Potentially, one of the strongest military assets in today’s complex warfare domains are personnel who are self-starters in terms of being able to quickly adapt to new missions, technologies, and other job challenges; in other words, personnel who are self-regulated learners. Self-regulated learning (SRL) allows individuals to select learning topics based on job demands or other interests and manage their learning through processes such as goal setting, strategy selection, and monitoring. Decades of research show that the behaviors associated with SRL are linked to positive learning outcomes. However, despite the benefits of SRL, it is also well-recognized that learners do not automatically use strategies that support SRL or use them effectively. Given the state of the research and the importance of SRL, the purpose of this paper is to describe a competency framework for self-regulated learning that was developed to support experimentation with Army University. This framework was tailored for adult learners who, because of factors such as work demands, schedule variability, and proficiency levels, have difficulty learning how to learn.
This paper delineates how different learning systems can be used to provide SRL guidance and assessment based on data generated by conforming to the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative’s Total Learning Architecture (TLA). The TLA is a collection of data interoperability standards and business rules that enable data-driven, comprehensive, and responsive life-long learning opportunities. This paper will delineate how the TLA data can be used to support “directed” SRL (Brydges, Dubrowski, & Regehr, 2010), in which learners are taught, mentored, monitored and assessed as they engage in SRL.
Reference cited: Brydges, R., Dubrowski, A., & Regehr, G. (2010). A new concept of unsupervised learning: directed self-guided learning in the health professions. Academic Medicine, 85, S49-S55.
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Additional Keywords
Self-regulated Learning, competency framework, performance assessment, learning strategies, adult learning