Integration of Socialization Influences and the Development of Self-Regulated Learning Skills: A Social-Cognitive Perspective

• In Event: Part 1 – Recent Advancement in Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning: Big Theories Revisited

Abstract

Purpose: Self-regulated learning refers to the process through which individuals become metacognitively, behaviorally, and motivationally active participants in their learning and pursuit of individual goals (Zimmerman, 2000). Although a diverse array of theoretical frameworks underscores the nature of SRL, in this presentation we use a social-cognitive framework to understand the process of SRL and the influence of sociocultural factors and socialization processes on the development of regulatory skills.

Theoretical framework: Social-cognitive theory (SCT) has its historical roots in the pioneering work of Albert Bandura (1986, 1997) and includes a core set of assumptions and principles, such as reciprocal determinism, vicarious learning, and personal agency. Collectively, these principles underscore the premise that while social agents and learning contexts can influence individual behavior and SRL functioning, humans are not simply passive recipients of information nor are they subject to the whims of environmental influences; rather, humans possess the capacity to exercise control over their own actions and to act intentionally and reciprocally with the social world in which they function.

Modes of inquiry and results: Using two models that have evolved from the seminal work of Barry Zimmerman (Zimmerman, 2000, 2004), we discuss this interplay between individuals’ regulatory behaviors and skills and the socialization processes that cultivate and nurture the development of these skills. Zimmerman depicted SRL in terms of a three-phase feedback loop characterized by three interdependent phases (forethought, performance control, and self-reflection). The model underscores the process through which individuals control and manage their thoughts, affect, behaviors, and the environments in which they learn (Zimmerman, 2000, 2004). To capture how individuals acquire this capacity to independently and proactively regulate their lives, Zimmerman presented a four-level model: observation, emulation, self-control, and self-regulation. This model assumes that socialization influences, such as social modeling, social feedback, SRL prompts, and social collaboration, predominate in the early stages of learning strategic or regulatory skills (observation, emulation), but that over time individuals learn to independently practice these skills and to use their own representations of a skill (rather than the model) to guide behavior.

Scholarly significance: A key objective of our presentation is to focus on the emulation or “guided practice” aspect of the model, highlighting the primary ways in which social-cognitive researchers have operationalized this form of socially-directed practice as well as the under-developed aspects of this model that still need to be examined and explored (Cleary, Velardi, & Schnaidman, 2017; Hadwin & Oshige, 2011; Pape, Bell, & Yetkin-Ozdemir, 2013; Schunk & Swartz, 1993; Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 1997, 2002).

Authors

• Timothy J. Cleary, Rutgers University

• Anastasia Kitsantas, George Mason University

• Stephen J. Pape, Johns Hopkins University

• Jacqueline Slemp, The State University of New Jersey