Shyam Barr

Blog

 

PREFACE

This blog discusses topics that exist between the fields cognitive psychology and leadership, teaching and learning. Although I make connections between research and personal experience (my attempt at bridging the age-old ‘theory-practice’ gap), I write for a general audience. It is as Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi stated in the preface of his book FLOW:

“To take this step is somewhat dangerous, because as soon as one strays from the stylised constraints of academic prose, it is easy to become careless or overly enthusiastic about such a topic” (p. xi)

To avoid carelessness, I will endeavour to include references to journal articles, books and alike (as commonly expected in academic writing), but not at the expense of accessibility and ease of reading. This will be a delicate balance and one I will endeavour to achieve.

To end, I chose the word ‘discusses’ in the first sentence of this preface, to highlight that although the blog articles themselves are very much a dialogue between myself and what I read, I encourage you to share your comments and questions, so that we may start a more authentic discussion. 

 
 

The Intriguing Psychology Behind Decision Making in Self Regulated Learning - Part 2

In my last blog, I discussed the idea that self-regulated learning was essentially a process of decision making. 

“A self-regulated learner might be able to easily decide a way forward in a well-defined situation. However, in an ill-defined situation, they may need to rely on “psychological tools such as heuristics, experience and intuition” to self-regulate.”

In this blog, I’ll unpack some common decision making heuristics that can be applied in the context of self-regulated learning.

Let’s first imagine that a self-regulated learner is confronted with an ill-defined situation…

What might they do? What cognitive tools will they use?

  • Habit: The student might rely on a previous strategy that they regularly use.

  • Satisficing: The act of cognitively processing available strategy options until a suitable strategy (but not necessarily the optimal) is found. 

  • Advice taking: In some cases, the student might simply defer to the teacher and seek their advice as to which strategy to use.

  • Imitating: A student might seek out a friend who has completed a similar task and ask what strategy they used. 

  • Maximising*: Whereby the student considers all available options and seeks out the “best” strategy to progress the task. 

*On initial processing of the above heuristics, you may be thinking that maximising would be the best heuristic as it offers a path to the best/optimal strategy right? However…

“Maximising can be a direct route to unhappiness: One wants the best, and nothing less. But even if happening on it right away, one would not know it and continue to look for something better. Studies indicate that people who rely on satisficing tend to be more optimistic and have higher self-esteem than those who rely on maximising. The latter excel in perfectionism, depression, and self-blame (Schwartz et al., 2002).” (Gigerenzer, 2020, p. 590).

Indeed, maximising as a process can lead to a state of decision paralysis, whereby an individual is unable to make a choice as they seek out a potential better option (This is sometimes referred to as “FOBO” = a fear of better options, OR where one seeks out all options in fear of missing out on the best one).

As an educator, it is important to recognise when a student is engaged in maximising and to discuss with them the potential pitfalls of such an approach. 

In order to self-regulate their learning, learners need to make decisions. And, as I like to say, “at any moment, we are making the best decision we can, based on the information we have available”. 

The beauty of self-regulated learning is that it is an iterative process of constant self-monitoring and self-evaluating that leads to continuous improvement. In other words, no decision is static, we are constantly reviewing and shifting these decisions as new information comes to light.

So… are your learners aware of their decision making heuristics?

References:

Gigerenzer, G (2020), Intelligence and Decision-Making. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed), The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence (pp. 580-601). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108770422.025

 

Shyam Barrdecision making, self-regulated learning, education, teacher, self regulated learning, learning, teaching strategies, learner