Time management in self regulated learning of first year student majored in english education in can tho university

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

TIME MANAGEMENT IN
SELF-REGULATED LEARNING OF FIRST-YEAR
STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH EDUCATION IN
CAN THO UNIVERSITY

B.A. Thesis

Supervisor
Lê Thị Huyền, M.A

Student
Nguyễn Kim Tiền
Student’s Code: 7075870
Class: NN0752A1
Course: 33

Cần Thơ, April 2011


Luận văn tốt nghiệp với đề tài “TIME MANAGEMENT IN SELF-REGULATED
LEARNING OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH EDUCATION
IN CAN THO UNIVERSITY” do sinh viên Nguyễn Kim Tiền thực hiện dưới sự hướng
dẫn của Thạc sĩ Lê Thị Huyền tại Trường Đại học Cần Thơ.

Ý kiến của cán bộ hướng dẫn khoa học

Thạc sĩ Lê Thị Huyền

i


Luận văn tốt nghiệp với đề tài “TIME MANAGEMENT IN SELF-REGULATED
LEARNING OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENLISH EDUCATION IN
CAN THO UNIVERSITY” do sinh viên Nguyễn Kim Tiền thực hiện và báo cáo đã được
hội đồng chấm luận văn thông qua.

Ủy viên thư ký

Ủy viên

(Ký tên)

(Ký tên)

Cán bộ phản biện thứ nhất

Cán bộ phản biện thứ hai

(Ký tên)

(Ký tên)

Cần thơ, Ngày

tháng

năm 2011

Chủ tịch Hội đồng
(Ký tên)

ii


LỜI CAM ĐOAN

Tôi xin cam đoan đề tài luận văn Tốt nghiệp Đại học này là công trình nghiên cứu
khoa học của bản thân tôi. Các số liệu và kết quả được trình bày trong luận văn là hoàn
toàn trung thực.

Tác giả luận văn

Nguyễn Kim Tiền

iii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I would like to express my really deep gratitude to Mrs. Le Thi Huyen, my
supervisor, who has instructed me whole-heartedly from “my first step” on my thesis.
Your instructions, advice, suggestions and particularly encouragement have led me not
only to finish my thesis but also to reinforce me in every step of my life. I will never
forget the hardest time of my thesis, some moments when I got stuck; you enlightened
my mind again and again. It seems that you understand me a lot and you always appear to
help me at the needy time. Actually, I can become mature in certain aspects that I cannot
express in words here.
My greatly sincere thanks would be sent to Mrs. Pham Thi Mai Duyen and Mr.

Nguyen Thanh Duc, my reviewers, who has read my thesis very carefully and given me
invaluable advice. Thanks to your advice, I could recognize and fill the gaps, as well as
the mistakes existing in my thesis in my ability. In addition, you two have motivated me
to make careful and detailed correction and appropriate changes.
My greatly sincere thanks would be sent to Miss Rebecca and Miss Liz, the
volunteer American teachers who have taught the first-year students of English
Department (course 36) in Can Tho University. You two have helped me a lot by sharing
me your invaluable time so that I could finish my data collection. Also, you have
encouraged me to try my best with my thesis, which has motivated me a lot.
I am greatly grateful for the first-year students of English Education, course 36.
My thesis had been not completed and meaningful without your cooperation. You all
have been very enthusiastic to give me valuable answers. My thanks also fly to my dear
friends, who have given me sincere helps and continual encouragement. You are willing
to be with me and help me eradicate the moments of tension and stress!
Lastly, I would love to send my love to my family, my strong spiritual base. You
all are always make me really motivated and give me energy to finish this thesis.
Actually, it had been impossible for me to finish my thesis without all of these
helps. Thank you all much more and more.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents ..................................................................................................v
List of tables .........................................................................................................vi
Abstract ................................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................1
1.1.1 The research problem
............................................................................... 1
1.1.2 Research hypotheses ............................................................................................ 4

1.1.3 Research objectives .............................................................................................. 4
1.1.4 Research questions ............................................................................................... 4
1.1.5 General organization and coverage of the study ................................................... 5
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...............................................................6
2.1
Self-regulated learning ........................................................................................ 6
2.1.1 Definition of self-regulated learning .................................................................... 6
2.1.2 The components of self-regulated learning ........................................................ 10
2.1.3 The importance of self-regulated learning ......................................................... 17
2.2
Time management in self-regulated learning ..................................................... 18
2.2.1 The definition of time management ................................................................... 18
2.2.2 Time management strategies ............................................................................. 19
2.2.3 The importance of time management in self-regulated learning ......................... 26
CHAPTER 3: METHOD ........................................................................................... 30
3.1
Research design ................................................................................................ 30
3.2
Participants ....................................................................................................... 30
3.3
Instrument ......................................................................................................... 30
3. 4 Research procedure ............................................................................................ 34
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ..........................................................................................35
4.1
The extent to which self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies are used by the
first-year students of English Education (course 36) ..........................................35
4.2
The extent to which the first-year students of English Education apply
time management strategies in their learning .....................................................37
4.3

The extent to which the first-year students balance their academic
and social life .................................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS
AND IMPLICATION ......................................................................................48
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................51
APPENDICES ..........................................................................................................58

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables
Table 3.3 Cluster of the questionnaire ......................................................................... 32
Table 4.1.1 Descriptive Statistics of each item of the cluster of SRL strategies ........... 35
Table 4.1.2 The overall mean score of the students’ use of SRL strategies
in their learning ................................................................................................ 36
Table 4.1.3 The frequency levels of students' use of specific SRL strategies
in their learning ................................................................................................. 36
Table 4.2 The sub-cluster of time management strategies ............................................. 37
Table 4.2.1 The extent to which the students’ use time management strategies
in general .......................................................................................................... 38
Table 4.2.2 The frequency level of students' use time management strategies
in details ........................................................................................................... 38
Table 4.2.2.1 The frequency level of students' identification of
their personal productive time ........................................................................... 39
Table 4.2.2.2a The sub-clusters of the planning strategies ............................................ 40
Table 4.2.2.2b The overall mean score of the cluster of planning strategies .................. 40
Table 4.2.2.2c Descriptive Statistics of specific planning activities .............................. 40
Table 4.2.2.2.1 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of
getting organized .............................................................................................. 41

Table 4.2.2.2.2 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of
general planning ............................................................................................... 42
Table 4.2.2.2.3 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of goal-setting ... 42
Table 4.2.2.2.4 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of prioritizing .... 43
Table 4.2.2.2.5 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of scheduling .... 43
Table 4.2.2.3 The frequency levels of students' use of the strategies of
procrastination and deadline avoidance with time compensation ....................... 44
Table 4.2.2.4 The frequency level of students' use of the self-reward strategy .............. 45
Table 4.2.2.5 The frequency level of students' use of help-seeking strategy .................. 46
Table 4.2.2.6 The frequency level of students' use of evaluating
their time management ....................................................................................... 46
Table 4.2.2.7 The frequency level of students' use of evaluating
their time management ..................................................................................... 47
Table 4.3 The extent to which the students’ balance their academic
and social life.................................................................................................... 47
Figures
Figure 2.1.2 Framework of the components of self-regulated learning ......................... 10

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ABSTRACT
This study was conducted from January 11th to March13th, 2011 in Can Tho
University. The participants were 84 first-year students of English Education (course 36).
Accordingly, this study was purposeful to examine the extent to which the first-year
students use self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in general and time management
techniques in particular, as well as the extent to which they keep balanced in both
academic and social life. The questionnaire was given to 84 first-year students and the
data was run by SPSS 11.5. Consequently, the students reported that they just rather
sometimes use SRL strategies in their learning (M=4.41, SD=.74, with 1 – Never (0%), 2

– Rarely (1% – 19%), 3 – Seldom (19%-25%), 4 – Sometimes (25% - 75%), 5 – Often
(75% - 90%), 6 – Usually (90%-99%)). Besides, they admitted that they sometimes apply
time management strategies in managing their time (M=4.09, SD=.61). Being asked bout
how well they keep the balance between academic and social life, the students reported
that they can just sometimes stay balanced (M=4.44, SD=.94). Similarly, they just
sometimes use their time effectively. From the results, the researcher proposes trainings
on self-regulated learning and time management from English Department in orientation
courses. Besides, in combination with extra-curriculum activities, the agencies of the
Youth Union in School of Education should include the activities on training and sharing
the experiences on self-regulated learning and time management among the students.

vii


TÓM LƯỢC
Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện từ 11/01/2011 đến ngày 13/03/2011 tại Trường
Đại học Cần Thơ với đối tượng nghiên cứu là 84 em sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên
ngành sư phạm Anh văn, khóa 36, thuộc khoa sư phạm, trường Đại học Cần Thơ. Nghiên
cứu nhằm tìm hiểu việc sử dụng một số phương pháp tự điều chỉnh trong học tập mà đặc
biệt là kỹ năng quản lý thời gian, cũng như mức độ cân bằng trong việc học với đời sống
cá nhân và việc tham gia các hoạt động ngoại khóa của sinh viên. Với mục tiêu trên,
nghiên cứu đã được thực hiện thông qua 84 phiếu điều tra được xử lý bằng phần mền
SPSS 11,5. Kết quả cho thấy sinh viên chỉ thỉnh thoảng sử dụng các biện pháp tự điều
chỉnh trong học tập nói chung (M=4.41, SD=.74 với 1- Không Bao Giờ (0%), 2 – Hiếm
Khi, 3 – Ít Khi (10%-25%), 4 – Thỉnh thoảng (25%-75%), 5 – Thường (75%-90%), 6 –
Luôn Luôn (90%-99%)). Đồng thời, khi xét riêng về việc sử dụng các phương pháp quản
lý thời gian được nêu ra, các em sinh viên cũng cho biết các em cũng chỉ sử dụng các
biện pháp này ở mức độ thỉnh thoảng (M=4.09, SD=.61), có phần ít hơn so với các biện
pháp tự điều chỉnh trong học tập đã được nêu. Ngoài ra, các em cũng cho biết các em
cũng thỉnh thoảng cân bằng được việc học, sinh hoạt cá nhân và tham gia các hoạt động

ngoại khóa (M=4.44, SD=.94). Qua đó, các em cũng đánh giá rằng các em cũng chỉ thỉnh
thoảng sử dụng thời gian của mình một cách hiệu quả (M=4.33, SD=.85). Từ kết quả
nghiên cứu, tác giả kiến nghị Bộ môn Anh văn nên quan tâm hơn nữa đến công tác hướng
dẫn các em sinh viên năm nhất phương pháp tự điều chỉnh trong học tập cũng như kỹ
năng quản lý thời gian để các em thích ứng nhanh với môi trường học mới. Các tổ chức
Đoàn thanh niên trực thuộc Khoa Sư Phạm cần kết hợp việc chia sẻ kinh nghiệm học tập
và quản lý thời gian cho các em sinh viên. Giáo viên bộ môn cũng nên cố gắng lồng ghép
vào một số hướng dẫn giúp các em sinh viên cách học tốt môn học với việc hướng dẫn
cách quản lý thời gian hiệu quả.

vii


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is attempted to generalize the research problem, as well as state the research hypotheses,
objectives and questions which are followed by the organization of the study.

1.1 The research problem
Recently, the Psychology of Education has been more and more developed, and
learners are perceived under the innovative view that learners actively engage in their
learning process to acquire knowledge rather than passive involvement (Perkins, 1992;
cited in Chen, 2002). Based on this development, it is revealed that the learning outcomes
will be better when students actively participate in learning activities. Thanks to the
active engagement, learners find it easier to obtain high achievements. One of the great
breakthroughs of active learning approaches is the emergence of self-regulated learning
which has been focused to investigate over the last three decades (Zimmerman, 1989). In
self-regulated learning, students make their own decision for their learning goals,
maintain self-motivated and make great effort to use appropriate strategies in their own
learning. Moreover, self-regulated learners make adaptive changes to cope with different

learning situations. It is also proved by research that self-regulated learning is highly
correlated with achievement (Bandura, 1986; Corno, 1989; Mc Combs and Marzano,
1990; Schunk, 1990; Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons, 1986; and Zimmerman, 1989 &
1990). In fact, it is important for students to become self-regulated learners in their
learning processes. Besides, students are not possible to wait for the teachers to stand by
them all over the time when they need help. Therefore, they have to make adjustment in
each situation. In addition, under the “bombing” of information, it is impossible for the
lecturers to provide students with all information in the world. Rather, students
themselves integrate in the information flow to find out which is most useful for them.
In Viet Nam context, integrating with the development of worldwide education,
the education system of Viet Nam has gradually been innovated. Coincident with the
governmental policies of education, Can Tho University (CTU) has made a great
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innovation in the educational structure and teaching methods. Based on Regulation 42 on
Credit-based learning system, which was issued by the Ministry of Education and
Training on August, 15th 2007, CTU Board made a declaration to shift into complete
credit-based learning system in the school year of 2007-2008. Since the teaching methods
shift from teacher-centered approaches from student-centered ones, students are expected
to be more proactive and highly responsible for their learning. Taking deep care on how
CTU students carry out their learning with the new learning system, CTU Steering Board
operated a conference named “Assessment on CTU students' Use of Two Hours for Selfstudy” on January, 5th 2010. With this conference, CTU leaders desired to find out
problems and solutions to help CTU students to become more independent and make
self-adjustments in their learning processes and make adaptive changes to catch up with
the new approach of credit-based learning. There were 28 reports on related surveys
showed in the conference that the majority of students, who took part in the surveys, are
weak in organizing their time for self-study although they are greatly aware of the
importance of self-study. However, most of the reports are in general.
With this credit-based system of learning, students are required to learn

independently. They have right to choose the subjects they learn within the frame of
requirements in their major. They also make arrangement of the subjects they learn,
organize these subjects into a timetable to match with their available time for the purpose
of balancing their schoolwork and personal life. They have to think that they themselves,
not the teachers, are making their learning successful and obtain good achievements.
Another important thing is that they have to adjust themselves in particular situations,
both in learning and life. In other words, they must regulate themselves in all aspects,
especially in their own learning process. Thus, they are expected to become self-regulated
learners. That means they are able to determinate their own learning objectives or goals,
choose their own ways of achieving these, and evaluate their progress, then make
changes when necessary to adapt to new learning environments or situations.
Therefore, right at the beginning of the first semester of their first year at
university, students must have a clear overview of what they will do for the whole
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academic syllabus for their major. They have to plan what they do, how to arrange time,
how to decide the learning strategies to get the goals. Then, each semester, they have a
clear schedule on their own, not only the university schedule but also the timetable for
their all other activities. After they have their goals, plans, and learning strategies to
focus, managing the time is an important factor to consider carrying out their plan to aim
at their goals.
However, it is not easy at all for first-year students to organize their academic and
social life well because they have just encounter the transitional environment from high
school into university. Everything is new to them. Actually, high school students in Viet
Nam usually depend too much on their family for their decision-making and other things.
Moreover, the remainder of traditional teaching methods resulting from re-packaging
knowledge in many high schools is still serious. Thus, becoming independent right away
is really challenging for them. In fact, I had hard experience when I was in the first year,
2007-2008, the year of innovation in learning approach in CTU. There were so many

assignments, presentations, and personal demands etc. to deal with. It seemed that I had
never had enough time to do all my work. As a result, I had few friends in the first year in
the university and had hardly time talking with them. I usually work late at night for my
due assignments. Then, I try to find out books or any means to be better. Accidentally, I
caught up with the books on how to get more organized and how to manage the time,
which really attracted me. By trying those tips, I felt better. I wish I had known these tips
before. Thus, I understand how difficult it is for first-year students because of new
environment along with learning and teaching methods.
Due to the problems aforementioned, I suppose that first-year students now
(course 36) of English Education in CTU may experience the same difficulties as I did in
learning independently. Accordingly, I would like to further exploration for more details
by conducting this study. The purpose is then giving out specific solutions to help them
use their time well in effective self-study. Actually, I hope I can share with them the
experience I have to help them better their use of time. In addition, I think self-regulated
learning is necessary for students to be aware of and apply. In my concern and limitation,
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I would like to discover to what extent they apply time management strategies, as part of
strategies in self-regulated learning, in their learning and university life under the light of
self-regulated learning perspective, if they manage to use their time well and how they
think of their current use of time in self-regulated learning. Since the data were collected
to analyze, I would suppose possible supportive suggestions to assist them in managing
their time effectively. For the research purpose, my study is named as “Time management
in self-regulated learning of first-year students majored in English Education in Can Tho
University”
1.2 Research hypotheses
Based on the research problem, I hypothesize that
(1) first-year students majored in English Education in CTU use some selfregulatory strategies mentioned to regulate their own learning;
(2) first-year students majored in English Education in CTU use time management

strategies to manage their time;
(3) first-year students majored in English Education in CTU balance their academic
and social life.
1.3 Research objectives
This study is aimed to investigate:
(1) the extent to which first-year students majored in English Education in CTU use
some self-regulatory strategies to regulate their own learning,
(2) the extent to which they use time management strategies,
(3) and the extent to which students balance their learning and personal life through
the way they manage their time.
1.4 Research questions
To serve the research objectives, I make attempt to answer these questions:
1. To what extent do first-year students majored in English Education in CTU use
some self-regulatory strategies mentioned to regulate their own learning?
2. To what extent do they use time management strategies to manage their time?
3. To what extent do students balance their learning and personal life?
4


1.5 General organization and coverage of the study
This study comprises of five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3)
Research method, (4) Results, and (5) Summary, discussion, limitations, and
recommendations for the future research. Chapter 1 is named the introduction in which
the research problem, research hypotheses, objectives and questions, as well as the
organization of the study are presented. In chapter 2, the literature related to selfregulated learning and time management is reviewed, which is the theoretical foundation
for the purposes of the study. Chapter 3 relates to research method, which consists of the
descriptions of research design, participants, instruments and procedure which was
followed to carry out this study. The outcomes are presented in chapter 4 including the
information of the degree to which first-year students majored in English Education in
CTU apply self-regulatory strategies to self-regulate their learning, of the extent to which

they make use of these strategies, and of how effective they use their time. Chapter 5
comes last to serve the study with the information of the summary, discussion, limitations
of the study, and thanks to this, setting up the base for suggesting directions for the future
research.

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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Self-regulated learning (SRL) has been considered as a significant shift in the context of Educational
Psychology (Paris and Winograd, 2003) since 1980's and has been currently attracted plenty of
researchers (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman, 1989). Recently, there have been a wide range of studies on
self-regulated learning based on different theoretical perspectives which are of operant,
phenomenological, volitional, Vygotskian, and social-cognitive theory (Southerland and Crowther, 2008).
Nevertheless, general features of SRL which can be found across all the above viewpoints have been
synthesized as metacognition, motivation and behavior (Zimmerman, 1989, 1990; Schunk, 1990; Chung,
2000). This paper is considered under the theoretical basis related to the social cognitive perspective. In
this study, I introduce the definition of self-regulated learning and its three main components: behavior,
motivation and metacognition.

Then, I shift into the introduction of time management as a sub-

component of metacognition.

2.1 Self-regulated learning (SRL)
2.1.1 The definition of self-regulated learning (SRL)
Based on the viewpoints of the social cognitive perspective, self-regulation on
learning is dependent on specific learning situation. Social cognitive researchers claim
that learners make adaptation of their learning strategies to particular tasks, and that selfregulation of learning is by no means automatic development. Instead, it is built up in

individuals from social sources such as a teacher or tutor, and then they activate what
they have acquired and apply it in their learning process (Zimmerman, 1989, 1990, 2008;
Schunk, 1990; Bundura, 1997; Pintrich and De Groot, 1990).
Research reported that the students who involve in self-regulated learning (SRL)
are generally remarked to be active and responsible for their learning to aim at achieving
good learning results. However, self-regulated learning has been experienced under
different viewpoints by researchers with different definitions.
In some research papers, SRL is somewhat coincident with the use of learning
strategies. For instance, Corno (1989) defined SRL as a set of learning strategies which
learners can use effectively and flexibly to meet the requirements of a particular task.

6


Corno (1989) contributed the specification to the concept of SRL by adding the use of
language learning strategies as the key feature to the model of SRL. In his definition,
Corno asserted SRL to be coincident with the application of a series of language learning
strategies (eg, note taking, grouping, inferring, and summarizing) that the learners can
apply to meet task requirements effectively. In contrast, as Tran (2006) reviewed,
McKeachei et al. (1985) have explored that knowing strategies of learning does not
necessarily lead learners to self-regulate. For instance, an individual may know many
learning strategies but he does not put these strategies into practice. Thus, the evidence
indicates that Corno’s(1989) concept of SRL appears insufficient.
With an attempt to build up the contribution of SRL concept, Boekaerts’ (1997)
presented that self-regulated learning composes of the features which are related to
motivational and cognitive notions. That is, SRL is considered as a complicated,
integrative process constituted with the behavior of self-regulating one's own cognition
and motivation. Besides adding motivational component, the cognitive factor in SRL, in
Boekaerts’ self-regulation view, refers to cognitive strategies which learners use to reach
their learning achievement. Nevertheless, learning outcomes may not be improved if

learners only make use of cognitive strategies accidentally. It is due to the fact that
different learning situations require different appropriate strategies. In other words,
learners have to use the learning strategies which are relevant to the tasks they meet. This
aspect refers to the use of the metacognitive strategies in which learners probably
determine the appropriate ones in using cognitive strategies in each situation. However,
the metacognitive aspect is not mentioned in Boekaerts’s (1997). Therefore, strategies in
the SRL model of Boekaerts’s (1997) are proved to be weak.
Additionally, other findings on the constitution of metamemory and motivational
or volitional aspects of learning have shown that learners who are able to perceive the
appropriateness of learning strategies may not apply them in their learning process
(Artelt, 2000). Thus, not only cognitive and metacognitive aspects but motivation and
emotion should be considered. Schunk (1990) pointed out that self-efficacy, an aspect of
motivation in which learners believe themselves to be capable enough to carry out a
7


learning task and accomplish the goals, can be resulted from effective strategy
instruction. Through comprehensible instruction, learners believe that they have enough
capabilities to use the strategies and increase positive outcomes of learning, and
performance is, thus, improved. As mentioned above, Boekaerts (1997) introduces a
model of SRL in which components of cognition and motivation in learning are put under
equality to consider. Boekaerts ' (1997) model consists of two types of regulation on three
levels: levels of goals, strategies and domain-specific knowledge (knowledge on
particular tasks). Adapting from Boekaerts ' version (1997), Baumert (1999) made a SRL
model by adding metacognitive strategies besides cognitive strategies and domainspecific knowledge.
According to Zimmerman (1989) who follows the social cognitive perspective,
self-regulated learning is defined as the learning process in which learners are
“metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own
learning process” (p. 4). By this definition, learners are expected to self-regulate in three
aspects: cognition, motivation and behavior. The motivational, behavioral and

metacognitive features are further clarified in Zimmerman and Martine-Pons (1990). In
views of Zimmerman and Martine-Pons (1990), self-regulated learners are highly
motivated with self-efficacy, beliefs to be capable enough to implement a learning task
and attain the goals and intrinsic motivation. In the behavioral aspect, self-regulated
learners are highly active in using SRL strategies for selecting, structuring, and creating
social and material environments to increase the productiveness of their learning
processes. In terms of metacognition, self-regulated learners are expected to use
metacognitive activities such as planning, organizing, and evaluating.
Sharing the same viewpoints, Schiefele and Pekrun’s (1996, p.258) gave out a
definition on self-regulated learning that “self-regulated learning is a form of learning in
which individuals, depending on the type of their motivation to learn, autonomously
deploy one or more self-regulatory measures (of a cognitive, metacognitive volitional or
behavioral nature) and monitor the progress of their own learning” (cited in Baumert et
al., 2000). This consideration on self-regulated learning of Schiefele and Pekrun (1996) is
8


also included the aspects of metacognition, motivation and behavior; however, they
mentioned these aspects in more details.
Contributing to the explanation of self-regulated learning, Leutwyler and Merki
(2009) defined self-regulated learning as “a proactive, intentional, reflexive from of
learning that entails a sense of personal responsibilities for learinng” and as “a dynamic
interaction of skill and will” (p.200). In this definition, Leutwyler and Merki (2009)
highlighted the importance of using learning strategies and motivational factors in
learning, while less focusing on the metacognitive factors.
In an attempt to specify the concept of self-regulated learning, Chen (2002), who
adapted from Zimmerman (1990), defines that “self-regulated learning is a self-initiated
action that involves goal setting and regulating efforts to reach the goal, self-monitoring
(metacognition), time management, and physical and social environment regulation”
(p.11). By this definition, Chen (2002) specified the metacognitive, motivational and

behavioral components of self-regulated learning under the views of Zimmerman (1989).
In Chung's (2000) definition, self-regulated learning is considered as “the situation
when learners, as a master or their own learning, monitor their academic goals and
motivations for themselves, manage human and material resources, and become the
subjects of decisions and performances in all learning process” (p. 56). Actually, Chung
(2000) made a great attempt to cover the common factors of self-regulated leaning in that
definition. Differentiated from others', Chung's (2000) directly included the management
of human and material resources, for example, seeking helps from teachers and friends
(human factors) or searching documents when encountering difficulties in their learning
processes, which is of behavioral regulation.
As aforementioned, there have been many attempts to give out various definitions
of self-regulated learning based on different directions to discover. However, I personally
consider that the definition from Zimmerman (1989) is most meaningful for my study to
have an overview of the construct “self-regulated learning”. Based on Zimmerman's
(1989), I define in my words that “self-regulated learning is the learning process which
learners engage themselves in all learning activities by applying appropriate learning
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strategies, make adaptation to suit each learning situation and are responsible for
motivating themselves to aim at producing high achievements”.
In the following part, three main components that build up the concept of selfregulated learning will be presented.
2.1.2 The components of self-regulated learning
Figure 2.1.2 Framework of the components of self-regulated learning

SELF-REGULATED LEARNING

BEHAVIOR

PLANNING

MOTIVATION

SELF-MONITORING

METACOGNITION

SELF-EVALUATING

TIME MANAGEMENT

Different components of students' self-regulation in academic learning now have
been developed into sufficient size that provides a strong theoretical base for further
learning investigation or application (Terry, 2002). In this part, three main components
that self-regulated learners put under their self-regulation in their learning are: (1)
behavior, (2) motivation and (3) metacognition which have been taken into account in
numerous studies (e.g., Weinstein and Mayer, 1986; Pintrich, 1989; Zimmerman &
Martinez-Ponds, 1990; O'Malley and Chamot, 1990; Baumert, 1999; Zimmerman, 1989,
1990, 2000; Corno, 1989, Pintrich and De Groot, 1990 ; Pintrich and Garcia, 1991; and
Nist and Holschuh, 2005).

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2.1.2.1 Behavior in self-regulated learning
In behavioral aspects, SRL activites are expected to be interpreted through the use
of SRL strategies (Garcia et al. 2004; cited in Tran, 2006). To engage in self-regulated
learning (SRL), students carry out their learning through performing a set of activities in
which they use different strategies to approach their learning tasks to acquire academic
knowledge or achieve academic goals.

In Weinstein and Mayer's view (1986 ), behavioral aspect of SRL mentions the
actual cognitive strategies that students can use in learning to approach and understand
the materials like strategies for rehearsing, elaborating and organizing information with
the aim at promoting active involvement in learning and lead to higher achievement.
Sharing the same viewpoints, Zimmerman (1989) asserts that students who are
considered to be self-regulated learners are to apply specific SRL strategies to attain
academic goals on the basis of self-efficacy perceptions. Specifically, students use the
strategies that they believe are effective in SRL process. In his account, “SRL strategies
are actions and processes directed at acquiring information or skill that involve agency,
purpose, and instrumentality perceptions by learners” (p. 329). In other words, to satisfy
as self-regulated learners, students have to know and use appropriate SRL strategies to
aim their efforts to obtain their learning goals or completing their learning tasks.
Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1986) pointed out 14 types of SRL strategies. Some
examples among these are organizing and transformation, seeking information, and
rehearsing or using memory aids, environmental structuring, and seeking helps.
Nevertheless, Baumert (1999) claimed that self-regulated learners use a set of cognitive
and metacognitive strategies as SRL strategies, while Zimmerman (1989 and 1990)
separated to investigate metacognitive strategies in terms of metacognition.
Although researchers are not completely in agreement in descriptions of SRL
strategies, most approved that the application of SRL strategies is closely connected
academic achievement (Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons, 1986; Pintrich, 1989; Pintrich
and Garcia, 1991). According to Zimmerman (2008), learners with higher achievement
use a wider range of SRL strategies than ones who have lower achieving outcomes.
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However, knowing and using SRL strategies are not sufficient, self-regulated learners are
perceived to analyze and make their own decision towards the strategies which are
appropriate for each learning task, keeping motivated to apply these strategies to
maximize the results. In the next part, the information on motivation in students' selfregulated learning is discussed.

2.1.2.2 Motivation in self-regulated learning
Motivation in learning is a combination of the factors comprising of choice
(making own decisions of learning goals), desire of learning to achieve the goals, belief
of learning value and person control (Gardner, 1987, cited in Green and Azevedo, 2007).
Motivation is impacted by the amount of choice of what students learning (e.g, topics).
Making choice on their own also helps increase their motivation. Besides, students are
more involved in the classes they are interested in. When people believe that the subject
is meaningful for their life, they will become more motivated in learning; or the goal is
achievable in their ability, they make great effort to gain it (Nist and Holschuh, 2005).
There are two types of motivation which are greatly mentioned as being most
meaningful for the students: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers
to the motivation that student can get inside the task, while or after the students carry out
the task, they become motivated. The implementation of the task brings them the feeling
of satisfaction because they are interested in the tasks. For example, they may like
reading comic books for relaxation. The state of relaxation is the reward from reading
funny stories. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is achieved from the reward outside the
task. For example, when students finish well the tasks, they receive good marks.
Therefore, to have good marks they learn motivatedly. Good marks are an external
reward. It is important to help to students self-reflect that they themselves should build up
their intrinsic motivation so that they can be sustainably motivated (Gardner, 1987).
Thanks to this, they can pursue their learning with sustainable motivation.
In terms of self-regulated learning, self-regulated learners are expected to be
responsible for their motivation, even the subject they don't like. They are expected to
manage and control their effort to academic tasks. According to Zimmerman (1989), to
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qualify as self-regulated learners, students have to use SRL strategies on the basis of
“self-efficacy perceptions” (p.5). In other words, they believe in their ability to complete
the tasks, stay highly motivated, are willing to engage in learning tasks and make great

attempts to gain high achievement. For instance, According to Corno (1989), SRL
students are able to bring out better performance by the capability to keep persistence in
completing difficult tasks and involve cognitive strategies in dealing with the task (cited
in Pintrich and De Groot, 1990). As reported by Zimmerman (1990), self-regulated
learners are expected to “perceive themselves as competent, self-efficacious, and
autonomous” (p.185) (McCombs, 1990; Schunk, 1990) . Thus, self-regulated learners
make their own initiation rather than waiting for someone else when they start doing their
tasks.
It is important that motivation activates students’ efforts in carrying out learning
activities for academic achievement (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman, 1989, 1990). Many
researchers have investigated to figure out different factors that are involved in
motivation such as self-enhancement (Bundura, 1997), academic goals (Pintrich and
Garcia, 1991), internal orientation, importance of task, and expectation for success
(Pintrich, 1989), self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, self-esteem (self-confident to be
significant) and tendency of completeness (Sink, 1991), self-efficacy and anxiety
(Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons, 1989). Among these motivational factors, self-efficacy
has been attracted much research (Pintrich, 2000; Pintrich and De Groot, 1990;
Zimmerman, 1989; Sink, 1991; Terry, 2002), which is defined as “beliefs in ones’
capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given
attainments” (Bundra, 1997, p.3; as cited in Terry, 2002).
For example, Pintrich and De Groot (1990) conducted a study to consider the
relationships between motivational orientation, self-regulated learning and classroom
academic performance for 173 seventh graders from eight science and eleven English
classes. The report showed that self-efficacy and intrinsic value contributed a positive
relation to cognitive involvement and performance. Intrinsic value was not directly
connected with performance but had a strong relation to self-regulation and cognitive
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strategy use, irrespective of previous attainment level. In fact, motivation plays a crucial

role in promoting learners to engage themselves in learning processes to achieve learning
goals. Thus, self-regulated learners are expected to be responsible for facilitating their
motivation.
In addition to SRL behavioral aspect and motivation, to maintain self-regulated, it
is very important for students to be aware and involve in metacognition processes to
criticize particular learning situations and select suitable strategies to deal with learning
tasks. For this reason, in the next part, the term metacognition will be clarified.
2.1.2.3 Metacognition: self-regulation of cognition
Metacognition helps learners choose to use appropriate learning strategy for each
learning situation, make adaptive changes when encountering obstacles, evaluate the
learning outcomes and the use of learning strategies during the learning processes
(Zimmerman, 1989, 1990).
Metacognition is regarded to be responsible for guiding cognitive activities,
controlling and monitoring wide ranges of cognition (Metcalfe & Shimamura, 1994). It is
accounted for the strategic use of cognitive strategies and for our ability to evaluate our
performance or our mental behavior. Plenty attempts have been made to conceptualize
the construct of metacognition (Flavell, 1987; Paris and Winograd, 1990), but still in
disagreement. Metacognition is usually considered as a combination of metacognitive
knowledge and metacognitive control functions. Metacognitive knowledge involves
knowledge of personal variables (i.e., knowledge of one’s own learning process: personal
characteristics and capabilities), task variables (i.e., knowledge of the task nature: easy or
difficult), and strategy variables (i.e., knowledge of about cognitive and metacognitive
strategies: how to accomplish the task). Metacognitive control functions are usually
considered as metacognitive processes such as planning, regulating and evaluating
actions.
Researchers have investigated different components of metacognition or
metacognitve processes. For examples, in Le’s investigation (2007) of learning strategies,
metacognitve strategies mentioned are planning, monitoring and self-evaluating (or self14

assessing). Pintrich et al. (1991) examined meta-cogniton in the processes of planning,
monitoring, and regulating activities. In others’ like Corno (1989) and Corno and
Mandinach (1983), in terms of metacognition, self-regulated learners implement a series
of strategic actions of planning, organizing, self-instructing, self-monitoring, and selfevaluating during the processes of their learning. Actually, these investigations
aforementioned on metacognitive processes are somewhat mainly of planning and
organizing, self-monitoring and self-evaluating.
However, in Ramocki (2007)’s consideration on metacognition, besides such
processes as defining problems, organizing and selecting information and self-monitoring
of progress, he also included a feature called allocation of time resource (strategies or
technique for disposing study time) , which is named as time management in other studies
(Burt and Kemp, 1994; Francis-Smythe and Robertson, 1999a as reported in Claessens,
Eerde, Rutte, and Roe, 2007). For my own purpose in this study, allocation of time
resources is classified as a factor under the concept of metacognition. The theoretical
base for this classification is followed. According to Nelso and Narens (1990, 1994), the
allocation of study time is resulted from the processes of two main components:
monitoring and controlling which constitute the general framework of metacognition. In
addition, the allocation of time or time management is mainly taken into account under
the light of metacognitive view by Son and Sethi (2006), Hurk (2006) by time planning
(scheduling, planning and managing one’s time) and self-monitoring (goal setting and
foster attention and monitoring study activities). In contrast, Zimmerman et al. (1994)
and Pintrich et al. (1991) emphasized the importance of time management in selfregulated learning , but they categorized time management as one of learning strategy
factors, not specifically classified it as one of metacognitive strategies. Nevertheless,
based on the classification of the existing studies and the components of time
management, and for the purpose of the convenience of this study, I consider time
management as a component of metacognition.
Therefore, in this study, metacognition are investigated with four components: (1)
planning, (2) self-monitoring, (3) self-evaluating, and (4) time management, which assist
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students in selecting relevant self-regulated learning strategies and make adaptive
changes (when necessary for particular tasks or situations and stay organized to make
great use of time to reach learning goals). These components are put in short explanation
as followed.
(1) Planning is considered as the first important process of metacognition in
learning. The planning process helps learners identify what they want to accomplish
(their learning goals) in each task or learning situation, analyzing tasks, seeking the
sources to accomplish what they want. Self-regulated learners are set specific learning
goals or outcomes, and then help monitor to use their learning methods or strategies
effectively and respond appropriately to their evaluations (Zimmerman, 1989).
(2) Self-monitoring is mentioned as the deliberate attention that learners pay to
learning activities to focus their efforts on the learning tasks and give learners assistances
in evaluating the outcomes of their efforts. That means, learners observe and keep track
of their learning behaviors to see how their learning processes progress. By this way,
learners can check and record what is being carried out to give their own evaluation to
their learning results. For example, learners keep a daily to provide information in
determining how to make appropriate learning adjustments to attain his or her goals if the
implementation of certain learning strategies meet difficulties (Zimmerman, 1990).
(3) Self-evaluation is considered as examining the outcomes of performance in
comparison with goals or criteria which are established for learning tasks or requirements
(Zimmerman, 2000). According to Zimmerman and Schunk (1989), while monitoring
their implementation of activities to attain their goals, learners evaluate their performance
and their belief towards achieving their goals..
(4) Time management is described as the strategies or techniques that help students
to organize to use their time effectively and keep balance between their learning
responsibilities and personal life (Zimmerman, 1990). Since time management is the
most important part in my study, I continue to review it in more details in the later parts,
while the role of self-regulated learning will be presented in the following section.

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