Activity 6.4

After taking a class on school interventions I became very interested in study skills interventions. As I have said in a past blog post I was lucky enough to implement such an intervention with a student last semester. It quickly became clear to me that the intervention was mainly attempting to intervene in the student’s self-regulation skills. Zimmerman (2002) states that “after graduating from high school or college young adults must learn many important skills informally” (p. 66). I contend that study skills, and in particular self-regulatory skills, are never explicitly taught in schools at all, and instead are skills expected to be self-propagated by the student themself. Zimmerman also indicates that “conceptions of self-regulatory development at the time were limited to acquiring desirable personal habits” (p. 64). Though Zimmerman appears to feel that habits alone are not enough to develop effective self-regulation in my opinion James would disagree that the development of habits is not enough. Perhaps where they would agree is in the role of outside sources in helping to propagate this skill. I also agreed with Zimmerman’s point about the importance of self-efficacy. Chemistry is a subject I have never felt self-efficacy in. Because of this I often find myself giving up very early, becoming frustrated, and demonstrating no perseverance. All in all, I believe self-regulation plays a pivotal role in learning.