Chapter 7: Participation by Design: Improving Individual Motivation by Looking Beyond It

Educational researchers have long been concerned with improving individual motivation. Much of this effort has been organized around selfregulated learning (SRL), the self-generated thoughts, feelings, or actions that affect learning (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994). Because it explains why so many students resist engaging and persevering in school, self-regulation has obvious appeal for education. In terms of specific interventions, numerous experimental manipulations of models and feedback consistent with social cognitive theory have consistently resulted in enhanced self-regulation of learning more broadly (see Butler & Winne, 1995) and greater self-efficacy for specific activities. Nearly every contemporary educational psychology textbook devotes substantial attention to self-regulation, and most future educators learn about principles for fostering it in classrooms.