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BY BRIDGET MURRAY
Monitor staff
It's no secret that students learn best when they
self-regulate--set their own academic goals, develop strategies to meet
them and reflect on their academic performance.
High-achieving students know what needs to be
learned and how to learn it, educational psychology studies increasingly
show. But while making those kinds of self-assessments may sound
simple--and something most college students could do--many psychology
professors find their students aren't self-aware enough to conduct them.
Some faculty believe they can help students
develop these strategies through their teaching. Others, however, don't
think it's their place to do so, pointing to the load of content they
already must teach in one semester. Besides, some ask, isn't college too
late to teach students how to learn?
Not according to self-regulation researchers Paul
Pintrich, PhD, co-founder of a "learning how to learn" course
at the University of Michigan, and Barry Zimmerman, PhD, an
educational psychology professor at the Graduate
School and University Center
at the City University of New York (CUNY). They, along with University of Texas strategic-learning advocate
Claire Ellen Weinstein, PhD, and others, say it's never too late to teach
students how to learn. Though well aware of the time constraints on
professors, they believe that if faculty weave self-regulation strategies
into their teaching, students more quickly absorb course material,
ultimately saving faculty time. In fact, Weinstein, founder of a
learning-to-learn course at Texas,
finds that the more students use learning strategies, the higher their
grade-point averages (GPAs) and graduation rates. And Pintrich believes
college students need instruction in using these strategies because
university life lacks the structure high school offers.
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