SRL and types of classrooms

Before any discussions should continue on the interplay of self-efficacy and self-regulation, I feel that it's important we make the distinction between "general" self-regulation and self-regulated learning (SRL). Self-regulation, as a general term, can refer to any number of behaviors that are aimed at helping someone reach a (usually self-generated) goal. SRL on the other hand, is a specific term that refers to several educational theories that propose that students engage in the learning process by setting goals, enacting strategies, monitoring their strategy use and progress towards a goal (making strategic changes when necessary) and finally reflecting upon their goal pursuit. And now I digress.

While I agree that it is much easier and likely to occur in contexts in which mastery-based, I think that SRL can occur in performance-based classes, depending on what students need to do in order to perform well in a class. Typically when we think of performance-based classes, we are talking about those "banking" ideas where students just need to take in a bunch of info and then spit it back out on an assessment. I agree it's far less likely that students will self-regulate their learning in this type of class, mostly because it is not necessary to do that when the grade is based on superficial knowledge. But if assignments are designed in a way that the performance (read:grade) is based on a deep understanding of content (think the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy), students can certainly self-regulate their learning in this type of environment, even if they are not doing so because they desire mastery or are judging their performance on their own standard. With the increasing importance of grades in schools, it's becoming harder to structure classrooms to be mastery-based and avoid the emphasis on performance. But I think that if assignments are structured in a way that necessitates deep learning and SRL, students will engage in these behaviors, eventually increasing their self-efficacy to engage in these behaviors, this process.

Basically, I just don't think it's as black-and-white as "Students can only self-regulate in mastery environments and not in other environments."