Slides of my talk at the University of Heidelberg Research Cluster 'Self-regulation and Regulation: Individuals and Organisations' on 4 July 2014

1. SELF-REGULATED
LEARNING AT WORK
Dr Anoush Margaryan
Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian
University
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/academy/people/anoush-
margaryan/
@anoush

2. Central questions
• How do people self-regulate their learning
at work?
• Practices
• Strategies (behavioural)
• What makes professionals more or less
likely to be self-regulated learners?
• Intrapersonal factors
• Interpersonal factors
• Organisational factors
• Technological factors

3. Expected outcomes
•Inductive theory development –
descriptive and explanatory
(typology, models)
•Integration of knowledge from
relevant disciplines and fields
•Recommendations for practice

4. Study 1: Hypotheses
1. WLC => WLA
2. WLC => SRL
3. SRL => WLA
4. WLC => SRL => WLA

5. Workplace Learning Context
• My job requires me to be creative
• I can choose my job assignments
• I have opportunities to develop my own
special abilities
• I can vary how I do my work
• My job requires a high level of skill
• My job requires me to learn new things

6. Study 1: SRL processes (Zimmerman)

7. Workplace Learning Activity
• Acquiring new information (e.g. by searching the internet)
• Working alone/ with others to develop solutions to problems
• Working alone or with others to develop new ideas
• Following new developments in your field
• Performing new tasks
• Asking colleagues for advice
• Attending a training course or using self-study materials
• Observing/replicating colleagues’ strategies
• Finding better way to do a task by trial and error
• Reflecting on previous actions
• Receiving feedback on tasks from work colleagues

8. Study 1: Methodology
•QUAN->qual
•Nsurvey=170; Ninterviews=30
•Context – financial services
industry
•Participants – associates and
members of Chartered Institute
of Securities and Investment

9. Study 1: Findings
• WLC=>WLA - a higher score for WLC is on its own
a strong predictor of learning activities undertaken
• WLC => SRL, with greatest effect on the
Performance phase (elaboration and critical
thinking)
• SRL => WLA: a subset of the SRL sub-process -
task interest/value, task strategies and self-
evaluation - predict learning activities undertaken in
the workplace for a given workplace learning context
• WLC=>SRL=>WLA: task interest, task strategies
and self-evaluation mediate the relationship between
WLC and WLA

10. Study 2: Research questions
1. What factors stimulate
formation of learning
goals in the
workplace?
2. What strategies do
professionals use and
what other people do
they draw upon when
planning and attaining
their learning goals?

11. Study 2: Methodology
•quan->QUAL
•Nsurvey=462
•Ninterview=29
•Context – Shell
•Participants - engineers,
scientists, internal consultants

12. Study 2: Key findings
•Prevalence of outcome goals vs
process goals
•Learning goals driven by business
needs
•Insufficient self-reflection (lack of skill
and time)
•No discrete phases of SRL

13. Study 3: Research question
What patterns of personal-
psychological and
environmental characteristics
are there in the life histories of
professionals who are highly
self-regulated learners?

14. Study 3: Methodology
•QUAL (in-depth biographical
interviews)
•Sampling – adapted SRLWQ (see
handout)
•Participants – university
researchers, consultants, learning
designers
•N=40 (5 interviews done to date)

15. Study 3: Preliminary findings
All respondents:
• High self-efficacy
• Successful in school
2/5 (both male)
• Similarities: Focus on the present; high emotion control;
‘being easy to manage’
• Differences: Aspirations (becoming a thought leader vs
doing more of the same)
2/5 (both female)
• Pleasing others (making sensible choices)

16. Conclusions
•Current models of SRL do not properly
describe SRL at work
•Intertwinement of work and learning
makes it difficult to isolate ‘learning’
(both for subjects and for researchers)
•Articulation of learning processes at
work requires significant introspection
and meta-thinking

17. Future research
•Expanding the methodological repertoire
•Development of scales to measure
aptitude to SRL at work
•Bring together relevant knowledge
across micro (Psychology), meso (WPL,
TEL, CSCW, Organisational Behaviour)
and macro (Sociology, Organisational
Learning, Economics) levels to explain
SRL at work