Emotional and Cognitive Self-Regulation Following Academic Shame

Abstract

In the face of shame, students may need to turn the global focus of their failures into more discrete behaviors that they can control. Instructors can facilitate this process by informing students of specific behaviors they can enact to support successful achievement, including study and volitional strategies. Students' use of multiple study and volition strategies can facilitate their self-regulation of stressful emotions and failure perceptions. These strategies provide students with options for controlling their learning. Study strategies provide students with multiple alternatives for connecting with course material while volition strategies provide students with multiple alternatives for boosting their motivation to engage in learning activities. Many entering college students are not aware of multiple learning strategies, particularly strategies needed for deeper processing, nor do they come to college with a repertoire of volitional strategies. Colleges and universities can identify common first-year classes, as well as major entry-level classes, in which instructors can incorporate class discussions about the use of multiple strategies to support students' learning and volition. Students should receive messages about the need to flexibly choose strategies to facilitate both short- and long-term goals. They also should be taught to confront failure by changing study strategies and/or initiating volition strategies. Instructors can show students how to use study strategies and volition strategies to help them become more engaged with course material to positively affect their academic achievement. Additionally, colleges and universities would do well to help instructors align their course goals, objectives, and assessments, thus eliminating the “guesswork” involved in students' study-related decisions.