Self-Regulating Academic Learning and Achievement: The Emergence of Cognitive Perspective

For three decades, social cognitive researchers have studied children's development of self-regulation as an achievement of socialization processes. I recount historically the emergence of a social cognitive perspective on self-regulation and identify its unique features. Two essential characteristics of students'self-regulated academic learning have been identified-their use of strategies and perceptions of self-efficacy. A social cognitive model of academic self-regulated learning is proposed that integrates triadic determinants of self-regulated learning (personal behavioral and environmental) on the basis of a strategic control loop. When students monitor their responding and attribute outcomes to their strategies, their learning becomes self-regulated, and they display increased self-efficacy, greater intrinsic motivation, and higher academic achievement.