Winne2016 Señf Regulated Leaning

SFU Ed Review Special Issue 2016
Self-Regulated Learning
Philip H. Winne
Professor & Associate Dean–Graduate Studies and Research
Introduction
Several assumptions undergird my research program. First, one way people learn relies
on innate features of our cognitive architecture. Like Pavlov’s dogs, who learned a novel
stimulus (a bell) could forecast food or Skinner’s pigeons who learned to behave in
particular ways (pecking button on a wall) under particular conditions (when a red light
but not a green light was illuminated) to obtain food, we assemble information in the
world to create knowledge in our minds. Second, people also learn using cognitive tools.
These tactics and strategies are kinds of information of a procedural sort. One example
is using mnemonics, like ROY G BIV for colors in the visible spectrum of light in order
of wavelength. Another is using schemas that describe a task, like checking whether an
explanation of an effect is complete by identifying its cause, describing boundaries
within which the cause produces the effect, and providing a rationale for the causal
relation that conforms to a larger conceptual structure, a theory. Third, students have
goals for their learning. Goals can be primal, like dogs’ and pigeons’ hunger. Also, goals
can have human sophistication, such as figuring out how to study with minimal effort
and time. Fourth – here is where my research has focused for the past quarter century –
students are learning scientists. Like “professional” learning scientists, students
construct organized accounts about knowledge and about various learning mechanisms
– working memory, forgetting. They use these to design theories about why learning
works as it does. Students also engineer interventions they theorize can help them reach
their goals for learning:
“Background music helps me learn,” or “I can skip what seems familiar.”
Then, they carry out experiments on the effects of their cognitive tools. They gather data
from those experiments, analyze the data, interpret findings and plan how to make
learning better – whatever “better” means for each of them. In the terminology of
learning science, students are self-regulating learners.
I investigate learners’ theories about learning and, especially, how they self-regulate
learning. Whether they study the Peloponnesian Wars, stereochemistry or
Shakespeare’s comedies, I want to discover what innate operations are in play, which
goals learners set, which cognitive tools they use and, especially, how they design and
carry out a personal program of research about tools for learning they predict will
optimize their ability to reach their goals. Across the broad range of my and many
colleagues’ research on these topics, thought-provoking yet disheartening findings have
emerged. For example, on average, learners learn less well than they might. In part, this
is because they have misconceptions about innate mechanisms of learning that mislead
them to study ineffectively. Many learners are disadvantaged because they have an
Winne, Self-Regulated Learning 1

impoverished toolkit of learning tactics and strategies. Most learner’s recollections

about how they study are incomplete and biased, a poor reflection of what they actually
did. Few learners are skilled in the scientific method needed to carry out a revealing
program of research. While all learners are self-regulating learners, these findings
explain why productive self-regulated learning is not common.
Can learning science help? I believe so. Facets of my research program identify and
track the particular effects of such difficulties that beset learners. I have developed and
tested models of innate processes learners have. Mine is a small set of operations on
information that help learners to become SMART: searching, monitoring, assembling,
rehearsing and translating (Winne, 2005). Second, I have cataloged cognitive tools
learners use as well as tools learning science has discovered that are backed by empirical
evidence they work (Winne, 2013). Third, I have traced goals learners have (Zhou &
Winne, 2012). Fourth, I have designed and built support systems – software called
nStudy – to help learners become better learning scientists (Roll & Winne, 2015; Winne,
2010; Winne & Baker, 2013).
Alongside my theoretical and empirical work, nStudy is one of my most significant

endeavors – see http://www.sfu.ca/edpsychlab.html. As well as being software that
supports learning per se, it is a scientific instrument that records every observable
action a learner carries out while studying online content. For example, when a learner
highlights text on a web page, that event is comprehensively logged: What text was
highlighted? In what web page was the text? When (to approximately 1/100th second)
was that content highlighted? Data at this fine grain fuses information the learner
cognitively operated, documents motivation to apply a cognitive or metacognitive
operation at that time, and represents which cognitive or metacognitive tool was used.
nStudy’s data allow me to better research how learning unfolds. Along with learning
analytics (analyses of many learning events that yield results learners can use to
productively shape a line of personal research) developed using nStudy’s data, I research
how to help learners forge a personal, progressive program of research about making
self-regulating learning more productive.
Colleagues and I have just received a new SSHRC grant to explore how to support
productive self-regulated learning when learners encounter problems in finding, mining,
and using information in complex projects like researching a term paper or constructing
a business plan. The challenge of this topic is large. If you’re interested to learn more or
to join us, please contact me: winne@sfu.ca.

References
Roll, I., & Winne, P. H. (2015). Understanding, evaluating, and supporting self-
regulated learning using learning analytics. Journal of Learning Analytics, 2(1), 7-12.
Winne, P. H. (2005). Researching and promoting self-regulated learning using software

technologies. In P. Tomlinson, J. Dockrell, & P. H. Winne. (Eds.). (2005). Pedagogy
– Teaching for learning. Monograph Series II: Psychological Aspects of Education,
3 (pp. 91-105). Leicester, UK: The British Psychological Society.
Winne, P. H. (2010). Bootstrapping learner’s self-regulated learning. Psychological Test

and Assessment Modeling, 52, 472-490.
Winne, P. H. (2013). Learning strategies, study skills and self-regulated learning in

postsecondary education. In M. B. Paulsen (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of
theory and research. Volume 28 (pp. 377-403). Dordrecht: Springer.
Winne, P. H, & Baker, R. S. J. d. (2013). The potentials of educational data mining for
researching metacognition, motivation and self-regulated learning. Journal of
Educational Data Mining, 5(1), 1-8.
Zhou, M., & Winne, P. H. (2012). Modeling academic achievement by self-reported

versus traced goal orientation. Learning and Instruction, 22, 413-419.

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SFU Ed Review Special Issue 2016

“Background music helps me learn,” or “I can skip what seems familiar.”

Winne, Self-Regulated Learning 1

impoverished toolkit of learning tactics and strategies. Most learner’s recollections

Alongside my theoretical and empirical work, nStudy is one of my most significant

Winne, Self-Regulated Learning 2

Winne, P. H. (2005). Researching and promoting self-regulated learning using software

Winne, P. H. (2010). Bootstrapping learner’s self-regulated learning. Psychological Test

Winne, P. H. (2013). Learning strategies, study skills and self-regulated learning in

Zhou, M., & Winne, P. H. (2012). Modeling academic achievement by self-reported

Winne, Self-Regulated Learning 3

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