The Importance of Self-Regulated Learning for Undergraduate Students

This essay examines the concept of self-regulated learning (SRL) and its effectiveness in achieving academic success for undergraduate students. Using a case study of a dedicated first-year student named Saeed, the essay explores how SRL, encompassing metacognition, strategic goal-setting, and time management, can help balance academic demands with other commitments. The argument is supported by discussing how SRL enables efficient time management, leading to a balance between studies and extracurricular activities, and also helps students learn faster by allowing them to control their learning process, identify strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate their progress. The essay also addresses a potential rebuttal: the challenges of time management and the need for maturity in implementing SRL effectively. Ultimately, the essay concludes that SRL offers a more effective approach to academic success compared to traditional learning methods, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and self-evaluation for students like Saeed.

Running head: SELF REGULATED LEARNING
PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:
Date:
WORD COUNT: 1239 WORDS

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Self-Regulated Learning
For the purpose of this essay, a case study has to be introduced first, which involves a
character named Saeed. Saeed is a very dedicated student who is in his first year of
university, and he has the cognition to understand the fact that higher education is important
for his grades, and also recognizes the positive attitudes he needs to have to achieve the same.
However, college, work, family and friends demands a lot of Saeed’s time. The question is,
what should Saeed do in such a situation to have a balance in life, while not compromising on
his academic aspects in life? This is where the concept of self regulated learning comes into
play. As per Pintrich (1995), self regulated learning is a form of learning in which a learner
uses metacognition and sense of strategic goals and time management to effectively progress
in his or her learning. The argument in this essay is that self regulated learning is an effective
way to academic success for an undergraduate student.
The first thing which needs to be considered is the fact that the concept of self
regulated learning gives way for time management and requires students to manage their time
in a way which urges them to take up activities which can be managed in terms of time,
without compromising the strategic goals set for academics. Therefore, this provides a
student to take up activities as extra-curricular activities, which are required to keep him or
her fresh through the times, instead of putting too much of effort on studying. Tabuenca et al.
(2015) suggests that the main thing which a students need to do is to work smart and not
hard. Putting too much pressure on studies could eventually lead to mental fatigue and this is
why it is important that a student considers making sure that he maintains a proper balance in
between his studies and life, by being able to segmenting his strategic goals into short term
ones, and managing the time accordingly. Therefore, being free of mental fatigue and being
able to study in a planned and strategic manner, helps in academic success (Tabuenca et al.,
2015).

2SELF REGULATED LEARNING
The second argument is that it makes the student learn faster. Comparing a student
who learns in a self regulated manner with goals in mind, with a student who tries to grasp
everything he can to get a hold of the subject, it can be found that the self regulated student
can be able to learn faster, and therefore, at a given time duration, would be able to learn
more than a regular student who does not learn in a regulated manner (Daniel, Wang &
Berthensen, 2016). This is because of the fact that the student who is self regulated is in
control of his learning process. Being able to analyze his strengths and weaknesses and
strategizing his learning processes accordingly helps him to keep a proper track of his
progress and also helps in learn at a pace which suits him. On the other hand, a traditional
learner does not fir this profile. This is primarily because of the fact he does not have set
strategic goals in his learning processes, and tries to grasp information as they come (Daniel,
Wang & Berthensen, 2016). Therefore, he is not able to get a proper control over his learning
processes and does not identify his strengths and weaknesses to be able to learn better.
Therefore, with the same amount of effort, a self regulated learner can be able to learn more
than a traditional learner. This efficiency in effort and learning is the key for any
undergraduate student to academic success (Daniel, Wang & Berthensen, 2016).
Last but not the least, it is important that the concept of self regulated learning
provides for strategic processes, which means, it provides scope for evaluating and
monitoring one’s performance or progress in the learning process. What this means is the fact
that self regulated learners have the ability to evaluate their performances. This in turn helps
them to identify the areas in which they need to improve, and also the areas in which they
need to capitalize on. According to Littlejohn et al. (2016), this is the reason why these
learners progress better than traditional learners. Identifying weaknesses and being able to
know and evaluate how things can be made better in terms of their learning process, and
strategizing accordingly is a characteristic which is not usually present in traditional learners.

3SELF REGULATED LEARNING
This is a sustainable approach to the learning process of a student (Littlejohn et al., 2016).
This is because the main thing which has to be noted in this regard is the fact that the student
will be able to strategize his learning and set appropriate goals for the next time, to eliminate
the similar risks which he or she has faced at the present, making him or her get a step closer
to perfection with each passing examination. Eventually, this perfection would give him or
her the lead over a student who does not evaluate and strategize learning processes
accordingly, since he or she would not be able to know the areas in which improvements are
required in the learning process (Littlejohn, et al., 2016).
The only rebuttal in this kind of learning is the assumption that the factor of time
management which the concept of self regulated learning provides, can act as a distraction
factor itself in the learning process of a student. To be specific, it takes maturity and a lot of
self determination to ensure that a student works according to the necessities outlined by him
or her. This is because college/university life is full of activities which are obviously more
fun to undertake than studies. A student can get easily distracted by them, and allocate more
time to those activities, compared to studies. This is a factor which has to be taken into
consideration while assessing the effectiveness of the concept of self regulated learning. This
is the only concern which makes one think that perhaps traditional learning processes are
better, since it keeps a student constantly under the influence of studies, with no factor of
time management affecting their decisions (Kizilcec, Pérez-Sanagustín & Maldonado, 2016).
Furthermore, since the factor of maturity is being discussed, an undergraduate student
obviously lacks in maturity compared to a professional. This is why one needs to ask whether
the concept of formulating goals is a widely applicable concept. Students might not be able to
understand what goals are required for him to achieve within a given span of time, to ensure
that he indeed gets a competitive edge over the other students (Kizilcec, Pérez-Sanagustín &
Maldonado, 2016).

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So as to conclude, it can be said after collating all of the information in the essay, that
self regulated learning is the way to go for students, rather than traditional learning processes,
to ensure success in terms of academics. Going back to the case study, what Saeed needs to
do is to ensure that he is making full use of the time he has, and managing it effectively to
avoid mental fatigue and be able to concentrate better on his studies. He also needs to make
sure that he identifies his weaknesses and strengths to ensure that he only improves in his
academics. However, he must be wise enough to ensure that his goals and time management
strategies comply with his academic requirements.

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References
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Kizilcec, R. F., Pérez-Sanagustín, M., & Maldonado, J. J. (2016, April). Recommending self-
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Littlejohn, A., Hood, N., Milligan, C., & Mustain, P. (2016). Learning in MOOCs:
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Pintrich, P. R. (1995). Understanding self‐regulated learning. New directions for teaching
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Tabuenca, B., Kalz, M., Drachsler, H., & Specht, M. (2015). Time will tell: The role of
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