Self - Regulated Learning as a 1 Cross - Curricular Competence

Teaching students self-regulatory skills in addition to classical subject-matter knowledge is currently viewed as one of the major goals of education. At the same time, self-regulated learning (SRL) is a vital prerequisite for the successful acquisition of knowledge in school and beyond, and is thus of particular importance with respect to lifelong learning. In view of the difficulties in predicting what young people will need to know as adults, it seems appropriate to assume a dynamic model of continuous acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Self-regulated learning is to be seen as a central element in this dynamic model of knowledge acquisition. Self-regulation of learning means having the ability to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enhance and facilitate future learning and which — abstracted from the original learning context — can be transferred to other learning situations. Embedded in a dynamic model of knowledge acquisition, SRL can be described as a goal-oriented process of active and constructive knowledge acquisition, involving the guided interaction of an individual's cognitive and motivational/emotional resources. Although there is consensus at the descriptive level of what it is that distinguishes self-regulated learners from those who need a lot of external regulation, it is difficult to find a definition of self-regulated learning which amounts to any more than a description of the processes involved. The numerous definitions of self-regulated learning to be found in the literature generally boil down to an emphasis of the importance of cognitive, motivational/volitional and metacognitive processes (see also Boekaerts, 1999). Indeed, these processes are central to Zimmerman's (1989; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988, 1990) definition of self-regulated learning: "Students can be described as self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning process" (1989, p. 4). According to Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1990), self-regulated learners have the motivational advantage of high levels of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. On the behavioral (strategic) level, self-regulated learners actively select, structure, and create social and material environments which optimize their learning processes. The metacognitive activities of self-regulated learners are characterized by extensive planning, organizing, and evaluating. Schiefele and Pekrun (1996, p. 258) 3 define self-regulated learning along similar lines: "Self-regulated learning is a form of learning in which individuals, depending on the type of their motivation to learn, autonomously deploy one or more self-regulatory measures (of a cognitive, metacognitive, volitional or behavioral nature) and monitor the progress of their …