The Strategic Content Learning approach to promoting self-regulated learning: A report of three studies

This article reports findings from three studies investigating the efficacy of an instructional model designed to promote self-regulation, the Strategic Content Learning (SCL) approach. Participants were post-secondary students with learning disabilities who ranged in age from 19 to 48 years. Each study comprised multiple in-depth case studies (total N = 34) embedded within a pre-posttest design. Students were provided with individualized SCL tutoring for two to three hours per week during at least one semester. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence converged to reveal consistent improvements across time in students' metacognitive knowledge about key self-regulated processes, perceptions of task-specific efficacy, attributional patterns, task performance, and strategic approaches to tasks. Students were also found to transfer strategic approaches across contexts and tasks. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.