Reflections: Literautre as data

Cleary, T. J. and Zimmerman, B. J. (2004), Self-regulation empowerment program: A school-based program to enhance self-regulated and self-motivated cycles of student learning. Psychol. Schs., 41: 537–550. doi: 10.1002/pits.10177

This article describes a program that was developed to be used within the middle school system. The Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP) uses “micro analytic assessment procedures to assess students’ self-regulation beliefs and strategies” and then goes on to document different techniques when directly teaching strategies within “a cyclical, self-regulatory feedback loop.” The term self efficacy comes into the picture “when a student no longer believes that they possess the ability to learn a particular academic task.” My “first step in training individuals to become self-regulated is to cultivate the belief that academic success is under their control.” The SREP is designed to explicitly define problem areas, combat “self-defeating cycles of self-motivational beliefs” by developing and implementing interventions, assessing the intervention's efficacy, and empowering students by “cultivating positive self-motivational beliefs, increasing their base knowledge of learning strategies, and helping them to apply these strategies.”

This article suggests that are three cyclical phases that learners use to regulate their academic behaviours. These are described as forethought, performance control, and self-reflection. Cleary and Zimmerman have found that these are the strategies commonly used by students who possess self-regulation skills and they “involve learners to proactively direct their behaviour or strategies to achieve self-set goals.”

The SREP suggests the importance of “cognitive modeling (i.e., thinking aloud during execution of strategy), cognitive coaching (i.e., hints and feedback provided to the student as they execute a strategy), and guided practice sessions.” The limitations of this model are the same limitations for any strategy developed for an at-risk student because “the quality of students’ participation in class as well as the quality of their peer relationships are related to the students’ ability to succeed.” Cleary and Zimmerman also acknowledged that students who have low intellectual potential, weak executive-functioning skills, emotional disabilities may be resistant to participating in school-related programs.

Paul (1967) describes the ultimate research question as “what treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, under which set of circumstances?” I have tried to keep this thought in mind when reflecting on my inquiry draft proposal. I need to make sure that I create a highly specific research question, and use “qualitative and microanalytic assessment procedures, which have been gaining increased acceptance as a reliable and valid approach for assess self-regulation in students.”