Role of Instructor in Self-Regulated Learning By : Ms Kashfia Latafat

 

Role of Instructor in Self-Regulated Learning

SRL in the past two decades, momentous research has been published on self-regulatory learning (SRL) in adult higher education but very little on how this learning process is shaped by the mental and emotional process. Now a day’s after arrival of COVID-19 greater responsibility of learning has been shifted towards learners which are taking a primary role in self-directing, self-motivating, self-pacing, and self-assessment in the learning process. It’s become the new norm of higher education. Traditional student to teacher relationship has always been a keystone of learning. However, SRL has toppled this traditional relationship and has initiated the need to readdress the role of instructor in the SRL environment, especially from a cognitive and affective perspective. This article discusses the critical role instructor play in adult SRL learning and assessment environment, especially from an affective, neuro-teaching and neuro-learning perspective.

Two way Relationship and Neurobiology of SRL

After arrival of COVID-19 and stay-at-home regulations the importance of self-regulated learning has been increased which is keystone in adult education. What makes SRL compelling is the notion that the adult leaner is self-motivated, knows what her/his educational needs are, and has voluntarily decided to initiate the effort to learn something new (Knowles, 1979).Self-regulated learning is most suitable for adult learners as it gives a freedom to learner to set pace of his learning, she/he has greater control over workplace hours and household time management. SRL allows the adult learner to control the navigation, pacing, and cognitive learning process (Broekaerts & cas callar, 2006).However SRL process is become the source of developing the anxiety and uncertainty among learners. The constant fear of failure and performance not up to the mark is a constant worry that is either blocked or facilitated by the relationship between the instructor and student. Here the role of instructor is vital in overcoming emotional barriers is crucial in student-teacher relationship. We know that the adult learner makes emotional choices that revolves on what is the perceived value of the course, content difficulty, and course expectations, factors that are defined by the instructor. Regrettably, despite a plethora of teaching theories, teachers are not taught to use affective approaches in ways that are strategic and purposeful. Affective teaching as a tool in the classroom or online teaching is not taught in educational psychology or in teaching curricula. Yet, neuroscience informs us that learning is an emotional process to which the brain absorbs, processes, and retains knowledge based on the engagement of the limbic system, especially the amygdala and hippocampus.

 Challenges with SRL Self-Assessment:

The learning outcome in higher education is ultimately a competency in a knowledge domain. Measuring competency in SRL models remains ambiguous process. Such measuring tools are thinking a loud protocols, classroom observations, microanalysis, sequential and temporal analysis and self - reporting all remain incomplete. Student self-assessment, however, has appeared as a significant part of SRL, the theory being that student can best identify the starting point in the learning process, in the various intervening formative benchmarks, and culminating summative self-assessment. The problem with self-assessment or self-reporting in SRL, however, is that it is difficult to properly evaluate academic performance, given institutional standards, local site expectations, course expectations, range of teacher peculiarity required from the learner, and the learner’s own criteria of what constitutes knowledge retention. Student self-assessment tends to be deeply personal and difficult to disclose in an objective manner (Andrade, 2010). Therefore, evaluation of student self-learning outcomes remains inaccurate, which could lead to undermining student’s self-esteem (Schunk, 1996). At this point it’s clearly visible that teachers are playing a significant role in assessing the performance of SRL learners. Teacher’s use of rubric models, for example, can be used to help guide SRL students in self-assessment.

Catalyst Role of Teacher in SRL Deep Learning:

In higher education, Carnegie time units are used to measure learning. Yet, research shows little correlation between instructional time and cognitive learning (Chen, 2017).The teacher is central to the creation of a positive affective learning environment. Because the act of teaching is a dyadic relationship, whether in-person or online, this relationship is at the heart of learning between the “expert” and the self-regulating student and where the instructor shapes the emotional framework that motives, inspires, and rewards the SRL student to learn in ways that encourage deep learning and a momentum for life-time learning.

 

 Reference by:

Boekaerts, M., & Cascallar, E. (2006). How far have we moved toward the integration of theory and practice in self-regulation? Education Psychology

Chen, J. (2017). Nontraditional adult learners: The neglected diversity in postsecondary

Education

Andrade, H. L. (2010). Students as the definitive source of formative assessment: Academic

self-assessment and the self-regulation of learning. In H. L. Andrade & G. J. Cizek (Eds.), Handbook of formative assessment (pp. 90-105). Routledge

Ontai, D. (2021). Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL. Academia Letters, Article 248.