I (Carolina) am currently attending the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) conference in Aachen, Germany. You can check out the many interesting tweets under #EARLI2019. One research line that is highlighted at EARLI is self-regulated learning in students and in what ways teachers could help foster self-regulated learning in students. There are many different ways on how research is approaching this issue – from one-off training in effective learning strategies to personalized prompts sent to students to think about and engage in effective studying (e.g., using apps). In this digest, I will provide resources that tackle self-regulated learning in students. Enjoy!

1)      Strategies for Building Self-Regulated Learning by Dr Chris Wolters

 This is a short summary of aspects that – in theory – should support self-regulated learning. It is based on the book “Creating self-regulated learners: Strategies to strengthen self-awareness and learning skills”by Linda Nilson. You will see in the other resources provided below that theory does not necessarily translate into practice and – specifically – in lasting changes in student habits.

2)      What does it take for students to exchange bad study habits for good? Guest post by Rich James, @rjames01, for The Learning Scientists blog 

In this guest post, Rich James presents an intervention study conducted with students. Students received prompts in form of text messages on how to study effectively. This is an interesting read and shows that simply prompting alone is not enough to change study habits.

3)      Can Students Change Their Study Habits? by Althea Need Kaminske from The Learning Scientists 

This is post by our own Althea who reviewed brand-new research on the effects of different types of interventions (six in total) on study time, student grades and persistence, and well-being. The interventions differed in effort to implement them and the results show that only the very personal coaching intervention had an effect on student well-being, but no intervention affected grades, for example. Conclusion: Changing study habits in students is hard.

4)      Reflection: Dr Flavia Schechtman Belham’s talk on “Why don’t students use effective learning strategies” by Eva Goetzke, @esgoetzke, via the TILE network, @TILEnetwork

 This is a reflection post from Eva Goetzke, a Psychology student at the University of Dundee, who attended a talk on “Why don’t students use effective learning strategies” by Flavia Schechtman Belham (@FlaviaBelhamPhD). Eva nicely summarizes the talk content that highlighted effective study strategies, but also reflects on hurdles to use these effective strategies from a student perspective. I well-rounded read that captures the student voice.

5)      Ace Your Self-Study App by University of Leiden, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Delft University of Technology

At EARLI I was introduced to this promising app, Ace Your Self-Study. This app lets students schedule and log their study sessions. Students can track how and for how long they have been studying. In addition, it provides students with an overview on many different study strategies (with instructional videos). It is completely free to use. However, keep in mind, only because there is an app, it does not necessarily translate into a change of study habit. Nevertheless, one must start somewhere.

Every Sunday, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Occasionally we publish a guest digest, and If you'd like to propose a guest digest click here. Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:

Weekly Digest #133: Technology for Math Learning

Weekly Digest #134: How to Sleep Well

Weekly Digest #135: SoTL Researcher Spotlight II

Weekly Digest #136: Optimizing Lecture Capture

Digest #137: Lessons Learned From Learning Scientists Teacher Workshops