Improving Self-Regulated Learning Style amongst Students

Abstract

Learning is a goal directed act, acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing existing knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. Learning may be viewed as a concept and like all other concepts; it lacks a generally accepted definition. However, there appear to be a consensus that it is a relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of practice or experience. The purpose of education is not merely to enable students to accumulate facts. A major goal is that by the time students finish school; they should be able to solve problems that will enable them to be happy and successful in life and to contribute to society. To achieve this goal, students need to develop high order thinking skills through self-regulation of learning. Self-regulated learning is learning that is guided by metacognition (thinking about one's thinking), strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn. Metacognition was regarded as a valuable term because it emphasized how the “self’ was the agent in establishing learning goals and tactics and how each individual’s perceptions of the self and task influenced the quality of learning that ensued.