Researchers interested in academic self-regulated learning have begun to study processes that students use to initiate and direct their efforts to acquire knowledge and skill. The social cognitive conception of self-regulated learning presented here involves a triadic analysis of component processes and an assumption of reciprocal causality among personal, behavioral, and environmental triadic influences. This theoretical account also posits a central role for the construct of academic self-efficacy beliefs and three self-regulatory processes: self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reactions. Research support for this social cognitive formulation is discussed, as is its usefulness for improving student learning and academic achievement. For over two decades, social learning researchers have conducted research on such self-regulatory processes as selfreinforcement (e.g., Bandura, Grusec, & Menlove, 1967; Bandura & Kupers, 1964) , standard setting (e.g., Mischel & Liebert, 1966) , delay of gratification (e.g., Mischel, 1981; Mischel & Bandura, 1965) , goal setting (e.g., Bandura & Schunk, 1981; Schunk, 1985) , self-efficacy perceptions (e.g., Bandura, 1982a; Schunk, 1984; Zimmerman & Ringle, 1981) , selfinstructions (Schunk, 1986; Schunk & Rice, 1984) , and selfevaluation (e.g., Bandura & Cervone, 1983 . During this period of time, a number of researchers have tried to integrate this research into general models of self-regulation (e.g., Bandura, 1977a Bandura, , 1986 Thoresen & Mahoney, 1974; Zimmerman, 1981 Zimmerman, , 1983 ). Bandura's seminal role in proposing and studying self-regulation component processes, their determinants, and their interrelationship is evident in many of these accounts. An initial formulation of self-regulated academic learning, offered as follows, incorporates many social learning constructs and assumptions. In general, students can be described as self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively,' motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning process (Zimmerman, 1986 (Zimmerman, , 1989 and direct their own efforts to acquire knowledge and skill rather than relying on teachers, parents, or other agents of instruction. To qualify specifically as self-regulated in my account, students* learning must involve the use of specified strategies to achieve academic goals on the basis of self-efficacy perceptions. This definition assumes the importance of three elements: students 1 self-regulated learning strategies, self-efficacy perceptions of performance skill, and commitment to academic goals. Self-regulated learning strategies are actions and processes directed at acquiring information or skill that involve agency, purpose, and instrumentality perceptions by learners. They include such methods as organizing and transforming information, self-consequating, seeking information, and rehearsing or using memory aids (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986) . Self-efficacy refers to perceptions about one's capabilities to organize and implement actions necessary to attain designated performance of skill for specific tasks (Bandura, 1986) . Academic goals such as grades, social esteem, or postgraduation employment opportunities can vary extensively in nature and in time of attainment. My proposed definition follows Thoresen and Mahoney's (1974) lead in describing human self-regulation on the basis of a temporal gradient. Although they were primarily concerned with the impact of disparities between immediate and delayed environmental outcomes on behavioral functioning, my definition focuses on how learners represent contemporary actions and conditions in terms of strategies for reaching subsequent goals. It assumes a motivational orientation by learners that is sustained by continuing self-perceptions of efficacy when performing a specific task. Thus in order for students' strategic actions to be described as self-regulated, one must know their academic goals and perceptions of efficacy. For example, one cannot define students' going out for coffee after studying as a self-consequating strategy without knowing their purpose for using this strategy (i.e., to improve motivation) and their perceptions of efficacy when using it (e.g., of completing more homework).
Zimmerman et al.'s model of self-regulated learning REF comprises three cyclical phases: forethought, performance, and self-reflection.
A social cognitive view of self-regulated academic learning.
Journal of Educational Psychology
Psychology