Self-Regulated Learning: Impact on Undergraduates' Academic Life

This essay examines the significant role of self-regulated learning in undergraduate academic success, highlighting its benefits for both academic performance and personal development. It delves into the cyclical process of self-regulated learning, involving planning, monitoring, and reflecti...Read More

Running head: SELF-REGULATED LEARNING
SELF-REGULATED LEARNING
Name of student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1SELF-REGULATED LEARNING
Self-regulation is not an academic performance skill, nor is it a mental ability. It is the
self-directive process that helps learners to transform their mental abilities into academic skills. It
is a matter of regulating self in a way that prepares an individual mentally to perform academic
skills in an extraordinary matter (Mega, Ronconi & De Beni, 2014). The paper aims to discuss
the ways self-regulated learning plays a significant role in undergraduates’ academic success and
the way it is beneficial to the students in not only their academic performance but also in their
personal development. The paper will provide the reasons self-regulated learning should be
encouraged in the academic sphere for its benefits.
Before discussing the benefits of self-regulated learning, it is essential to understand the
way self-regulated learning works. The cycle of self-regulated learning is a process, wherein
students make the entire plan of his or her learning. The student plans for a task, monitor their
performance and then reflect on the outcome. This specific cycle repeats as the students make
use of reflection to adjust, amend and prepare for the next task. The process is certainly not
simple and requires immense hard work and practices. However, it is a skill that can be mastered
by every student who is physically and mentally stable. The process also required to be tailored
for individual students differently and for specific tasks differently. In order to coherently
mention the steps of the cycle of self-learning, the steps are planning, setting goals and laying out
strategies. Following these steps, the student learns the skill of self-regulated learning. Although
the students perform the steps of learning self-regulated learning, teachers, instructors or
professors plays a vital role in guiding the students. Initially, it is the instructor that plays a major
role, therefore, in the end, it becomes easier for the professor to teach the self-regulated learned
students.

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According to Broadbent and Poon (2015), self-regulated learning is a way of preparing
and training own mind in order to perform in the best possible way in the academy. Through
self-regulation, a student becomes the controller of his or her mind, and they control their
learning in the most convenient way. A student can make good utilization of time management
as they see and understand that way their mind is adaptable. While doing these processes they
develop goals of learning and work towards achieving their goal. A sense of achievement and
fulfillment is felt by the student when they accomplish the goals set by them. The achievements
of the students work as a motivating factor in self-regulated learning for the students. Students
feel more confident about themselves, and their skills hence set more challenging goals in future.
Also, although self-regulating learning is a process, it is not limited to the school learning, the
student will carry the methods and the practices of self-regulated learning in their future
experiences as well involving workforce, social lives and families (Panadero, 2017).
Unlike intelligence, self-regulated learning is a skill that can be taught and learned. It is
certainly possible to work on self-regulated learning in order to change and improve the skill.
According to researches, it has been found that a person's metathinking, the ability to think about
what and how they are learning is much different and separate from their thinking abilities
known as cognition. It is the major key factor in discovering that student possesses the capability
of performing better if they have strong metacognition despite having a low score on the
intelligence scale. It has been found that it helps in better ways when students are taught an
effective strategy that shows the way self-regulated studies can be used (Şen, Yılmaz & Geban,
2015).
According to Ricard and Pelletier (2016), self-regulation can improve achievement and
prevent dropping out. Students with high levels of self-regulated learning skills are much less

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likely to drop out since it helps teenagers making studies convenient and confident about their
skills. Also, since self-regulated learning is effective, it helps the students with disabilities in
better ways to perform better. The reason teenagers drop out of school is due to finding studies
difficult or beyond capabilities, they often presume the subjects beyond their understanding.
Through self-regulated learning, the process becomes much simpler that helps the teenagers
continue their studies and pursue higher studies in order to secure a high paying job.
Self-regulated learning helps students cope with the changes in the university. As self-
regulated learning is a process that takes place within the self, for self and by self, any changes in
the external setting of mind play a less relevant role. Students expect less from the teachers and
professors and require less guidance for better performance. Students are likely to grasp the
teachings of the teachers more easily and quickly. It helps in becoming a more independent
learner who is more in need of organization’s learning resources such as libraries, internet and
related. Self-regulated learning develops the habit of working hard, getting homework done,
conduct researches, assignments and projects on appropriate time. Also, since the self-regulated
learning helps in making a student self-dependent and independent, and responsible, it is an
added advantage to the institution that can depend on these students for ideas for development
and innovation in the educational sector that can provide extra convenience. Educational
institutions can seek help for the future and the way they can improve their management for
mutual benefit (de la Fuente et al., 2015).
Although self-regulated learning has several benefits and advantages, it has some
disadvantages too which prevents the teachers from implementing it in the classroom. Self-
regulating learning is valid however, only a small number of students ever become great self-
regulators. Self-regulation is a process of immense hard work and constant practice along with

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guidance. Therefore, it requires a good amount of time invested in guidance. Due to the lack of
appropriate guidance, many students fail to promote self-regulated learning in their lives. Often
student finds it hard to continue to the practice which requires an external push for continuing the
process and practice. Also, if a student experience failure and decreased self-efficacy, it could
affect their ability and desire to self regulate. Traditional learning, on the other hand, does not
have such disadvantages (Bannert, Reimann & Sonnenberg, 2014).
As mentioned above, self-regulation is not an academic performance skill, nor is it a
mental ability. It is the self-directive process that helps learners to transform their mental abilities
into academic skills. Self-regulated learning has played an increasingly significant role in the
educational, and the method is only growing and endorsed. Self-regulating learning certainly has
several benefits which help students learn effectively. It is the ability to monitor and control own
behavior, emotions and thinking pattern and alter them in accordance with the demands of the
situation. Due to its benefits, the learning method is adapted and can be adapted by my
educational institute. It also has some disadvantages however, compared with the advantages, the
method should be implemented and adapted to the educational institutes.

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Referencing:
Bannert, M., Reimann, P., & Sonnenberg, C. (2014). Process mining techniques for analysing
patterns and strategies in students’ self-regulated learning. Metacognition and
learning, 9(2), 161-185.
Broadbent, J., & Poon, W. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement
in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The Internet and
Higher Education, 27, 1-13.
de la Fuente, J., Zapata, L., Martínez-Vicente, J. M., Sander, P., & Putwain, D. (2015). Personal
self-regulation, self-regulated learning and coping strategies, in university context with
stress. In Metacognition: Fundaments, Applications, and Trends (pp. 223-255). Springer,
Cham.
Mega, C., Ronconi, L., & De Beni, R. (2014). What makes a good student? How emotions, self-
regulated learning, and motivation contribute to academic achievement. Journal of
educational psychology, 106(1), 121.
Panadero, E. (2017). A review of self-regulated learning: six models and four directions for
research. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 422.
Ricard, N. C., & Pelletier, L. G. (2016). Dropping out of high school: The role of parent and
teacher self-determination support, reciprocal friendships and academic
motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 44, 32-40.

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Şen, Ş., Yılmaz, A., & Geban, Ö. (2015). The effects of process oriented guided inquiry learning
environment on students' self-regulated learning skills. Problems of Education in the 21th
Century, 66, 54-66.