The Building Of A Structural Model Of Self-regulated Learning

With the progress of society, scientific knowledge accumulated by human beings keeps increasing at a race more rapid than ever. In the times of knowledge economy, learning has become a life style. Learning to study is of great value to individual development in contemporary society. The theory of self-regulated learning is a learning theory originated in such social background which emphasizes the freedom of self selection and self determination, and claims that human behavior is not determined by unconsciousness or god, but by self. In recent two decades, research on self-regulated learning has received increasing concern of western educational psychologists. self-regulated learning stresses the importance of learning to study, the importance of conscious activeness in study, and the responsibility of learner itself. However, although the number of researchers dedicated to study on self-regulated learning kept increasing, due to the diversity of research view there exists great conflict among the results of different studies. Basic theoretical problems such as the nature of self-regulated learning, the components of self-regulated learning and the relationship among the components have not been well addressed and less agreement has been acquired yet. The aim of present study is to clarify the nature and components of self-regulated learning both theoretically and empirically, and attempt to explore the structural relationship and build a discrepancy degression hierarchical model of self-regulated learning. The present study consists of three parts. The first part aims to parsing the connotation of the concept of self-regulated learning, disclosing the nature of self-regulated learning from 4 viewpoints based on the most advanced achievement in the study of neural substrates of cognitive monitoring in cognitive neuroscience. The second part focuses on the theoretical construction of structural model of self-regulated learning in goal-directed and feedback control principle. The third part was designated to verify the structural model of self-regulated learning empirically. Three steps were included: (1) To validate the existence of discrepancy degression process and metacognition in study through two experiments; (2) To examine the components of self-regulated learning by the method of confirmatory factor analysis with 1557 middle school students as participants; (3) To build a structural equation model of self-regulated learning with LISREL. The results showed that: (1) Self-regulated learning was underlain by biological and neural mechanisms. (2) Self-regulated learning was not only one kind of learning theory, but also one sort of thought approach, mental ability, and circle feedback loop. (3) Self-regulated learning was a discrepancy degression hiberarchy organization. Self-regulated learning was a successive moving process towards various goal representations through feedback control, during which a learner setting achievement goal, using leaning strategies to promote study, attempting to decrease the discrepancy between current learning results and achievement goal, and approaching towards the goal. Dependent on the variety of abstract level, self-regulated learning became discrepancy degression hiberarchy organization, which involved the modulation of metacognition, motivation, and volition. Feedback principle played a critical role in such a model, because it ensured self-regulated learning to be a circle loop. (4) The Lisrel model suggested that task value, self-efficacy, achievement goals, effort and perseverance, learning strategy and academic achievement were the main components of self-regulated learning. Learning strategy had direct effect on academic achievement. Achievement goals had not only direct effect, but also had an indirect effect on academic achievement through learning strategy. Task value effected learning strategy and effort and perseverance directly. Task value, self-efficacy, effort and perseverance all had an indirect effect on academic achieveme...