Self-Regulation

Self-Regulation is one’s ability to set goals, delay gratification, manage time, select study activities and atmosphere most conducive for learning, control emotions, and assess progress toward desired goals. Students display self-regulation when they take accountability for their education in preparation for life and career success. These skills may be learned and taught and include metacognition—thinking about one’s learning, deliberate practice—careful monitoring toward improvement and self-efficacy—believing one is capable of achieving a goal. (Nilson, 2013)

Nilson (2013) provides ideas for training students to learn or become aware of their self-regulation. One of the easiest ways to incorporate these ideas into your class is by providing students with opportunities (assignments) to reflect on what they have learned through the readings, videos, lectures, class discussions, or other learning activities. 

These reflection opportunities may be formal or informal and may be as simple as providing students time during class to think. In Hitting Pause, Rice offers 65 ideas for instructors to focus student attention, refocus attention, and capture student learning. You might ask, “What is one thing you learned today? What concepts and insights will you take away from class today? How does today’s class change previous perceptions you had about this topic?” (Rice, 2018, p. 63) See the appendices in Hitting pause: 65 lecture breaks to refresh and reinforce learningfor the complete list of ideas.

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