Now What? (Education and Technology in a Post COVID World)

Based on part 1 of this week’s post, I decided to do a deeper dive into SRL, or Self-Regulated Learning. As I mentioned, this topic brought up memories of my time spent in A.C.E. schools where I thrived in a self-regulated education model that rewarded motivation and achievement.

As a sidenote, concentrated efforts to find research studies on A.C.E.’s educational methods and theory didn’t result in much. I uncovered multiple dissertations on whether religious education is better or worse than traditional public education curriculum. I also found a great deal of politically centered studies regarding the rise of the conservative right and how religious schools may have played a role. I found studies touting fear about liberal biases and hidden agendas in public education, particularly dating back to a theorist I admire (John Dewey). There were also studies involving the ongoing debate of Creationism vs. Evolution being taught in schools.

From a brief search using CMU’s library database, it seems that all sides of all of the arguments have written about the aforementioned topics. Frankly, none of those aspects interest me or relate to who I am now. I am most curious about how being in a non-traditional, self-regulated learning environment during critical formative years of my education impacted who I am today, both as a student and as a Millennial freelancer who thrives working on my own terms, at my own pace, and without a punch clock determining the ebb and flow of my day. But I digress…

Incidentally, before diving into an academic search on A.C.E. educational philosophy, I uncovered more information on Self-Regulated Learning via journal articles and books. I wanted to investigate what exactly it is and how it was viewed before online learning became a part of our daily lives during the pandemic.

Boekaerts et al’s work (2005) was a great place to start as they quite literally wrote the book on self-regulation. The first chapter of their self-described “self-regulation handbook” defines the concept as a construct that includes learning, self-control, and self-management (p. 1). They explain the purpose for the handbook is to create “a dialogue between researchers” from the various overlapping fields that self-regulated learning encompasses (p. 1).

Interestingly, part of their definition of self-regulation as an overall concept includes willpower. The authors (Boekaerts et al, 2005) cite another researcher who compared willpower to “arising from a warm bed” (p. 2). They also explain that the topic is so much more and that “self-regulation is an important topic that is highly relevant to the science of the mind and human behavior” (p. 4).

Later chapters explore the educational perspective on self-regulation. The authors make the connection to more education-based theories such as self-motivation and self-monitoring (Boekaerts et al, 2005). In fact, the idea of motivation seems to keep coming up in all things SRL. In short, the question researchers keep asking is “what motivates a person to learn independently?” The authors then explore various studies that attempt to answer that question, citing “competence-related motives…personal interests…self-efficacy beliefs…and task’s structure and difficulty” (p. 504).

Interestingly (and, more importantly, related to my wonderings about SRL when it came to COVID-19 and the subsequent shift to online education), Boekaerts et al (2005) explore a variable that may be worth additional research: “the student’s functional state during learning” including the ability to concentrate (p. 506). This stood out to me as many of my students opined and complained about their inability to concentrate on schoolwork as the pandemic raged on and daily life was disrupted by fear and uncertainty. This also relates to another problem I often see in my students: being unable to concentrate due to poor nutrition, poor stress-coping, and poor sleep habits.

It all leads one to wonder if online learning and self-regulation may be achieved at greater levels of success if a student’s environmental factors are taken into consideration and addressed in a holistic approach to education. What this looks like, I have absolutely no idea. However, the thought is intriguing as I continue in my search to learn about how people best learn and how online education may or may not play a role in their successes.

Until next time…

Boekaerts, Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (2005). Handbook of Self-Regulation. Elsevier Science.