Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Self-Regulation

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Self-Regulation

The third principle of UDL, "provide multiple means of engagement”, helps promote an inclusive learning environment on many levels.  When developing a course and focusing on this principle, there are three guidelines to follow.  They are:

1.  Recruiting Interest
2. Sustaining Effort and Persistence
3. Self-Regulation

We are now going to take a deeper look.

Self-Regulation is the ability to regulate emotions and motivations necessary to succeed at a task, such as learning. Naturally, developing and mastering this ability is important for all learners. While a learning environment can increase engagement by recruiting interest and sustaining effort and persistence, the ability to self-regulate, or to control one’s emotions and motivations so as to effectively cope and engage with the environment, is critical for learners’ success, both in and outside of the learning environment.


Many learners have developed these skills in primary school, however, there are still adult learners who struggle developing these skills. This is partially true due to most classrooms not explicitly addressing these skills and marginalized students finding this skill set inaccessible or imperceptible within an implicit curriculum. Regardless of the cause, designing a course to promote this skill, through prompts and modeling, helps level the field for everyone.


This approach provides alternatives to support learners with different aptitudes and prior experience to effectively manage their own engagement and affect. When adopting this approach, consider the following criteria:

1. Promote expectations and attitudes that optimize motivation
2. Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies. These strategies should offer flexible options to account for the individual variation
3.  Develop self-assessment and reflection. Learners need to monitor their emotions and reactions accurately in order to develop their ability at self-regulation

By promoting an inclusive strategy with multiple ways of promoting self—regulation, your courses will be more develop skills that will promote student success in the course and in life.