this question using trace logs of SRL from students in a computer-
assisted study environment and found low levels of calibration. In contrast,
Schmitz and Wiese (2006) found a relatively high degree of correspondence
between online diary measures of studying and summary questionnaire items
at the end of a 5-week training episode in traditional (i.e., non-computer-
assisted) learning environments.
It is interesting to note that Winne and Jamieson-Noel (2002) discovered
that students’ calibration in reporting self-regulatory processes was significantly
lower than their calibration in reporting achievement outcomes. Research in
noncomputer contexts (Stone, 2000) has similarly revealed a positive relation
between students’ use of SRL processes and their calibration of knowledge
(i.e., achievement outcomes), although the direction of causation has not been
established. Clearly, more research is needed regarding the accuracy of
students’ reports of using self-regulatory processes. Because calibration is a
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Zimmerman
180
key measure of the accuracy of one’s self-monitoring, it will continue to be a
major topic in future research on SRL.
The second emergent question concerns whether changes in students’
level of SRL in personally managed contexts is linked to improvements in their
overall academic achievement. Azevedo and his colleagues (Azevedo &
Cromley, 2004; Azevedo et al., 2004) addressed this issue by using think-aloud
measures of SRL to investigate students’ learning in a hypermedia environ-
ment. They discovered that 6 of 35 self-regulatory process categories identi-
fied in students’ think-aloud protocols were predictive of high-quality mental
models of a science topic (i.e., blood circulation). These results provide an
affirmative answer to the emergent question. However, future researchers
need to establish the generality of these findings. The think-aloud methodol-
ogy should be extended to HLEs on other science topics and other subject
matter, such as math or a foreign language. It is possible that different SRL
process categories may come into play when a different topic is studied.
The third emergent question involves whether teachers can modify their
classrooms to foster increases in self-regulated learning among their students.
The study by Stoeger and Zigler (2007) demonstrated that regular classroom
teachers could be trained to teach specific SRL skills to fourth-grade children
as part of their regular math assignments during a 5-week intervention. These
affirmative results implied that similar interventions might be effective in other
areas of students’ academic functioning, such as note taking, test preparation,
reading for comprehension, and writing. The study by Schmitz and Wiese
(2006) showed that college students could also profit from training in key SRL
skills and diary monitoring skills. The two German studies revealed impor-
tant advantages for using time-series statistical analyses to assess changes in
SRL online during the course of training. This methodology offers researchers
not only a sensitive measure of SRL but also a graphic depiction of the shape
of the learning curve. However, it should be noted that aptitude measures
of SRL were included as well as online event measures in both of the two
German studies and, although less sensitive to change, did prove useful in
measuring changes in self-regulation.
In contrast to the German researchers’ focus on students’ SRL in out-
of-class contexts, Perry (1998) focused on students’ SRL within the context
of elementary school classrooms. Her online event measures of students’ self-
regulatory processes proved useful during classroom observations. Her
methodological approach involved triangulating various qualitative measures,
such as students’ observations, portfolios, interviews, and measures of acade-
mic performance. This methodology enabled Perry to identify classroom social
and physical environments that curtail students’ use of SRL processes and rec-
ommend ways for teachers to modify them to increase students’ level of self-
regulation. The effects of classroom affordances and constraints on changes in
students’ SRL should be studied further. Perry’s qualitative methodology for
assessing classroom events is well suited to answer these questions as well as
other social context questions, such as how SRL is both an individual and a
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social process and what individual and sociocultural factors influence students’
development of SRL (Butler, 2002).
The final emergent question concerns the role of students’ motivational
feelings and beliefs regarding initiating and sustaining changes in their self-
regulation of learning. Microanalytic efforts to answer this question have
revealed a close relation between key SRL processes and many sources of
motivation during three sequential phases of learning. Event measures of self-
motivation constructs were developed for administration during the appro-
priate phase of learning by an interviewer. Among the motivational measures
that were developed for administration during the forethought phase of SRL
were self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectancies, and task interest or values.
Additional measures of motivation, such as anxiety and perhaps goal orien-
tation, should be developed in future research. Among the motivational mea-
sures that were developed for administration during the self-reflection phase
were attribution judgments and self-satisfaction reactions. In terms of future
research topics, there is a vital need to extend a microanalytic methodology
to learning of academic tasks over longer periods of time when students’
motivation is expected to wane. There is also a need to extend the use of this
methodology to assess the effectiveness of academic interventions designed
to motivate recalcitrant students to engage in SRL.
Conclusion
Although aptitude measures of SRL have and will continue to provide
useful information regarding students’ methods of learning, online event
measures of SRL offer detailed information concerning the interrelation of
the various processes in real time, such as the impact of goal setting on self-
monitoring. This contextually linked information is especially useful when
diagnosing and remediating self-regulatory dysfunctions. For example, a stu-
dent who reports knowing a strategy on an SRL aptitude questionnaire may
not know how to adapt it to work in a particular academic context. At its
core, SRL involves a dynamic feedback loop (Butler & Winne, 1995; Hattie
& Timperley, 2007; Zimmerman, 1989), and online event measures can cap-
ture subtle changes in functioning during each learning cycle. To date, there
have been few attempts to study SRL over multiple feedback cycles, but such
studies are needed in order to track students’ adaptations based on personal
feedback. This research can uncover the dynamic nature of self-enhancing
cycles of learning as well as self-defeating cycles.
Although significant progress has been made in answering the four
emergent questions about SRL, further research is needed to extend these
findings. The innovative online measures of SRL that were discussed are still
in an early stage of development and will need to be modified to assess SRL
in different academic content areas. Clearly, these online measures show
great promise in providing more complete answers to the ultimate question
that launched research on SRL: How do students become masters of their
own learning processes?
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Note
I would like to thank Patricia Alexander and Allan Wigfield for their helpful com-
ments on an earlier draft of this article.
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