Self Regulation

Self-regulation must be one of the qualities that teachers hope to instil in young people but too often the actions of teachers actually undermine self-regulation.  Research has shown that state school students do better at university than public school students.  I am certain that self-regulation - or lack of it - is at least partly behind these findings.  Public school pupils' lives are regulated from when they get up until they go to sleep.  They do not have the opportunity not to do homework because they are supervised in prep.  There is no surprise that this system gives good exam results especially when you factor in that distractions such as paid work are missing too.  But equally, it is no surprise that former public school pupils do not cope so well when they have to organise their own lives.  The urge to party that little bit too hard at the expense of work can be too hard to resist.

Average state school students will have had a different experience.  They will usually have had to organise their own homework and when they get older, typically they will get part time jobs.  In the short term these can be distractions and a certain proportion of them don't do well in the exams because the job becomes a little too full time and study a little too part time, but those who succeed will have learned the art of prioritising and will have started on the path to being self-regulated adults.

Teachers can, for the best of motives, undermine their learners' self-regulation.  I was talking to a well-respected and experienced teacher recently who said that if she didn't get an A* for a particular young man in his class, she would have failed - we'll see how she did in August.  This comment worried me.  If she meant that she would have failed if she did not create the right environment with the right stimuli do enable the young man to gain an A* for himself, and hierversion was only a short hand, then I have no problem with her stance.  But if she really meant what she said I am concerned.  Ultimately all our learners have to take responsibility for their results, not only at school but throughout their lives afterwards.  If a teacher thinks that she can get a result for a learner then that teacher is taking power from the learner and certainly undermining self-regulation.  Success is only true success if failure is a possibility and can only really be truly celebrated if there is real responsibility for that success.  I was also worried because the comment was made with a number of less experienced teachers present and I worry that they will take this comment to heart.

In a similar vein, I recently saw some work about inclusion, and in very large letters I saw, 'The teacher is responsible for behaviour.'  I am so pleased I don't work in that school, and if I did, I wouldn't for much longer.  Whichever way you look at it, every person in a school is responsible for their own behaviour.  I can only imagine the stress level if I was told I was responsible for the behaviour of every child in every one of my lessons.  I am not responsible for anyone else's behaviour and no reasonable person would expect me to be.  I am, however, responsible for carrying out the school's behaviour policy and maintaining an environment where poor behaviour is challenged and good behaviour is rewarded.  I am responsible for maintaining good relationships with all the learners I have responsibly for.  But this does not amount to, 'The teacher is responsible for behaviour.'  Once more, this statement undermines young people's self-regulation by making someone else responsible for their actions.  There is only one person responsible for their actions, and it isn't their teacher.

Building self-regulation must mean that young people take responsibility for their own actions.  This must also mean that they have the space to get things wrong and to make the wrong choices, and teachers need to recognise this.  If they have the opportunity to do this in the relatively safe environment of school then they should became more self-regulating which should mean that they have more fulfilling lives into adulthood.