Chapter 7: In Search of Self-Regulated Learning: A Personal Quest

Like many of you, I suspect, I spent countless hours of my youth engaged in intense efforts to learn a variety of competencies in sports, music, and academia. Acquiring these skills initially involved a certain amount of modeling and instruction by a knowledgeable parent, teacher, or coach, but my ultimate success seemed to depend heavily on the quantity and quality of my self-directed practice and study. Despite my willingness to “pay the price in effort,” the results were often below my goals. Surprisingly, these often disappointing experiences led to my growing fascination with discovering the “golden tablets” for acquiring personal competencies—the development of self-regulated learning skills (SRL). This topic became a primary focus of my formal research as an adult.