Starting an online course of study even as an adult with a busy life, requires that the first phase of self-regulation, forethought, be practiced consistently to improve outcomes in the subsequent phases of performance and self-reflection. This forethought phase involves task analysis, goal setting, and strategic planning. For an adult student, forethought may entail examining daily priorities and commitments, along with course-related deadlines to ensure that adequate time is allotted to the completion of course assignments.
In a study by Colthorpe et al (2019), among second-year pharmacy students, it was found that although using a variety of self-regulation strategies is associated with high achievement and the ability to overcome learning difficulties, very few students relied on strategies from all three phases, with most relying solely on strategies from just primarily the performance phase (actually getting the work done). Based on study findings, the learning strategy preferences of pharmacy students imply that one potential factor that might separate high-achieving students from poor-achieving students may be the regular use of forethought and self-reflection processes. “Profiling individual students demonstrated that, when students were prompted, there were significant positive relationships between the quality of learning strategies in both the forethought and self-reflection phases and their academic achievement”. (Colthorpe et al., 2019 p. 9)
Students that intentionally spend time thinking ahead, planning, and then reflecting and self-correcting for the next time, fare better academically than those who skip these important steps.
Colthorpe, K., Ogiji, J., Ainscough, L., Zimbardi, K., & Anderson, S. (2019). Effect of Metacognitive Prompts on Undergraduate Pharmacy Students’ Self-regulated Learning Behavior. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 83(4), 526–536. https://lnkd.in/dWvM-UwB