Improving Teaching and Learning through Self-Regulation

Using contemporary empirical research data, this book takes the stance that purposeful self-regulation actively contributes to promoting deeper learning approaches and generally improves teaching and learning. The underlying aim is to help students become strategic, motivated, and independent learners, capable of controlling themselves by themselves. Such self-control may range over a host of variables (behavioural, psychological, emotional, etc.). This book comes at a time when connectivity has exponentially improved worldwide so that more and more individuals have real time information at their fingertips. The fundamental shift in information accessibility from tedious searching through books and manuscripts to on-demand click of a mouse has had phenomenal impacts of the way we do business. Whereas previously, self-regulation may not have been a priority for many persons, increasingly it has now assumed preeminence with the proliferation of laptop computers, tablets, smart phones and numerous other handheld devices that allow easy access to the Internet. In fact, researchers continue to develop software for helping students self-regulate as well as getting the most out of their studies. Needless to say, self-regulated learning (SRL) is mandatory not only for employability but also for lifelong learning since it enables learners to construct knowledge (constructivism) by identifying their own learning goals; self-managing their learning processes; and self-evaluating their performance against goals. Additionally, SRL is very important when often times it is observed that several individuals who have noticeably lower cognitive abilities are able to better self-regulate and consequently achieve more than they should be able to according to their cognitive ranking. Improving teaching and learning through self-regulation therefore has far reaching implications for the kind of individuals we send out to society and the nature of the contributions they make. Quotations from well known persons in the public domain serve to anchor the reader in preparation for the contents of the corresponding section. Such quotations have been found to serve as an effective form of motivation and accordingly may be successfully echoed to students when appropriate. The shareware graphics interspaced in the text not only break the possible monotony usually experienced by many readers, especially in today's online age, but serve to engage and stimulate thought and, in many instances, bring comic relief. These exhibits help to capture the attention of readers and help them to focus on the contents of the various sections at hand. Reinforcing ideas is another powerful function served by the apparent preponderance of exhibits. Hence, what may well be easily misconstrued as too many exhibits, would be much better interpreted as a unique and unusual presentation, with a variation of format, that is meant to have the reader truly appreciate the common saying, 'a picture is worth a thousand words'!