Self-Regulated Learning – Center for Teaching and Learning /ctl Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:25:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 /ctl/wp-content/uploads/sites/88/2024/01/cropped-android-chrome-512x512-1-32x32.png Self-Regulated Learning – Center for Teaching and Learning /ctl 32 32 Add Time Estimates to Facilitate Self-Regulated Learning /ctl/add-time-estimates-to-facilitate-self-regulated-learning/ Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:15:47 +0000 /ctl/?p=5542 Adult learners are generally very strategic about their learning and prefer to know in advance what their learning tasks are and how much time it will take them so they can plan their busy lives. But, how can you provide them with an accurate estimate for how long it will take them to complete learning tasks, like watching a YouTube video or reading a research article?

]]> Adult learners are generally very strategic about their learning and prefer to know in advance what their learning tasks are and how much time it will take them so they can plan their busy lives. But, how can you provide them with an accurate estimate for how long it will take them to complete learning tasks, like watching a YouTube video or reading a research article?

While it may seem straightforward to just post the length of the video in the title of the YouTube video, consider what you want students to do with the video. Do you want them to just watch it once? Do you want them to pause the video to take notes or complete activities? Is it a tutorial video that they are pausing to follow along with the steps? Be sure to consider the total time you expect students to devote to the video when you post a time estimate.

Reading may seem more straightforward, but our reading speed depends on a number of factors: how familiar we are with the content, the complexity of the text, and how we are engaging with the text. While the “average” reading speed is 300 words per minute, this drops considerably when there are many new concepts in the reading the learners are unfamiliar with, they are taking notes while reading, or completing activities while reading, like making annotations on the file.

If students are skimming the content in a textbook they are already familiar with, they could read about 40 pages per hour. If they are reading a journal article with many new concepts and are deeply engaging with the text, the rate slows to 7 pages per hour. Similarly, writing rates also vary based on the purpose and type of task.

Wake Forest University provides a helpful workload estimator that will do these calculations for you. For more information about the research behind the workload estimator, visit the.

]]> Understanding Learning Strategy Use Through the Lens of Habit /ctl/understanding-learning-strategy-use-through-the-lens-of-habit/ Wed, 28 Jan 2026 18:11:16 +0000 /ctl/?p=5143 This paper argues that students’ frequent use of ineffective learning strategies (like rereading and highlighting) isn’t just due to lack of awareness, time pressure, or goals — it may also reflect habitual behavior. Traditional research on self-regulated learning emphasizes deliberate choice and metacognition, but this article suggests that many study practices have become automatic routines triggered by environmental cues. Ineffective strategies often become habituated because they are easy, familiar, and contextually ingrained.

]]> This paper argues that students’ frequent use of ineffective learning strategies (like rereading and highlighting) isn’t just due to lack of awareness, time pressure, or goals — it may also reflect habitual behavior. Traditional research on self-regulated learning emphasizes deliberate choice and metacognition, but this article suggests that many study practices have become automatic routines triggered by environmental cues. Ineffective strategies often become habituated because they are easy, familiar, and contextually ingrained. The authors combine theoretical insights from habit formation with a proof-of-concept study showing that some ineffective strategies have stronger habit tendencies than effective ones. They argue that understanding strategy use through a habit lens can help explain why students struggle to adopt better techniques and can inform interventions designed to support lasting change.

Educational support that focuses on teaching what strategies are effective might not be enough. Behavior-change principles — e.g., embedding effective strategies into routines, cue-prompting, designing context changes — may be necessary to shift habits. Faculty can help students by:

  • Modeling effective habits in class (e.g., routine self-testing prompts)
  • Designing assignments that cue retrieval practices and spacing
  • Offering structured opportunities that help integrate strategies into students’ academic routines.

Read the full article here:

Krause, A., Breitwieser, J., & Brod, G. (2025). Understanding learning strategy use through the lens of habit. Educational Psychology Review 37(4):109. .

]]> The Cognitive Challenges of Effective Teaching /ctl/the-cognitive-challenges-of-effective-teaching/ Wed, 19 Nov 2025 22:01:13 +0000 /ctl/?p=5329 Chew & Cerbin propose a research-based framework of nine interacting cognitive challenges that teachers must address in order to promote “optimal learning” rather than merely acceptable performance. They emphasize that teaching is not just delivering content but creating the conditions in which students learn. Each of the nine challenges represents a characteristic of how students think, learn, or struggle — the idea being that failure to address any one of these can undermine learning. The authors describe each challenge, provide examples, and suggest instructional strategies for mitigation.

]]> Chew & Cerbin propose a research-based framework of nine interacting cognitive challenges that teachers must address in order to promote “optimal learning” rather than merely acceptable performance. They emphasize that teaching is not just delivering content but creating the conditions in which students learn. Each of the nine challenges represents a characteristic of how students think, learn, or struggle — the idea being that failure to address any one of these can undermine learning. The authors describe each challenge, provide examples, and suggest instructional strategies for mitigation.

The Nine Cognitive Challenges & Our Suggestions

  1. Cognitive Challenge: Student mental mindset — students’ attitudes, beliefs, expectations about the course, their ability, and value of the content.
    Our recommendation: Be intentional about student mindset: From day one, communicate clearly the value of the course, the relevance to students’ goals, and emphasize that ability can grow with effort (growth mindset). Setting this tone helps mitigate fixed-mindset beliefs and promotes belonging and self-efficacy.
  2. Cognitive Challenge: Metacognition and self-regulation — students’ ability to monitor their own learning, judge their understanding, regulate study behaviors.
    Our recommendation: Support metacognition and self-regulation: Rather than assume students will monitor their own learning, build-in scaffolds (like study plans, exam-wrappers, reflective prompts) that ask students to reflect on what they know, what they need to do, and how they will adjust.
  3. Cognitive Challenge: Student fear and mistrust — negative emotions, anxiety, and lack of trust in the instructor or course that interfere with learning.
    Our recommendation: Foster trust and reduce anxiety: Create an environment of openness and fairness; explicitly explain your course policies, offer supportive feedback, allow revision when possible, and express a genuine belief in student capability. For adult learners especially, acknowledge diverse backgrounds and potential anxieties about re-entry, prior experience, or balancing responsibilities.
  4. Cognitive Challenge: Insufficient prior knowledge — students may lack the necessary background or foundation to learn new content effectively.
    Our recommendation: Assess and build prior knowledge: Especially for adult learners who may have varied or interrupted educational backgrounds, assess what they bring and fill the gaps early. Low-stakes pre-quizzes, review tasks, or scaffolded assignments help ensure a more even starting line.
  5. Cognitive Challenge: Misconceptions — students may hold inaccurate or deeply entrenched beliefs that interfere with learning new concepts.
    Our recommendation: Expose and correct misconceptions: Don’t assume that prior knowledge is accurate. Use diagnostic tools, ask students to predict, observe, explain (POE) experiments, and explicitly challenge common misconceptions.
  6. Cognitive Challenge: Ineffective learning strategies — students may use study approaches that are inefficient or counter-productive (e.g., highlighting, rereading).
    Our recommendation: Teach effective learning strategies explicitly: Rather than assuming students know how to learn, model and embed strategies like retrieval practice, spaced practice, self-explanation, elaboration. This is especially useful for adult learners who may default to habits from earlier schooling.
  7. Cognitive Challenge: Transfer of learning — students often fail to apply what they’ve learned in one context to new or novel contexts (near/far transfer).
    Our recommendation: Design for transfer — not just for content mastery: Encourage students to apply concepts in new contexts. Use varied examples, encourage analogy, scaffold tasks that require application, and help students reflect on how what they learned in your class might connect beyond it (e.g., their workplace, future courses, real-world problems).
  8. Cognitive Challenge: Constraints of selective attention — students’ limited capacity to focus, susceptibility to distractions, multitasking issues.
    Our recommendation: Manage attention and minimize distractions: In online or in-person settings, pay attention to how easily students can become distracted or multitask. Use frequent re-orientation to topic, build in short breaks, keep one clear focus at a time, and design activities that require active engagement rather than passive listening.
  9. Cognitive Challenge: Constraints of mental effort and working memory — limits on how much new information students can process at once; cognitive overload.
    Our recommendation: Reduce cognitive load and structure information clearly: Recognize that students’ working memory is limited. Present material in manageable chunks, use advance organizers (outlines, conceptual roadmaps), use dual-modality (verbal + visual) thoughtfully, avoid “seductive details” that distract, and gradually build complexity as students’ automaticity grows.

This framework reminds us that there is no one “best method” for all students and all contexts. Effective teaching involves diagnosing which challenges are most relevant to your specific learners and adapting practices accordingly.

Read the full article online:

Chew & Cerbin (2020). The cognitive challenges of effective teaching. The Journal of Economic Education, 52(1). 

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