The Key to Effective Practice: Self-Regulated Learning

Self-regulated learning is essentially about learning how to learn. It originally developed in the context of academic learning and has been recently used to understand effective practice. Long story short: to practise effectively, you need to self-regulate. Read more to find out what that exactly means…

For a long time, academic researchers asked themselves this question: “How come some kids do well at school while others fail, when they all receive the same education?” Various psychologists attempted to answer this question to find ways to improve the system of public education.

In the second half of the 20^th century, researchers started to look at the concept of metacognition, which refers to one’s awareness and understanding of their own thinking processes (“thinking about thinking”). They realised that students’ self-awareness about themselves and their ability to manage their learning were crucial to learning. They realised that one must self-regulate in order to learn effectively¹.

Since then, self-regulation has been used to study all types of activities including sports², writing³, learning in the workplace⁴ and…of course, music practice.

What exactly is self-regulated learning?

To learn in a self-regulated manner, we need more than just domain-specific knowledge and skills. In music practice, this means that it is not enough to have great technique, imaginative musical ideas or a solid knowledge of music theory – we also need processes to plan, control and monitor our learning. Here are some of the elements which are involved self-regulated learning:

Goal setting
Time management
Self-evaluation
Problem identification
Motivation
Self-efficacy
Attention focusing and distraction management

Why is it important?

In a nutshell, higher-achieving music students practise better by self-regulating better.⁵

One study beautifully illustrated the importance of these self-regulatory processes. In this study⁶, 28 undergraduate woodwind and brass students were taught about practice in an intervention program. Half the students were taught solely about different practice strategies (the ‘strategy-only’ group). The other students received the exact same information about strategies but were also taught about self-regulatory processes (the ‘self-regulatory group’).

All students took a task before and after the intervention program to measure their practice efficacy. In this task, each student was required to sight-read a piece, practise for 20 minutes, then perform the piece. Practice efficacy was measured by how much the student improved between the sight-reading and the final performance. (Performances were rated by three independent judges, who gave points for each section of the piece).

The result: all students practised more effectively after the program, but the self-regulatory group improved significantly more than the strategies-only group. Furthermore, there were no differences between the groups in the practice strategies used, meaning that the self-regulatory group did not use different practice strategies, they simply were able to use their practice time in a more effective manner.

The phases of self-regulated learning

Self-regulated learning can be seen as a cycle with three phases¹:

Forethought phase comes before learning (e.g. what you do before you start practising). In this phase, you set goals and plan strategies which you will use to achieve these goals. Motivation and self-beliefs (e.g. your own perception of your abilities) are also part of this phase.
Performance phase occurs while the learning takes place (e.g. while you’re actually practising). During this phase, you focus your attention to the task and use specific strategies to achieve your goal.
Self-reflection phase comes after the learning (e.g. after practice session; after playing). In this phase, you self-evaluate the learning that you have just undertaken. You assess whether you have achieved your goals – and if not, you work out why you were unsuccessful and what you can do differently next time. This phase is accompanied by an affective reaction (e.g. feeling satisfied/dissatisfied; empowered/helpless).

This process is cyclical because the self-reflection feeds back into the forethought phase: your self-evaluation influences your future goals and strategy choices. Affective reactions also influence your self-beliefs – feeling satisfied and empowered from your practice can positively influence your self-beliefs but feeling helpless and frustrated is likely to negatively influence your self-beliefs.

The diagrams below illustrate characteristics of highly versus poorly self-regulated music students, organised into the three phases mentioned above:

Characteristics of a poorly self-regulated practiser — An example of a poorly self-regulated musician’s practice

Characteristics of a highly self-regulated learner — An example of a highly self-regulated musician’s practice

Can we learn to engage in self-regulated practice?

Short answer: Yes!!

Longer answer: Studies have successfully taught students self-regulate, both in music^7,8 and other domains (e.g. academic study).⁹

In these studies, students are typically taught:

That success/failure is in their control
A repertoire of strategies that they can use
How to set specific, meaningful goals
How to reflect on their learning

These studies found that after learning these essential self-regulatory skills, music students reported that they were^7,8:

more motivated
more self-efficacious
more self-aware about their practice
able to concentrate better
more enthusiastic and felt empowered

What does all this mean?

If you want to improve your practice, you need to start thinking about how you can self-regulate your practice. Think about what you can do to engage in the three phases of self-regulated learning better, and how to improve the different skills involved in it.

For example: