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Reflections On Teachers Role in SRL

The document discusses the critical role instructors play in adult self-regulated learning and assessment, especially from an affective and neuro-learning perspective. It explores how the traditional student-teacher relationship has been upended by self-regulated learning and the need to redefine the instructor's role. The instructor plays a significant role in guiding self-assessment, shaping the emotional framework, and creating a positive learning environment that facilitates deep learning.

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70 views4 pages

Reflections On Teachers Role in SRL

The document discusses the critical role instructors play in adult self-regulated learning and assessment, especially from an affective and neuro-learning perspective. It explores how the traditional student-teacher relationship has been upended by self-regulated learning and the need to redefine the instructor's role. The instructor plays a significant role in guiding self-assessment, shaping the emotional framework, and creating a positive learning environment that facilitates deep learning.

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Tonyobar
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© © All Rights Reserved
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ACADEMIA Letters

Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL


Dr. Gil Ontai

Background of SRL
In the past two decades, significant research has been published on self-regulatory learning
(SRL) in adult higher education but very little on how this learning process is shaped by the
cognitive and emotional process. Self-regulatory learning has been published by academic re-
searchers on a global scale, across many cultures and social settings. Published literature cover
strategies to better understand and implement effective self-regulatory learning and assess-
ment (Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2014). With the onset of COVID-19,
online teaching and learning have become the new norm in higher education, placing greater
demand on learners to take a primary role in self-directing, self-motivating, self-pacing, and
self-assessment in the learning process. Traditional student to teacher relationship has always
been a cornerstone of learning. However, SRL has upended this traditional relationship and
has triggered the need to redefine the role of instructor in the SRL environment, especially
from a cognitive and affective perspective. This paper discusses the critical role instructors
play in adult SRL learning and assessment environment, especially from an affective, neuro-
teaching and neuro-learning perspective.

Dyadic Relationship and Neurobiology of SRL


Self-regulated learning has become a cornerstone in adult education for some time now, driven
more so with the onset of COVID-19 and stay-at-home regulations. What makes SRL com-
pelling is the notion that the adult leaner is self-motivated, knows what her/his educational
needs are, and has voluntarily decided to initiate the effort to learn something new (Knowles,

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Gil Ontai, [email protected]


Citation: Ontai, D. (2021). Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL. Academia Letters, Article 248.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL248.

1
1979). Self-regulated learning fits the needs of the working adult learner because she/he has
greater control over workplace hours and household time management. SRL allows the adult
learner to control the navigation, pacing, and cognitive learning process (Broekaerts & Cas-
callar, 2006). However, anxiety and uncertainty are built into the SRL process. Fear of failure
or underperformance is a constant worry that is either impeded or facilitated by the relation-
ship between the instructor and student. The instructor role in overcoming emotional barriers
is crucial in the student-teacher relationship. We know that the adult learner makes emotional
choices that pivots on what is the perceived value of the course, content difficulty, and course
expectations, factors that are defined by the instructor. Unfortunately, despite a plethora of
teaching theories, teachers are not taught to use affective approaches in ways that are strategic
and purposeful. Affective teaching as a tool in the classroom or online teaching is not taught
in educational psychology or in teaching curricula. Yet, neuroscience informs us that learning
is an emotional process to which the brain absorbs, processes, and retains knowledge based
on the engagement of the limbic system, especially the amygdala and hippocampus.

Challenges with SRL Self-Assessment


Competency in a knowledge domain is ultimately the learning outcome in higher education.
However, measuring competency in SRL models remains ambiguous. Such measuring tools
as thinking aloud protocols, classroom observations, microanalysis, sequential and tempo-
ral analysis and self-reporting all remain incomplete. Student self-assessment, however, has
emerged as a significant part of SRL, the theory being that student can best identify the start-
ing point in the learning process, in the various intervening formative benchmarks, and cul-
minating summative self-assessment. The problem with self-assessment or self-reporting in
SRL, however, is that it is difficult to properly evaluate academic performance, given institu-
tional standards, local site expectations, course expectations, range of teacher idiosyncrasies
required from the learner, and the learner’s own criteria of what constitutes knowledge re-
tention. Student self-assessment tends to be deeply personal and difficult to disclose in an
objective manner (Andrade, 2010). Therefore, evaluation of student self-learning outcomes
remains inaccurate, which could lead to undermining student’s self-esteem (Schunk, 1996).
Studies show that students are aware that teacher is the expert on the topic and thus harbor
ambivalence toward self-assessing themselves when required to do so (Gao, 2009; Panadero,
Brown, & Courtney, 2014; Peterson & Irving, 2008). To this end, teachers ultimately play a
significant role in assessing the performance of SRL learners. Teacher’s use of rubric models,
for example, can be used to help guide SRL students in self-assessment without losing critical
presence as the “expert”. In this guidance role, teachers implant validation of performance

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Gil Ontai, [email protected]


Citation: Ontai, D. (2021). Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL. Academia Letters, Article 248.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL248.

2
and deepens the affective learning process.

Catalyst Role of Teacher in SRL Deep Learning


In higher education, Carnegie time units are used to measure learning. Yet, research shows
little correlation between instructional time and cognitive learning (Chen, 2017). However,
robust brain studies show emotional impact experienced in the learning process contributes to
enhanced cognition, long-term memory, creativity, and deep reflective learning (Immordino-
Yang, 2016, Taylor & Marienau, 2016, Whitman & Kelleher, 2016). Decades of neuroscience
research on how the brain learns have demonstrated that emotions play a central role in the
learning process with stress identified as the single most significant obstacle to creativity, cog-
nition, and long-term memory (Roberson (2014). Purposeful application of neurotransmitters
such as dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphin in designing curricula activities, facili-
tating in-class learning and online teaching create deep learning environments. The teacher is
central to the creation of a positive affective learning environment. Because the act of teach-
ing is a dyadic relationship, whether in-person or online, this relationship is at the heart of
learning between the “expert” and the self-regulating student and where the instructor shapes
the emotional framework that motives, inspires, and rewards the SRL student to learn in ways
that encourage deep learning and a momentum for life-time learning.

References
Andrade, H. L. (2010). Students as the definitive source of formative assessment: Academic
self-assessment and the self-regulation of learning. In H. L. Andrade & G. J. Cizek (Eds.),
Handbook of formative assessment (pp. 90-105). Routledge.

Boekaerts, M., & Cascallar, E. (2006). How far have we moved toward the integration of the-
ory and practice in self-regulation? Education Psychology, 18, 199-210. doi: 10.1007/s10648-
006-9013-4

Chen, J. (2017). Nontraditional adult learners: The neglected diversity in postsecondary


education. doi: 10.1177/215824401769716

Gao, M. (2009). Students’ voices in school-based assessment of Hong Kong: A case study.
In D. M. McInerney, G. T. L. Brown, & G. A. D. Liem (Eds.), Student perspectives on
assessment: What students can tell us about assessment for learning (pp. 107-130). In-
formation Age Publishing.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Gil Ontai, [email protected]


Citation: Ontai, D. (2021). Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL. Academia Letters, Article 248.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL248.

3
Immordino-Yang, M. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational
implications of affective neuroscience. W.W. Norton & Company

Knowles, M. (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy.
(2nd ed.). Cambridge Books.

Panadero, E., Brown, G. T. L., & Courtney, M. G. (2014). Teachers’ reasons for using self-
assessment: A survey self-report of Spanish teachers. Assessment in Education: Princi-
ples, Policy & Practice, 21(3), 365-383, doi: 10.1080/0969594X.2014.919247

Peterson, E. R., & Irving, S. E. (2008). Secondary school students’ conception of assessment
and feedback. Learning and Instruction, 18(3), 238-250. doi: 10.1016/j.learninginstruc.2007.05.001

Roberson, T. (2014) Synoptic tagging during memory allocation. Nature Reviews Neuro-
science. 15(3), 157-169.

Rogers, CR (1983) Freedom to Learn for the 80s. Columbus, OH: Charles Merrill.

Springer International Publishing Switzerland (2014). A. Pena-Ayala (ed.), Metacognition:


Fundamentals, Applications, and Trends, Intelligent Systems Reference Library 76, doi
10.1007/978-3-319-11062-2_9

Taylor, K., & Marienau, C. (2016). Brain basics: Facilitating learning with the adult brain
in mind: A conceptual and practical guide. Jossey-Bass.

Whitman, G., & Kelleher, I. (2016). Neuro Teach: Brain science and the future of education.
Roman & Littlefield.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Dr. Gil Ontai, [email protected]


Citation: Ontai, D. (2021). Reflections on Teacher’s Role in SRL. Academia Letters, Article 248.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL248.

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