A Mechanism Of Self-regulation For Learning And Its Instructional Implications

A Mechanism of Self-regulation for Learning and Its Instructional ImplicationsSince the 1960s, researches on learning psychology have been making great progress due to the spring-up of Cognitive Psychology. Psychologists such as Herbert Simon, R. M. Gagne, D. P. Ausubel, and J. Bruner have made great efforts to probe the process of human learning from cognitive perspective, and have thrown light on the inner psychological mechanisms of learning. However, these researches laid emphasis on information processing ( such as transformation and operation of information in the process of the acquisition of knowledge), lacking studies on the regulation of learning activities.This paper discusses the attributes, understanding dimensions and the influencing factors of self-regulation, by analyzing great quantities of relative researches, and outlines a new model of self-regulation in learning. It is our view that the function of all the concerning researches lie in revealing the mechanism of regulation in learning. We view learners as active, constructive participants in the learning process. Learners are assumed to actively construct their own meanings, goals, and strategies from the information available in the environment as well as information in their own minds. We also assume that learners can potentially monitor, control, and regulate certain aspects of their own cognition, motivation, and behavior as well as their environments. And there is some type of criterion or standard against which comparisons are made in order to assess whether the process should continue as is or if some type of change is necessary. And self-regulatory activities are mediators between personal and contextual characteristics and actual achievement or performance.We think that there are four phases in the process of self-regulation in learning: forethought, monitoring, control, and reaction, and there are four fields to be regulated: cognition, motivation, behavior, and context. Finally, we discuss the instructional implications of our model of self-regulation.