Self-monitoring in Self-Regulated Learning

The preparation phase includes, among other things, the student orienting themselves to the task, setting goals, and planning. This is followed by the implementation phase in which the student monitors their own progress and, if necessary, adjusts the approach. The reflection phase is ultimately about reflecting on the result, evaluating the process and drawing conclusions about further learning.

In addition, all phases are also about being able to motivate oneself, direct thoughts and behaviors, and regulate emotions.

In this interview, we focus on the implementation phase, which focuses on students’ self-monitoring or self-assessment of their progress towards learning, e.g. for an examination.

  What makes you so passionate about this topic?

  Why is self-monitoring so important in flexible higher education?

Martine Baars: I have always been interested in how people learn. Self-regulation and in particular self-monitoring, or being able to assess and adjust your own learning, is a crucial part of that. It is interesting to research, because in practice it often turns out to be very difficult to accurately assess your own ability.

Martine Baars: Self-monitoring is crucial in flexible higher education. The learning process benefits very much from students having a good sense of: what do I already understand, what can I already do, am I doing well, do I need to adjust my strategies? But the more independence, the more flexibility and the more responsibility shifts to those students, the more important it actually is to see if they can do it that way. So, when there is more freedom to choose, I think it’s increasingly difficult for students to determine what they are going to do, when they are ready for something and when they should start something new? This is both about whether students have figured out how things are going and what their next action is. This can be about what students need to do during their self-study, but it can also be about what follow-up course or module they might find interesting. So, the importance of monitoring what is happening and controlling or regulating what is happening that can take place at different levels.

  What was it like for yourself as a student back then? Did you have an awareness of the importance of self-regulation back then?  

  What motivated you to join SELFLEX?  

Martine Baars: As a student, I did some things well, like completing my homework on time, but I didn’t deeply understand my own learning until I started studying educational sciences. During my studies, I started learning about learning. So, I think that’s definitely where my interest in the topic arose, as I started to consider how learning actually occurs?

Martine Baars: The SELFLEX project offers an opportunity to participate in a project in which we really focus on how students regulate their own learning process in higher education, which is becoming increasingly flexible.

  What are the biggest challenges students face in self-regulation?  

  How can teachers help with this?  

Martine Baars: One of the biggest challenges is accurately assessing one’s own ability. Students often tend to overestimate themselves. If, as a student, you don’t have a good understanding of your current level, how proficient you are at something, or how well you comprehend the material, then we expect that you might struggle to determine what to do next. Should I stop studying or continue? Is it beneficial to start another course, or is it better to wait?

Martine Baars: Teachers can support students by teaching them how to monitor their progress explicitly. This can be done by instructing them in self-assessment strategies and providing tools to evaluate their progress, such as quizzes and assessment criteria. It is important that teachers explain why these tools and/or strategies are useful, not only for the test, but especially for the whole learning process.

  What practical tips do you have for teachers to promote self-monitoring among students?  

  Do you have examples of how students successfully use self-regulation?  

Martine Baars:

• Use formative assessment: These tests help students understand how they are doing without attaching a grade.
• Make self-monitoring explicit: Regularly ask students how well they think they have mastered a subject.
• Offer learning or study strategies: For example, creating a mind map or concept map about a text explaining connections and having a student explain something to fellow students are ways to test if they understand and can apply the material. In short, these strategies help monitor the learning process.
• Offer assessment rubrics: A rubric outlines what something should look like and how to show at different levels whether the component is sufficiently developed. Providing these criteria at the beginning can encourage students to assess their own texts on these specific information elements in the interim.

Martine Baars: Students like Lucas and Sterre, who we discussed in our podcast, show that strategies like practice can really work. Lucas used programme software like Grasple to practise his maths skills, while Sterre used practice exams and answer models to test and improve her knowledge. Sterre also took active steps by asking for help from fellow students and teachers when needed, which is essential for successful self-regulation.

  What can we expect from future research within SELFLEX?  

  What change would you like to see in education?

Martine Baars: We aim to investigate how flexibility in higher education impacts students’ self-regulation. We will examine whether students self-regulate more actively or if additional training is needed to manage flexibility. Additionally, we want to explore how motivation and autonomy interact with self-regulated learning.

Martine Baars: I would like to see students in higher education encouraged to view their learning as their own responsibility. This means constantly working with students to examine what they are learning and how they are progressing to encourage them to take ownership and develop self-monitoring skills.

  How is motivation related to self-monitoring?

Martine Baars: Motivation plays a significant role in self-monitoring. In high school students, we observed that those who showed motivation and interest in the lesson’s subject, were also better at self-regulation.

Motivation is crucial because of the effort students need to put into their own learning. It is important to understand how to support students in this area as well.

By giving students more choices in the material, subjects, and certain modules or courses, you can support their autonomy and place them more at the helm. Perhaps this also adds a certain ‘sparkle’ to self-regulated learning. So, I believe it can be positive. But it can also be too much. So, this is still an open question.

  How can self-monitoring be better integrated into the curriculum?  

  What do you think is the important lesson you learned when implementing a self-regulated learning application in a course?  

Martine Baars: One possible approach is a combination of general and subject-specific strategies. In the first year, a course could be offered that focuses specifically on self-regulation skills, including self-monitoring. This course can be followed by subject-specific approaches, where teachers integrate self-regulation strategies into their specific subjects. This can be done, for example, by:

• Asking self-assessment questions such as ‘How well do you think you have mastered this?’
• Using formative tests (e.g., quiz questions)
• Encouraging students to take ownership by asking them ‘What do you think yourself?’
• Sharing assessment criteria, such as rubrics, with students at the beginning of the course.

In this way, students can be encouraged to evaluate and adjust their own progress.

Martine Baars: Several years ago, I designed an application that incorporated strategies for self-regulated learning. This application was implemented in a first-year course. I thought that by offering this support tool, students would start using it all and thus become very proficient at regulating their own learning. However, we found that students still didn’t know very well when and why they should use it? I think this is where teachers need to explain why self-assessment is important and how it can be beneficial. In short, why they should want to do this.