I came across a blog written by Jackie Gerstein, an educator. She emphasizes how self regulation is now the other 21st Century Skill we need to possess. Self-regulation is the ability to control and direct one’s own feelings, thoughts and actions. It involves the conscious planning, monitoring, and evaluating aspects that control one’s own learning. To be self-directed, we need to be mindful, intentional, reflective, introspective, self-aware, and self-disciplined. Importantly, it seems when people make poor choices, it is usually because of a lack of self-regulation.
I personally would consider self-directed learning a cyclical process which requires us to go through various stages of learning. I sometimes find myself at the self-regulated stage of learning however, when life gets in the way, I may meander off course briefly to the self-directed stage and then return back to refocus my energies. If we consider self-regulated learning as a cyclical process, it would make sense that we go through stages. For example, self-regulation promotes increased learning and consequentially an increased sense of competence as we carry out tasks independently. This feeling can serve to reaffirm our self-regulation and serve as a sort of “positive feedback loop” that sustains our motivation to learn.
According to Gerstein, self-regulated learning is vital for academic success. On her blog, she notes a 2010 study conducted by University of Virginia’s Claire Cameron Ponitz and Oregon State University’s Megan McClelland which indicated children with high levels of self regulation do better on tests than those children with lower levels of self regulation abilities. Some even postulate this factor alone may be “the root cause” of the economic achievement gap.
Thus, we know self-regulation is vital for academic and future economic success. Building self regulation is an ongoing process and involves several key characteristics. I have depicted an image below for ease of listing:
Original source can be found here: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/self-regulation-the-other-21st-century-skills/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-3
Karen Deol 