Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2013, 494 pp. ISBN 978-1623961329. $45.99
Applications of Self-Regulated Learning across Diverse Disciplines: A Tribute to Barry J. Zimmerman By Héfer Bembenutty, Timothy J. Cleary, and Anastasia Kitsantas
Review by Jeffrey A. Greene, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Learning Sciences and Psychological Studies and Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation Programs, Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Research and Policy Programs, School of Education. Contact Information: 113 Peabody Hall, CB#3500, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500. E-mail: [email protected]
A common trait of great ideas is that they are often “hidden in plain sight.” They are unknown until discovery, at which point they become so painfully obvious that we cannot understand or even recognize our world without them. Barry Zimmerman’s theory of self-regulated learning (SRL) is one of these great ideas. This volume, entitled “Applications of Self-Regulated Learning across Diverse Disciplines” and edited by Héfer Bembenutty, Timothy Cleary, and Anastasia Kitsantas (2013), illustrates just how powerful Zimmerman’s theory is, and how it can be used to inform teaching and learning practice. At a time in which the processes and outcomes of education are under intense scrutiny, there is great need for a work, such as this one, that provides such comprehensive coverage of the theory, implementation, and effects of Zimmerman’s theory of SRL. This volume is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand better how to help learners achieve both within and beyond disciplinary education.
The editors wrote that their goal for this Tribute was to bring together, in one volume, the myriad of ways that individuals have used Zimmerman’s work to inform interventions designed to enhance learners’ domain-specific skills and capacities to proactively self-regulate their learning. As someone who conducts research on SRL, and like many of us, who wants to make a difference by helping learners increase their autonomy and success, I was chagrined to note that this volume is the first exhaustive review of SRL intervention work in over 10 years. Scholars in the field, and practitioners, need more frequent summative and translational work such as this to inform research and practice. This text’s critical contribution to the literature on applications of SRL research within disciplines is complimented by the volume’s clear message regarding the continuing generative nature of Zimmerman’s work. In short, Zimmerman’s theory, and the research that has grown out of it, has informed the SRL scholarly literature for over thirty years, and the wellspring shows no signs of being tapped dry.
Zimmerman’s work was a sea change for research into how to help learners succeed academically. Given evidence that learner knowledge of a strategy was not a reliable predictor of successful usage, Zimmerman introduced a number of key ideas regarding the metacognitive, motivational, and affective factors that influenced the likelihood and quality of strategy production. Again, what seems obvious now was not at all so until Zimmerman articulated it: learners’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs play a role not only during learning performance, but also before and after it. By broadening the problem space to include forethought and self-reflection, Zimmerman was able to illustrate how learning was cyclical, and that what learners thought, did, and inferred at one time affected those same processes at future times. As but one example, he articulated how the acquisition of SRL knowledge, skills, and abilities followed a developmental pattern that, if not honored, would often lead to learner frustration and maladaptive cycles of self-regulatory behaviors and cognition such as attrition and low self-efficacy. Subsequent research provided evidence supporting his claims, but a continuing challenge is how to translate this work into practice, particularly given the growing recognition that learning within domains often has uniquely specific and even situated aspects.
Each chapter in this volume serves as a model for translating theory into actionable pedagogy within numerous academic disciplines, and for various educational populations. Historical reviews that could very well serve as the foundation for an introductory course in modern learning theory, such as the chapters by Schunk and Usher as well as Chen and Rossi, are complemented by detailed discussions of the mechanics, effects, and future directions of interventions derived from Zimmerman’s work. For example, following the idea that SRL instruction is best conveyed within the learning context, there are chapters on fostering SRL development in mathematics (Pape et al.; Moylan), writing (Harris et al.), science (Cleary & Labuhn), high-stakes testing (Chen & Rossi), homework (Bembenutty), music (McPherson et al.), and physical education (Goudas et al.), among others.
In each chapter, the authors have illustrated how successful interventions create environments in which feedback is viewed positively; learning is seen as cyclical, developmental, and iterative; and where attributions are made to effort and practice rather than ability. Addressing a common criticism of education research, each chapter includes detailed descriptions of the procedures involved in each intervention, as well as the underlying scholarship that informed the design and execution of those procedures. These descriptions are supplemented and extended through the presentation of case studies that demonstrate the efficacy of the intervention. Chapters addressing challenges presented by the evolving affordances of the modern world, such as the use of course management systems (Kitsantas et al.), the increasing availability of human and non-human resources for help-seeking (Karabenick & Berger), and the proliferation of options regarding adaptive disease management (Clark), drew my attention to numerous areas for future research, informed by the direction set by Zimmerman’s work.
A single compendium of detailed descriptions regarding how to translate Zimmerman’s SRL theory into practice would, in itself, make a significant contribution. But as I was reading the volume what struck me was how well the chapters illuminated productive directions for future research. The authors took seriously the claim that academic disciplines have specific qualities that require the tailoring and tuning of scholarly work if learners are to truly achieve deep conceptual understanding. Yet, I was struck at how often this attention to domain-specificity was most evident in the strategies taught in the performance phase of Zimmerman’s model. I continue to wonder to what degree the cognition, motivation, metacognition, and affect enacted in the forethought and self-reflection phases are domain general versus specific. This text provides numerous directions for investigating this issue. Likewise, a common theme among authors was the recognition that the powerful force of self-efficacy extended not only to the domain, but also to SRL itself. Learners’ belief in their ability to successfully self-regulate would seem to be an important influence upon each phase of SRL, and deserves further attention. Affect, both as an influence and a target of self-regulation, remains an exciting area of continuing research that the authors helpfully explore. Finally, numerous authors identified the role of SRL in computer-based learning environments, both as a factor influencing efficacy as well as a target of those environments, as a direction for future work.
When I read an edited book regarding a particular theory, I want detailed descriptions of how the work has informed research and practice, and what promise remains unrealized in the model. This text by Bembenutty, Cleary, and Kitsantas admirably achieves these goals, and fills a critical translational research gap in the literature. After having read DiBenedetto and White’s chapter on mentoring, and learned how Zimmerman lived his work through his guidance and advising, I am not at all surprised that his students have produced a text that more than meets the goal of translating social cognitive perspectives of SRL into actionable and effective ways of directly helping learners achieve greater autonomy and success. This text has made clear how great ideas like Zimmerman’s focus on the cyclical nature of learning have broad applicability in diverse disciplines, even the discipline of developing researchers capable of continuing Zimmerman’s promising work. This volume serves as a model of how research can inform practice across numerous contexts, and how to honor those whose work is not only exemplary in its own right, but also fosters the exemplary work of others, as Zimmerman has done so well. I cannot imagine the field of SRL, or teaching and learning themselves, without the benefits and continuing promise of Zimmerman’s work.