Self-regulated Learning from a Cultural Psychology Perspective: Shifting from Strategy to Process with the Trajectory Equifinality Approach

Abstract

AbstractSelf-regulated learning (SRL) is the act of self-regulation during learning. Achieving mastery in SRL can benefit students by helping them complete their work, obtain higher grades in school, and learn life skills to gain meaningful experiences to establish their identities. Most researchers have considered SRL a process of steps and conformed it to a type of experiment using quantitative methods in the interests of reproductivity. However, they failed to acknowledge crucial factors of the process (i.e., coaction with the environment and time) and lacked methodologies that analyze and depict the developmental process. This study aimed to argue that SRL is an act of self-influence in the sociocultural context and that the process differs for each individual. This study overviewed SRL and contrastingly reviewed Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory with signs, Bruner’s meaning-making, and Valsiner’s internalization/externalization model. It provided insights into the SRL process from a qualitative perspective and conceptualized SRL from a semiotic developmental perspective, with an adaptation of sociocultural dynamics. Finally, it demonstrated how the Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA), an alternative methodology, can visualize the developmental process of SRL.