Skip to main content
Log in

The Educational Psychology of Self-Regulation: A Conceptual and Critical Analysis

  • Published:
Studies in Philosophy and Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The multiplicity of definitions and conceptions of self-regulation that typifies contemporary research on self-regulation in psychology and educational psychology is examined. This examination is followed by critical analyses of theory and research in educational psychology that reveal not only conceptual confusions, but misunderstandings of conceptual versus empirical issues, individualistic biases to the detriment of an adequate consideration of social and cultural contexts, and a tendency to reify psychological states and processes as ontologically foundational to self-regulation. The essay concludes with a consideration of educational research and intervention in the area of students’ self-regulated learning in terms of the scientific and professional interests of psychologists and educators, and the disguised manipulation of student self-surveillance in the service of the institutional mandates of schools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood, Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (Eds.) (2004). Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. New York: Guilford.

  • Belfiore, P. J., & Hornyak, R. S. (1998). Operant theory and application to self-monitoring in adolescents. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulated learning: From teaching to self-reflective practice (pp. 184–202). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickhard, M. H. (2004). The social ontology of persons. In J. I. M. Carpendale & U. Muller (Eds.), Social interaction and the development of knowledge (pp. 111–132). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G. J. J. (1999). Redefining the subject, redefining the social, reconsidering education: George Herbert Mead’s Course on Philosophy of Education at the University of Chicago. Educational Theory, 49, 475–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (2000). Handbook of self-regulation. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownlee, S., Leventhal, H., & Leventhal, E. A. (2000). In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 369–416). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1998). On the self-regulation of behavior. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, M. (1991). The epistemic triangle: Operative and communicative components of cognitive competence. In M. Chandler (Ed.), Criteria for competence: Controversies in the conceptualization and assessment of children’s abilities (pp. 209–228). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cliff, N. (1982). What is and isn’t measurement. In G. Keren (Ed.), Statistical and methodological issues in psychology and social sciences research (pp. 55–93). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danziger, K. (1997). The historical formation of selves. In R. D. Ashmore & L. Jussim (Eds.), Self and identity: Fundamental issues (pp. 137–159). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duveen, G. (1997). Psychological development as a social process. In L. Smith, J. Dockrerll, & P. Tomlinson (Eds.), Piaget, Vygotsky and beyond (pp. 67–90). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, G. (1987). Neural Darwinism. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). London: Tavistock.

  • Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings (C. Gordon, Trans.). New York: Pantheon.

  • Gauvain, M. (2001). Cultural tools, social interaction and the development of thinking. Human Development, 44(2–3), Special issue: Cultural minds, 126–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutmann, A. (1990). Democratic education in difficult times. Teachers College Record, 92, 7–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, P. M. S. (1986). Insight and illusion: Themes in the philosophy of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacking, I. (2002). Historical ontology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickey, D. T., & Granade, J. B. (2004). The influence of sociocultural theory on our theories of engagement and motivation. In D. M. McInerney & S. Van Etten (Eds.), Big theories revisited (pp. 223–248). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, P. (2002). The cradle of thought. Hampshire, England: Macmillan Education Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, T., Mackenzie, J., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2000). Communal aspects of self-regulation. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 275–300). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, R. (Ed.) (2002). The Oxford handbook of free will. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

  • Maraun, M. (2006). Myths and confusions: Psychometrics and the latent variable model. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University.

  • Martin, J. (2005). Real perspectival selves. Theory & Psychology, 15, 207–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. (in press). Educating communal agents: Building on the perspectivism of G. H. Mead. Educational Theory.

  • Martin, J., Sugarman, J., & Thompson, J. (2003). Psychology and the question of agency. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCaslin, M. (2004). Coregulation of opportunity, activity, and identity in student motivation: Elaborations on Vygotskian themes. In D. M. McInerney & S. Van Etten (Eds.), Big theories revisited (pp. 249–274). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, & society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist (C. Morris, Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Mead, G. H. (1938). The philosophy of the act (C. Morris, Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. H. (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933–938.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moses, L. J., & Carlson, S. M. (2004). Self-regulation and children’s theories of mind. In C. Lightfoot, C. Lalonde, & M. Chandler (Eds.), Changing conceptions of psychological life (pp. 127–146). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman, D. A., & Shallice, T. (1986). Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behavior. In R. J. Davidson, G. E. Schwartz, & D. Shapiro (Eds.), Consciousness and self regulation, Vol. 4 (pp. 4–18). New York: Plenum.

  • Randi, J., & Corno, L. (2000). Teacher innovations in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 651–685). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Renger, P. (1980). George Herbert Mead’s contribution to the philosophy of American education. Educational Theory, 30, 115–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rohrkemper, M. M. (1989). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: A Vygotskian view. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 143–167). New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1998). Inventing ourselves: Psychology, power, and personhood. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, J. (1996). Agency: Its role in mental development. Hove, UK: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schunk, D. H., & Ertmer, P. A. (2000). Self-regulation and academic learning: Self-efficacy enhancing interventions. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 631–649). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (Eds.) (1998). Self-regulated learning: From teaching to self-reflective practice. New York: Guilford.

  • Schutz, A. (2000). Teaching freedom? Postmodern perspectives. Review of Educational Research, 70, 215–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seigel, J. (2005). The idea of the self: Thought and experience in western Europe since the seventeenth century. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1979). Models of thought. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (1976). The theory of the moral sentiments. In D. D. Raphael & A. L. Macfie (Eds.), The Glasgow edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith, Vol. 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press (Original work published 1759).

  • Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R. R., & Nowak, A. (1997). The emergence of dynamical social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 73–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderstraeten, R. (2003). Education and the condicio socialis: Double contingency in interaction. Educational Theory, 53, 19–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2004). Understanding self-regulation: An introduction. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory and applications (pp. 1–9). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Weinstein, C. E., Husman, J., & Dierking, D. R. (2000). Self-regulation interventions with a focus on learning strategies. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 728–747). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, N. (1948). Cybernetics: Control and communication in the animal and the machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winne, P. H., & Hadwin, A. F. (1998). Studying as self-regulated learning. In D. J. Hacer, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp. 279–306). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winne, P. H., & Perry, N. E. (2000). Measuring self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 532–629). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeidner, M., Boekaerts, M., & Pintrich, P. R. (2000). Self-regulation: Directions and challenges for future research. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 750–768). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. (1989). Models of self-regulated learning and academic achievement. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 1–25). New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. (1998). Developing self-fulfilling cycles of academic regulation: An analysis of exemplary instructional models. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulated learning: From teaching to self-reflective practice (pp. 1–19). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. & Schunk, D. H. (Eds.) (1989). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Download references

Acknowledgement

Work on this article was supported by Grant #410-2205-1308 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jack Martin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Martin, J., McLellan, AM. The Educational Psychology of Self-Regulation: A Conceptual and Critical Analysis. Stud Philos Educ 27, 433–448 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-007-9060-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-007-9060-4

Keywords

Navigation