The expert learner: Strategic, self-regulated, and reflective

Abstract

Reflection on the process of learning is believed to be an essential ingredient in the development of expert learners. By employing reflective thinking skills to evaluate the results of one's own learning efforts, awareness of effective learning strategies can be increased and ways to use these strategies in other learning situations can be understood. This article describes how expert learners use the knowledge they have gained of themselves as learners, of task requirements, and of specific strategy use to deliberately select, control, and monitor strategies needed to achieve desired learning goals. We present a model of expert learning which illustrates how learners' metacognitive knowledge of cognitive, motivational, and environmental strategies is translated into regulatory control of the learning process through ongoing reflective thinking. Finally, we discuss the implications that the concept of expert learning has for instructional practices.