from

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006)

Dweck, Carol. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books, 2006. Print

When I was a young researcher, just starting out,

something happened that changed my life. I was obsessed
with understanding how people cope with failures, and I
decided to study it by watching how students grapple with
hard problems. So I brought children one at a time to a
room in their school, made them comfortable, and then
gave them a series of puzzles to solve. The first ones were
fairly easy, but the next ones were hard. As the students
grunted, perspired, and toiled, I watched their strategies
and probed what they were thinking and feeling. I
expected differences among children in how they coped
with the difficulty, but I saw something I never expected.
Confronted with the hard puzzles, one ten-year-old
boy pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together,
smacked his lips, and cried out, I love a challenge!
Another, sweating away on these puzzles, looked up with
a pleased expression and said with authority, You know,
I was hoping this would be informative!
Whats wrong with them? I wondered. I always
thought you coped with failure or you didnt cope with
failure. I never thought anyone loved failure. Were these
alien children or were they on to something? . . .
They obviously knew something I didnt and I was
determined to figure it outto understand the kind of
mindset that could turn a failure into a gift.
What did they know? They knew that human
qualities, such as intellectual skills, could be cultivated
through effort. And thats what they were doinggetting
smarter. Not only werent they discouraged by failure,
they didnt even think they were failing. They thought
they were learning.
I, on the other hand, thought human qualities were
carved in stone. You were smart or you werent, and
failure meant you werent. It was that simple. If you could
arrange successes and avoid failures (at all costs), you
could stay smart. Struggles, mistakes, perseverance were
just not part of this picture.
Whether human qualities are things that can be
cultivated or things that are carved in stone is an old issue.
What these beliefs mean for you is a new one: What are
the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or
personality is something you can develop, as opposed to
something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait? Let's first look
in on the age-old, fiercely waged debate about human
nature and then return to the question of what these
beliefs mean for you.

A few modern philosophers . . . assert that an

individual's intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity
which cannot be increased. We must protest and react
against this brutal pessimism. . . . With practice,
training, and above all, method, we manage to increase
our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally
to become more intelligent than we were before.
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Why Do People Differ?

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smarter or more moraland whether there was something

that made them permanently different. Experts lined up
on both sides. Some claimed that there was a strong
physical basis for these differences, making them
unavoidable and unalterable. Through the ages, these
alleged physical differences have included bumps on the
skull (phrenology), the size and shape of the skull
(craniology), and, today, genes.
Others pointed to the strong differences in people's
backgrounds, experiences, training, or ways of learning. It
may surprise you to know that a big champion of this
view was Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test. Wasn't
the IQ test meant to summarize children's unchangeable
intelligence? In fact, no. Binet, a Frenchman working in
Paris in the early twentieth century, designed this test to
identify children who were not profiting from the Paris
public schools, so that new educational programs could
be designed to get them back on track. Without denying
individual differences in children's intellects, he believed
that education and practice could bring about fundamental
changes in intelligence. Here is a quote from one of his
major books, Modern Ideas About Children, in which he
summarizes his work with hundreds of children with
learning difficulties:

Since the dawn of time, people have thought

differently, acted differently, and fared differently from
each other. It was guaranteed that someone would ask the
question of why people differedwhy some people are

Mindset

Who's right? Today most experts agree that it's not

either-or. It's not nature or nurture, genes or environment.
From conception on, there's a constant give and take
between the two. In fact, as Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent
neuroscientist, put it, not only do genes and environment
cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the
environment to work properly.
At the same time, scientists are learning that people
have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain
development than they ever thought. Of course, each
person has a unique genetic endowment. People may start
with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it
is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take
them the rest of the way. Robert Sternberg, the presentday guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in
whether people achieve expertise "is not some fixed prior
ability, but purposeful engagement." . . .

What Does All This Mean For You? The Two Mindsets
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For twenty years, my research has shown that the

view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way
you lead your life. It can determine whether you become
the person you want to be and whether you accomplish
the things you value. How does this happen? How can a
simple belief have the power to transform your
psychology and, as a result, your life?
Believing that your qualities are carved in stonethe
fixed mindsetcreates an urgency to prove yourself over
and over. If you have only a certain amount of
intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral
characterwell, then you'd better prove that you have a
healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn't do to look or feel
deficient in these most basic characteristics.
Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early
age. Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but
the fixed mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson,
my sixth-grade teacher. Unlike Alfred Binet, she believed
that people's IQ scores told the whole story of who they
were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and
only the highest-IQ students could be trusted to carry the
flag, clap the erasers, or take a note to the principal. Aside
from the daily stomachaches she provoked with her
judgmental stance, she was creating a mindset in which
everyone in the class had one consuming goallook
smart, don't look dumb. Who cared about or enjoyed
learning when our whole being was at stake every time
she gave us a test or called on us in class?
I've seen so many people with this one consuming
goal of proving themselvesin the classroom, in their
careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for
a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or
character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or
fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or
rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?
But doesn't our society value intelligence,
personality, and character? Isn't it normal to want these
traits? Yes, but . . .
There's another mindset in which these traits are not
simply a hand you're dealt and have to live with, always
trying to convince yourself and others that you have a
royal flush when you're secretly worried it's a pair of tens.
In this mindset, the hand you're dealt is just the starting
point for development. This growth mindset is based on
the belief that your basic qualities are things you can
cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ
in every which wayin their initial talents and aptitudes,
interests, or temperamentseveryone can change and
grow through application and experience.
Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can
be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or
education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but
they believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and
unknowable); that it's impossible to foresee what can be
accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.
Did you know that Darwin and Tolstoy were
considered ordinary children? That Ben Hogan, one of the

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greatest golfers of all time, was completely uncoordinated

and graceless as a child? That the photographer Cindy
Sherman, who has been on virtually every list of the most
important artists of the twentieth century, failed her first
photography course? . . .
You can see how the belief that cherished qualities
can be developed creates a passion for learning. Why
waste time proving over and over how great you are,
when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies
instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or
partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead
of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why
seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will
stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and
sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going
well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the
mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the
most challenging times in their lives.
A View From the Two Mindsets

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To give you a better sense of how the two mindsets

work, imagineas vividly as you canthat you are a
young adult having a really bad day:
One day, you go to a class that is really important to
you and that you like a lot. The professor returns the
midterm papers to the class. You got a C+. You're
very disappointed. That evening on the way back to
your home, you find that you've gotten a parking
ticket. Being really frustrated, you call your best
friend to share your experience but are sort of
brushed off.

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Mindset

What would you think? What would you feel? What

would you do?
When I asked people with the fixed mindset, this is
what they said:
"I'd feel like a reject." "I'm a total failure." . . . "I'd
feel worthless and dumbeveryone's better than me."
"I'm slime." In other words, they'd see what happened as a
direct measure of their competence and worth. . . .
Are these just people with low self-esteem? Or cardcarrying pessimists? No. When they aren't coping with
failure, they feel just as worthy and optimisticand
bright and attractiveas people with the growth mindset.
So how would they cope? "I wouldn't bother to put so
much time and effort into doing well in anything." (In
other words, don't let anyone measure you again.) "Do
nothing." "Stay in bed." . . . "Listen to music and pout." . .
. "What is there to do?"
What is there to do! You know, when I wrote the
vignette, I intentionally made the grade a C+, not an F. It
was a midterm rather than a final. It was a parking ticket,
not a car wreck. They were "sort of brushed off," not
rejected outright. Nothing catastrophic or irreversible
happened. Yet from this raw material the fixed mindset
created the feeling of utter failure and paralysis.

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When I gave people with the growth mindset the

same vignette, here's what they said. They'd think:
"I need to try harder in class, be more careful when
parking the car, and wonder if my friend had a bad day."
. . . Now, how would they cope? Directly.
"I'd start thinking about studying harder (or studying
in a different way) for my next test in that class, I'd pay
the ticket, and I'd work things out with my best friend the
next time we speak." . . .
You don't have to have one mindset or the other to be
upset. Who wouldn't be? . . . Yet those people with the
growth mindset were not labeling themselves and
throwing up their hands. Even though they felt distressed,
they were ready to take the risks, confront the challenges,
and keep working at them.

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Self-Insight: Who Has Accurate Views Of Their Assets

And Limitations?
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The Low-Effort Syndrome (from Chapter 3)

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In fact, in the fixed mindset, adolescence is one big

test. Am I smart or dumb? Am I good-looking or ugly? Am
I cool or nerdy? Am I a winner or a loser? And in the
fixed mindset, a loser is forever.
Its no wonder that many adolescence mobilize their
resources, not for learning, but to protect their egos. And
one of the main ways they do this . . . is by not trying.
This is when some of the brightest students . . . simply
stop working. In fact, students with the fixed mindset tell
us that their main goal in schoolaside from looking
smartis to exert as little effort as possible. . . .
This low-effort syndrome is often seen as a way that
adolescents assert their independence from adults, but it is
also a way that students with a fixed mindset protect
themselves. They view the adults as saying, Now we will
measure you and see what youve got. Ands they are
answering, No you wont. . . .
For students with the growth mindset, it doesnt make
sense to stop trying. For them, adolescence is a time of
opportunity: a time to learn new subjects, a time to find
out what they like and what they want to become in the
future.

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Is this such a novel idea? We have lots of sayings that

stress the importance of risk and the power of persistence,
such as . . . "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again'' . .
. . What is truly amazing is that people with the fixed
mindset would not agree. For them, . . . "If at first you
don't succeed, you probably don't have the ability." . . .
We often see books with titles like The Ten Secrets of
the World's Most Successful People crowding the shelves
of bookstores, and these books may give many useful tips.
But they're usually a list of unconnected pointers, like
"Take more risks!" or "Believe in yourself!" While you're
left admiring people who can do that, it's never clear how
these things fit together or how you could ever become

Well, maybe the people with the growth mindset

don't think they're Einstein or Beethoven, but aren't they
more likely to have inflated views of their abilities and try
for things they're not capable of? In fact, studies show that
people are terrible at estimating their abilities. Recently,
we set out to see who is most likely to do this. Sure, we
found that people greatly misestimated their performance
and their ability. But it was those with the fixed mindset
who accounted for almost all the inaccuracy. The people
with the growth mindset were amazingly accurate.
When you think about it, this makes sense. If, like
those with the growth mindset, you believe you can
develop yourself, then you're open to accurate information
about your current abilities, even if it's unflattering.
What's more, if you're oriented toward learning, as they
are, you need accurate information about your current
abilities in order to learn effectively. However, if
everything is either good news or bad news about your
precious traitsas it is with fixed-mindset, people
distortion almost inevitably enters the picture. Some
outcomes are magnified, others are explained away, and
before you know it you don't know yourself at all.
Howard Gardner, in his book Extraordinary Minds,
concluded that exceptional individuals have "a special
talent for identifying their own strengths and
weaknesses." It's interesting that those with the growth
mindset seem to have that talent.
What's In Store

So, What's New?

37

that way. So you're inspired for a few days, but basically

the world's most successful people still have their secrets.
Instead, as you begin to understand the fixed and
growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads
to anotherhow a belief that your qualities are carved in
stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a
belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host
of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an
entirely different road. It's what we psychologists call an
Aha! experience. . . .

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Mindset

The other thing exceptional people seem to have is a

special talent for converting life's setbacks into future
successes. Creativity researchers concur. In a poll of 143
creativity researchers, there was wide agreement about the
number one ingredient in creative achievement. And it
was exactly the kind of perseverance and resilience
produced by the growth mindset.
You may be asking again, How can one belief lead to
all thisthe love of challenge, belief in effort, resilience
in the face of setbacks, and greater (more creative!)
success? . . . [T]he mindsets change what people strive for
and what they see as success. . . . [T]hey change the
definition, significance, and impact of failure. . . . [T]hey
change the deepest meaning of effort. . . .

Grow Your Mindset

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Which mindset do you have? Answer these questions

about intelligence. Read each statement and decide
whether you mostly agree with it or disagree with it.
1.
2.
3.
4.

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Your intelligence is something very basic about

you that you can't change very much.
You can learn new things, but you can't really
change how intelligent you are.
No matter how much intelligence you have, you
can always change it quite a bit.
You can always substantially change how
intelligent you are.

Questions 1 and 2 are the fixed-mindset questions.

Questions 3 and 4 reflect the growth mindset. Which
mindset did you agree with more? You can be a mixture,
but most people lean toward one or the other.
You also have beliefs about other abilities. You could
substitute "artistic talent," "sports ability," or "business
skill" for "intelligence." Try it.
It's not only your abilities; it's your personal qualities
too. Look at these statements about personality and
character and decide whether you mostly agree or mostly
disagree with each one.

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1.
2.
3.
4.

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You are a certain kind of person, and there is not

much that can be done to really change that.
No matter what kind of person you are, you can
always change substantially.
You can do things differently, but the important
parts of who you are can't really be changed.
You can always change basic things about the
kind of person you are.

Here, questions 1 and 3 are the fixed-mindset

questions and questions 2 and 4 reflect the growth
mindset. Which did you agree with more?
Did it differ from your intelligence mindset? It can.
Your "intelligence mindset" comes into play when
situations involve mental ability.
Your "personality mindset" comes into play in
situations that involve your personal qualitiesfor
example, how dependable, cooperative, caring, or socially
skilled you are. The fixed mindset makes you concerned
with how you'll be judged; the growth mindset makes you
concerned with improving.

Here are some more ways to think about mindsets:

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Think about someone you know who is steeped

in the fixed mindset. Think about how they're
always trying to prove themselves and how
they're supersensitive about being wrong or
making mistakes. Did you ever wonder why they
were this way? (Are you this way?) Now you can
begin to understand why.
Think about someone you know who is skilled in
the growth mindsetsomeone who understands
that important qualities can be cultivated. Think
about the ways they confront obstacles. Think
about the things they do to stretch themselves.
What are some ways you might like to change or
stretch yourself?
Okay, now imagine you've decided to learn a
new language and you've signed up for a class. A
few sessions into the course, the instructor calls
you to the front of the room and starts throwing
questions at you one after another.

Put yourself in a fixed mindset. Your ability is on the

line. Can you feel everyone's eyes on you? Can you see
the instructor's face evaluating you? Feel the tension, feel
your ego bristle and waver. What else are you thinking
and feeling?
Now put yourself in a growth mindset. You're a
novicethat's why you're here. You're here to learn. The
teacher is a resource for learning. Feel the tension leave
you; feel your mind open up.
The message is: You can change your mindset. . . .
Chapter 8

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Mindset

Change can be tough, but Ive never heard anyone

say it wasnt worth it. Maybe theyre just rationalizing,
the way people whove gone through a painful initiation
say it was worth it. But people whove changed can tell
you how their lives have been enhanced. They can tell
you about things they have now that they wouldnt have
had, and ways they feel now that they wouldnt have felt.
Did changing to a growth mindset solve all my
problems? No. But I know that I have a different life
because of ita richer one. And that Im a more alive,
courageous, and open person because of it.
Its for you to decide whether change is right for you
now. Maybe it is, maybe it isnt. But either way, keep the
growth mindset in your thoughts. Then, when you bump
up against obstacles, you can turn to it. It will always be
there for you, showing you a path into the future.

from

Angela Duckworth and the Research on 'Grit' (2012)

Hanford, Emily. Angela Duckworth and the Research on Grit. American Radio Works. Fall 2012. Web.
<http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/grit/angela-duckworth-grit.html>.

Before she was a psychology professor, Angela

Duckworth taught math in middle school and high school.
She spent a lot of time thinking about something that
might seem obvious: The students who tried hardest did
the best, and the students who didn't try very hard didn't
do very well. Duckworth wanted to know: What is the
role of effort in a person's success?
Now Duckworth is an assistant professor at the
University of Pennsylvania, and her research focuses on a
personality trait she calls "grit." She defines grit as
"sticking with things over the very long term until you
master them." In a paper1, she writes that "the gritty
individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or
her advantage is stamina."
Duckworth's research suggests that when it comes to
high achievement, grit may be as essential as intelligence.
That's a significant finding because for a long time,
intelligence was considered the key to success.
Intelligence "is probably the best-measured trait that
there is in all of human psychology," says Duckworth.
"We know how to measure intelligence in a matter of
minutes."
But intelligence leaves a lot unexplained. There are
smart people who aren't high achievers, and there are
people who achieve a lot without having the highest test
scores. In one study, Duckworth found that smarter
students actually had less grit than their peers who scored
lower on an intelligence test. This finding suggests that,
among the study participantsall students at an Ivy
League schoolpeople who are not as bright as their
peers "compensate by working harder and with more
determination." And their effort pays off: The grittiest
students not the smartest ones had the highest GPAs.

Grit and College Completion

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The Grit Test

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Duckworth's work is part of a growing area of

psychology research focused on what are loosely called
"noncognitive skills." The goal is to identify and measure
the various skills and traits other than intelligence that
contribute to human development and success.
Duckworth has developed a test called the "Grit
Scale."2 You rate yourself on a series of 8 to 12 items.
Two examples: "I have overcome setbacks to conquer an
important challenge" and "Setbacks don't discourage me."
It's entirely self-reported, so you could game the test, and
yet what Duckworth has found is that a person's grit score

Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 2007, Vol. 92, No. 6, 10871101
2
https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_06f6QSOS2pZW9qR

is highly predictive of achievement under challenging

circumstances.
At the elite United States Military Academy, West
Point, a cadet's grit score was the best predictor of success
in the rigorous summer training program known as "Beast
Barracks." Grit mattered more than intelligence,
leadership ability or physical fitness.
At the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the grittiest
contestants were the most likely to advance to the finals
at least in part because they studied longer, not because
they were smarter or were better spellers.

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Angela Duckworth is now turning her attention to the

question of grit and college completion. In a study funded
by the Gates Foundation, Duckworth and a number of
other researchers are trying to understand what predicts
college persistence among graduates of several highperforming urban charter school networks . . . .
These charter school networks serve mostly students
from low-income and minority families. The schools were
founded to close the "achievement gap" between these
students and their higher-income peers. The ultimate goal
of these charter school networks is to get students to go to
college and earn degrees.
The charter schools have succeeded in providing
strong academic preparation. Most of their students go to
college. Yet the students graduate from college at lower
rates than would be expected based on their academic
preparation.
The charter schools want to know why that is. Angela
Duckworth wants to know if grit has anything to do with it.
Duckworth's previous research shows that people
who have "some college" but no degree are lower in grit
than people who have college degrees. Does that mean the
charter school students who are not making it through
college are lacking grit? And if that's the case, can grit be
learned?
These are complicated questions, and the answers
aren't in yet. Duckworth says there are a number of things
to think about before jumping to the conclusion that
students who don't finish college aren't gritty. Many
factors contribute to college success, including money,
what colleges students go to, and what Duckworth calls
"social-psychological" barriers. She says low-income and
minority students often feel out of place on college
campuses, especially more elite colleges where the
majority of students are upper-income, white and have
college-educated parents. Duckworth thinks a sense of
social belonging may be key to persisting through college.

Research on Grit

One of her research goals is to "sharpen insights" about

the psychological barriers that prevent well-prepared
students from completing degreesand to test
interventions that might help students overcome those
barriers.
15
But Duckworth thinks grit is likely a significant
factor when it comes to college completion among the
charter school students she is studying. That's because grit
is a particularly helpful trait when it comes
to challenging experiences, and for the charter school
students, college tends to be a challenging experience.
16
Most of the students are first generation; their parents
didn't go to collegein many cases, no one in their
family has any experience with higher education. College
can be a difficult and confusing experience even for
people who come from college-educated families, but for
first-generation students, college is like learning a new
language . . .
17
When first-generation students come up against
obstacles in college, they have no one in their families to
turn to for help . . . . College-educated families provide
their students with support that many students and
families may not even be aware of, but it's a powerful
force that helps propel students through college.
Villanueva says first-generation students are at a
disadvantage.
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Not only do first-generation students lack the kind of
family support that can help them overcome obstacles in
college, they also tend to face more obstacles than higherincome students from college-educated families . . . .
They may have trouble with money or financial aid
paperwork. A lot of the students have to work while going
to school. Many live at home and have family obligations,
such as taking care of siblings or grandparents and
helping to pay the bills. Research shows all of these
things make going to college harder and increase the
chances a student will quit. . . .

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Learning to Be Gritty
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The Grittiest College Students

When college is hard, grit helps, according to Angela
Duckworth's research.
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In fact, people who succeed in getting associate's
degrees are, on average, more gritty than people who get
bachelor's degrees, according to Duckworth's research. It
takes as much grit to get an associate's degree as it does to
get a Ph.D.
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"Graduating from a two-year college versus a fouryear college is a much greater difference than people
might imagine," says Duckworth.
22
Community colleges are full of students who are a lot
like the students at . . . urban charter schools Duckworth
is studying: first-generation college students from poor
families who have to balance work and family while
19

going to school. The community college dropout rate is

high.1
"If you're going to get through a two-year college
where the attrition rate is 50 or maybe even 75 percent,
maybe you do need more grit to surmount all those
obstacles," says Duckworth.

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It's not clear what makes some people grittier than

others, but Angela Duckworth believes grit is something
people can probably learn.
She says every human quality that has been studied
has proven to be affected at least in part by a person's
environmenteven intelligence. In addition, people
change over time.
"Think about things about your personality like, 'I'm
a pretty extroverted person,'" says Duckworth. "Well, how
fixed is that?"
It turns out a personality trait like extroversion can
change a lot over a person's life. "If you look at large
population data, people get more or less extroverted over
time," says Duckworth. "There's no reason to think that
grit is any different."
She believes grit can wax[grow] and wane[fade] in
response to experiences. In addition, people might be
gritty about some things and not others.
"You can see a child be exceptionally self-disciplined
about their basketball practicing, and yet when you see
them in math class, they give up at the slightest
frustration," says Duckworth.
Donald Kamentz, director of college initiatives at
YES Prep, says students he's worked with are some of the
grittiest people he's ever met. They "deal with things and
persevere through situations that most people would find
insurmountable," he says.
He's known students who get jobs to pay the bills
when their parents are laid off, or figure out how to get
the electricity back on when the power company shuts it
off.
"And then they go to college and they're struggling
with financial aid or their financial aid didn't come
through and they don't know what to do," he says. Some
of them drop out when confronted with these kinds of
challenges. He says they're not gritty enough when it
comes to college.
A question for YES Prep and other charter schools in
Duckworth's study is not necessarily how to get students
to be gritty, but how to get them to be gritty about college
completion.
"Which experiences do we give kids to get them in
the direction of more grit and not less?" asks Duckworth.
One of the goals of Duckworth's research is to figure this
out. Her current project began in the fall of 2011 and is
scheduled to wrap up in 2014.
1

Graduation Rate: Bunker Hill, 11%; Roxburry Community College, 12%

(based on the Fall 2010 cohort that graduated by 2013).

Research on Grit

from

Learning (Your First Job) (2002)

Leamnson, Robert. Learning (Your First Job). University of Georgia Center for Teaching and Learning. December 2002. Web.
<https://ctl.uga.edu/pages/learning-your-first-job>
Introduction (Dont Skip This Part)
A fundamental idea that you will encounter over and
again, is that learning is not something that just happens
to you, it is something that you do to yourself. You cannot
be given learning, nor can you be forced to do it. The
most brilliant and inspired teacher cannot cause you to
learn. Only you can do that. What follows are some fairly
explicit learning activities or behaviors, but they are all
your activities, and now and then those of your fellow
students. But there is also a basic assumption underlying
these ideas, and thats that you do want to learn
something while getting a diploma. Without that desire,
nothing will work. . . .
Learning
While few people think of it this way, learning is a
biological process. It is indeed biological because
thinking occurs when certain webs (networks) of neurons
(cells) in your brain begin sending signals to other webs
of neurons. You, of course, are not conscious of this
process, but only of the thought that results. But there is
no doubt that thinking is the result of webs of cells in your
brain sending signals to other webs.
How can knowing what causes thought help in the
learning process? Start by considering that human
learning has two components: (1) understanding, and (2)
remembering
Either of these by itself is not sufficient. Knowing a
bit about how the brain works when youre thinking will
help you to see why both understanding and remembering
are necessary for learning.
Anytime you encounter a new idea . . . you need to
make sense of it, or, to understand it. And if you are
actually trying to make sense of it, your brain is firing a
lot of webs of neurons until one or more of them sees
the logic or causality in a situation. Understanding
sometimes comes in a flash and we feel, Oh, I get it!
Other times it takes repeated exposure or the use of
analogies until we finally get it. But if we never get it,
then we still dont understandwe havent tried enough
circuits in the brain
So, right from the beginning, making sense of what
you read or hear involves focused attention and
concentration, in other words, brain work. Im
confident that almost all . . . students could understand
what is required of them by focusing attention on what is
being read or heard, and stick with it until the thoughts in
their heads pretty much matched those of the speaker or
writer.

Unhappily, this is not the way all students . . . behave.

The most frequent complaint I hear from . . . instructors is
that too many of their students are simply passive
observers. So the big rule about understanding is that it
cannot be achieved passively. It demands an active and
focused mind.
Some very bright students find little difficulty in
understanding what they hear or read. But some of these
smart people . . . neglect the second part of learning,
which is remembering.
[R]emembering is more difficult than understanding .
. . because few people know much about memory, or that
it is likewise a biological process involving the firing of
webs of neurons in the brain. Most people think of
memories as ideas, pictures, or events that are lodged
somewhere in their heads, and these places simply need to
be found. The fact, however, is that memories are not
things always present somewhere in our heads. Memories
must be reconstructed each time they are remembered.
This reconstruction, in biological terms, means firing up
almost the same webs of neurons that were used to
perceive the original event. This would seem to be easy,
but it is not in most cases. Heres the reason.
Use It or Lose It
These webs Ive been speaking of are networks of
connected neurons. The details do not need to be
understood, but the fact is, the connections between brain
cells are not necessarily permanent. Much of our brain is
not hard wired. One can think of neurons as having a big,
important rule, if the connection I made gets used a lot, it
must be doing something important or useful, so I will
strengthen the connection so it doesnt fall apart. And
thats exactly what it does . . . . Now the bad news. If a
neuron makes a connection that does not get used (no
matter how useful it might have been) it breaks the
connection and its probably gone forever. In short, neural
circuits that get used become stable, those that do not get
used fall apart.
So it is that we can understand something quite
clearly, and some time later not be able to remember what
it was we understood. The biological explanation is that
the web of understanding was not used enough to
become stable, so it fell apart.
If youve followed all of this you probably see the
bad news coming. If learning means both understanding
and remembering, we have to practice what we
understand. Without rehearsal, that fantastic circuitry that
enabled our understanding will gradually disintegrate and
we can no longer reconstruct what we once understood.

Learning (Your First Job)

Some readers are no doubt wanting to get on to the

tricks for getting high grades. [G]etting a high grade
involves only one tricklearn the material. Learning, as
described here, is the trick that always works. Learning is
the goal . . . . Grades will take care of themselves.
The Classroom
. . . . The reason something must be said about so
commonplace a thing as the classroom is that too many
students see it incorrectly and so they waste a highly
valuable occasion for learning. The most common
misconception is that the class period is that occasion
when the instructor tells you what you need to know to
pass the tests. Seen this way, it can only be a dreary thing,
and from this perception flow a number of bad habits and
behaviors that make learning more laborious and less
interesting that it can be and should be.
Taking Notes
I would like to see the expression taking notes
removed from the vocabulary and replaced with one often
used in Great Britain, that is making notes. Taking
implies a passive reception of something someone else
has made. It too often consists of copying whats on a
chalkboard or being projected on a screen. Copying from
a projected image is usually quite difficult and trying to
copy what someone is saying is nearly impossible.
Attempts to take notes in this way produces something
that is usually quite incomplete, often garbled and has the
awful effect of turning off the listening part of the brain.
We are not capable of focusing attention on two different
activities at the same time. So we miss what an instructor
is saying while we concentrate on writing what he has
already said, or copying from the board or screen. Some
instructors compensate by making notes for the students
and passing them out. This practice can help the better
studentsthose who already know how to learnbut for
many others it only makes matters worse. For a passive
person, having a set of teacher-prepared notes means that
they now have nothing to do during the class period. So
they just sit, or daydream, or doze off, and often quit
coming to class altogether. Why not, if its all in the
notes? Two more definitions will help to see that this is a
recipe for failure.
Information and Knowledge
Even college professors and authors of books often
confuse these words or use them interchangeably. In fact
they mean very different things. Lets start with
information. The world is awash[overflowing] in information.
All the books in the library have information, as do
journals, magazines, and the uncountable number of
websites and postings on the internet. All of this
information is transferable from one medium to another,

sometimes with lightening speed. None of it, however, is

knowledge! The reason being that knowledge can only
exist in someones head. Furthermore, the expression
transfer of knowledge is ridiculous because it describes
the impossible.
This might be a novel or surprising idea so lets
examine it further. Suppose your chemistry teacher has a
correct
and
fairly
thorough
knowledge
of
oxidation/reduction reactions. Can this knowledge be
transferred to you? How wonderful if it could be.
Something like a transfusion or mind meld and you
know instantly what he/she knows! None of that is
possible. All your teacher can give you is information,
and perhaps the inspiration for you to do your part. This
information is always in the form of symbols. These
symbols might be words,spoken or writtennumbers,
signs, diagrams, pictures, and so on. You cannot learn
anything unless you have previous knowledge of the
meaning of the symbols. As a clear example, you cannot
learn from someone speaking Farsi if you know only
English, no matter how accurate and useful the
information embedded in that language. This ideanew
knowledge depends greatly on prior knowledgewill
come up again later.
But if, happily, you can indeed make sense of new
information on chemical reactions (or anything else) you
can then construct your own knowledge by using the new
information and incorporating it into your prior
knowledge base. But, as noted above, this will involve
using some not-used-before neural connections, so if you
want to remember what you now understand, you must
practice, that is review a number of times, or use the new
knowledge repeatedly to solve problems or answer
questions. Remember the rule about new knowledgeuse
it or lose it. . . .
Time
Time is nothing at all like the way we talk about it.
How often do you hear someone say that they didnt
have time? Its a perfectly meaningless expression.
When you wake up on a Sunday morning, you have
exactly 168 hours of time until the following Sunday
morning. And everybody on the planet gets 168 hours. No
one ever has any more or any less time than anyone else!
Time cannot be found, nor stretched, nor
compressed, nor lost. It cannot be saved or
bought, or in any other way managed for any realistic
meaning of the word manage. So why do we use all
these meaningless expressions? Its because they let us
avoid the embarrassing process of examining our
priorities, a ranked list of those things we hold to be
important. Sleeping is a high priority for everyoneits a
biological necessity, like foodso we all spend a fair
amount of our allotted time blissfully unconscious. Now,
what about the rest of our 168 hours? For someone who
has to work part time to meet expenses, work is a high
priority activity and they show up on schedule and on

Learning (Your First Job)

time because losing the job would mean losing the

income and the consequences would be serious. So, after
sleeping, eating, working, and, one hopes, going to
classes, the rest of our 168 hours are spent doing whatever
we find personally important. For some, doing
assignments, reading books, writing reports and the like
are important, so they always get done. For some others,
TV, hanging out, the internet, and partying are of
primary importance, and sometimes they fill up so many
of the 168 hours available that there is nothing left at the
end of the week. Remember, no one gets more than 168
hours, so anyone who thinks they can do it all is always
going to run out of time.
Its your priorities and not the clock that will
determine the outcome of your . . . experience. If its
really important, it will always get done, and always at the
expense of the less important.
Studying
You and your teachers will use the word study
frequently, and always assuming that it means the same
thing to everyone. But it doesnt. For way too many . . . , .
. . study never happens until just before a test. Teachers
are amazed at the idea, but many students simply see no
reason to study if there is no test on the horizon. So here
in a nutshell is a most serious misunderstanding . . . . For
teachers, the purpose of study is to understand and
remember the course content; for students the purpose of
study is to pass the tests.
Now in an ideal world these would amount to the
same thing. But in the real world, unfortunately, you can
pass some tests without learning much at all. This is not
the place for me to beat up on my colleagues, but some do
produce truly simple-minded exams that do not require
much by way of preparation. So heres an absolutely
heroic idea if you find yourself bored with a class; try
learning more than the teacher demands. Wake up your
childhood curiosity and ask why other people find this
discipline so interesting that they spend their lives at it. I
can about guarantee that there are bright, articulate, and
interesting writers in every . . . discipline[subject]. Find a
good book and read. That way youll learn something
even if the teacher doesnt demand it. . . .
During the Lecture
In these tough courses the first idea you must
abandon is that you can sit, take notes, and worry about
it later. Heres another key idea to bring with you to every
lecture period. Worry about it now.
You can look upon your teacher as an adversary,
something that stands between you and a diploma, but
thats a defeatist and erroneous idea. Its better to think of
the instructor as your private tutor. Most teachers
welcome a considered question on the content. They
nearly all resent questions like, is this going to be on the

test? You dont do yourself any favors by giving your

teachers the impression that youre a lazy goof off trying
to slide by with minimal effort. Teachers can often pack a
wealth of important information in what just sounds like
an interesting story. They do not seem to be giving
notes. Its a serious mistake to get comfortable and
daydream. When notes are not given, then you have to
make them, and thats anything but relaxing. It takes
careful listening, concentration, and a focused mind to
pick out the important nuggets from what appears to be a
non-stop verbal ramble. A casual remark like, there are
several reasons we believe these things happen, is a clear
clue that something worth knowing is coming. As noted,
some teachers may pass out notes that they have made,
and these might contain an outline of whats important. A
fair number of . . . faculty have learned that this only
encourages passivity . . . . Some teachers have discovered
that students can only be prodded to serious mental
activity if they dont provide prepared notes. This might
seem mean spirited to you, but theyre just trying to
activate your brain.
Under conditions described above, you, to make
notes from which you can learn, have to be attuned to
whats being said. Not every sentence that drops from an
instructors mouth is going to contain some pearl of
wisdom. Much of it is fillerrephrasing, giving
examples, preparatory remarks for the next point and so
on. You have to learn quickly where the gems are.
Sentences you hear stay in the short term, immediate
recall part of your brain for only a couple seconds. During
that brief time you have to make the decision as to
whether youve heard something important or just filler.
If it was important you have to get the gist into your
notes, even if that means not being quite so attentive so
far as listening goes. Once its down, refocus and wait for
the next useful idea.
In short, teachers who do not make it easy by doing
all the work, are, in fact, doing you a favor. What is often
called deep learning, the kind that demands both
understanding and remembering of relationships, causes,
effects and implications for new or different situations
simply cannot be made easy. Such learning depends on
students actually restructuring their brains and that
demands effort. Such learning can, however, be most
satisfying and enjoyable, even as it demands effort. I
always think of serious learning of any academic subject
as being something like practice for a sport or with a
musical instrument. No one is born with a genetic
endowment for playing either the trombone or ice hockey.
These are both developed skills and both take long
periods of concentration and effort. Both are simply
difficult, but how satisfying they are as small elements are
learned and burned into our brain circuits! How enjoyable
to become proficient! Its exactly the same with academic
matters. Give it a try.

Learning (Your First Job)

About Interests
An obvious response to the thoughts just expressed
might be, but I like hockey, I have no interest in history,
or chemistrywhatever. That may well be true, but what
is not true is the assumption that these interests are
naturalsomething you came into the world with. Heres
another strange but important truth; all of your interests
had to be learned! This is a small example of a paradox.
You need to know something about a musical instrument,
or a sport, or indeed, an academic subject, before you can
judge whether or not its interesting. But if you hold the
belief that you cannot learn anything until or unless its
interesting, then you can never get started on anything
new. . . .
Instead of depending on a teacher to make it
interesting, [students should study a subject] on their
own to discover why other folk found it interesting
enough to write books about it, and teach it in college.
You would do yourself a great favor by developing this
curiosity habit as early on as you can.
Between Classes
When a teacher happens not to assign some specific
work to be done for the next period, a disturbing number
of beginning students simply assume that means that
nothing at all needs to be done. And it so happens that a
lot of college instructors do not assign each time some
reading, or writing, or problem solving to be done. [Yet]
they expected you to spend [some time] on each of your
subjects . . . . A huge number of . . . students, when told to
study but given nothing specific to do, simply do nothing.
So here are some realistic suggestions for study outside
class time.
Fill in the Notes
As noted above, its essential during a lecture to
produce some record, no matter how sketchy, of what was
presented during that period. A most useful and highly
recommended way to spend half an hour or so of study
time is to make sense of these notes, and most
importantly, turn lists and key words into real sentences
that rephrase what went on. When memory fails, thats
the time to use [external] resources. . . .
Now, read with the intent of re-discovering what was
presented in class. Read with understanding as the goal
(this will feel different than reading because it was
assigned.) People who know the education process
thoroughly say that most learning . . . goes on outside the
classroom. . . .
But there is a further critical element here. You must
write in your notes, in real sentences, what you have
learned by the reading. Writing has an enormous power to
fix things in the mind. Always write what you have

10

learned. . . . There are two other good resources . . . your

classmates and the teacher . . . .
[S]uccessful students had gotten connected to . . .
their teachers . . . to become more familiar with course
content . . . .
The second most important activity for success was
to form small study groups, or pairs, with the express
purpose of talking about the course content, their notes,
and assigned work. . . . Discussing the details of an
assignment or problem is . . . cooperative learningone
of the most useful habits you can develop . . . .
Assignments
Here again, attitude will influence how you react to
assigned work. To view it as paying dues, or taxes, or as
mere busywork that teachers insist on out of habit, is to
squander an excellent learning opportunity. Inexperienced
students see assignments as something to be done;
experienced students see them as something to be used.
Look on every assignment as a clue from the teacher
what he or she considers important enough to spend time
learning. Assignments, in most cases, are solid, meaty
chunks of whats important. Dont just do assignments
with minimal effort and thought, use them to learn
something new.
Thoughts on Verbalization
. . . Things do not go into memory as a result of
thinking about them vaguelyin the abstract. It has been
well documented that thought, to be useful, must be
verbal. Now all that means is that, to be remembered, and
so useful, your thought on a topic needs to be either
spoken, aloud, to another person, or written on paper.
(Recall the earlier idea that information can only move by
means of symbols, words spoken, signed, or written.) In
either case, good English sentences are needednot just
word clusters. You need verbs. Who did what to whom?
How does this thing cause that thing to happen? These
facts support the suggested need to talk to teachers and
classmates and use writing assignments to say whats true
or useful. . . .
Exams
. . . If you attend class regularly, listen with attention,
make the best notes you can, fill them in later (preferably
with a study partner or two), verbalize your thoughts, and
use assignments as learning tools, then you would be
ready for a test at any time. Learn as you go means youre
always prepared.
That is, of course, a bit overstated. In the real world,
a big test in the offing makes even the best student
nervous, and everyone bears down to some degree to get
prepared. For someone who has done it all wrong, whose
notes are just words copied without context or

Learning (Your First Job)

explanation, who does nothing between classes, and who

never discusses coursework with anyone, and who does
assignments thoughtlesslyjust to have something to
pass inan upcoming exam is justifiably terrifying. Its
these students who do everything wrong who ask
embarrassing questions like, Whats this test going to
cover? or, What chapters should we study? Theyre
clueless and they know it.
But lets assume youve done all the right things.
You still want to do the best you can, and that means
review, because stuff tends to slip out of memory,
particularly when you have three or four other classes to
attend to. But I mean review literally. It means learn
again, not learn for the first time. No one can learn the
content of 15 or 20 lectures in two days. Unless its all
completely trivial, that just cant be done. Learning a
second time (real review), on the other hand, is a snap
compared to learning from scratch. So, review for an
exam should not be stressful. If youre in a state of panic
because of an exam its because youve been doing the
wrong things all along.
But youre smart. Youve done the right things. How
do you do the review?
Dont Go It Alone
If youve done the right things you already have a
study partner or two. Schedule firm times and places to
spend an hour or so reviewing. Estimate how many days
it will take to review all the material and get an early start.
Dont worry about reviewing too far in advance of the
exam! If you talk about the content and write summary
paragraphs or descriptions, make labeled diagrams, or
solve problems on paper, you wont forgetits
guaranteed. . . .
Get Satan Behind Thee
The absolute worst thing you can do is to fall for the
crazy notion that the way to prepare for an exam is to
compress it all in the last 12 to 18 hours before the test,
and keep it up right to the very last minute. I could always
predict with great accuracy who was going to do poorly
on an exam. They were red-eyed, gulping coffee to stay
awake, and frantically flipping pages even as the test
papers were being distributed. They had done it all wrong.
Pulling an all-nighter, as the cute expression has it,
is based on the completely erroneous belief that the only
thing that . . . work requires is short term memory. Were
that true, last minute study would make at least some
sense. But the truth is, most . . . work demands thinking
about, and using, a storehouse of information firmly
lodged in long term memory. All-nighter students can
usually recall a lot of terms and certain facts, but cant
do anything with them.
Remember, your thinking and remembering are
functions of your brain, and thats a biological organ, and
significantly, its one with limited endurance. In short, it
becomes less efficient the longer you put demands on it

without rest. Trying to study 12 hours without sleep has

the same effect on your brain as trying to play basketball
for 12 straight hours would have on the rest of your body.
So, a final rule: Always get a night of restful sleep
the night before an exam. Some students are afraid of
this rule. They are afraid that sleep will somehow wipe
out all theyve been studying. But it doesnt! Its another
of those things that have been researched and the results
are consistent. There is, in fact, a small but significant
increase in the ability to recall or reconstruct when
learning is followed by sleep. So if you want your brain in
tip-top condition for an exam (and who wouldnt?) do
your reviewing in one or two hour periods spread out over
several days, and get a real nights sleep before the exam.
During the Exam
Ive heard students, going into an exam, say, Ive
done my part; its out of my hands now. That idea
betrays the erroneous notion that all the hard work is done
in advance, and during the exam you just pour out what
youve learned. Well, sometimes. But exams in the tough
courses often shock beginning students because they cant
find much that looks familiar. Theres a reason, and a
solution.
Demanding teachers prepare exams that require
performance, where performance is much more than
recall. A lot of college instructors produce what might be
called application questions for their exams. All that
means is that you cant just write what you know, you
have to use what you know to answer a question or solve
a problem that you havent seen before. . . . So when
seeing something that looks unfamiliar, convince yourself
that its only a question that is asking you to apply
something you already know. So it is that concentration
and focused thinking are often just as necessary during an
exam as before it. If you have learned well, and reviewed
properly, you can be confident that you have the
necessary knowledge. It just takes some hard thinking to
see how it applies to a particular question.
A Summary
No one learns unless they want to. I have assumed
here that you do. But learning is a biological process that
relies on the brain, a physiological organ that demands the
same maintenance the rest of you does. Dont abuse it.
The best ways to learn have already been discovered,
theres no need for you to rediscover them by making a
lot of old mistakes all over again. So it is that what you
read here might be disappointing. Instead of new tricks or
clever ways to beat the system, it says learning is the only
way, and that learning is difficult and requires effort. But
we do know how to do it, and when its done right, it is
marvelously satisfying.
I wish all readers of these pages the best of luck . . . .
But as I do so, Im reminded of the words of the biologist
Pasteur who said, Chance favors the prepared mind.

Learning (Your First Job)

11

from

Creating Self-Regulated Learners (2013)

Nilson, Linda B.. Creating Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students' Self-Awareness and Learning Skills.
Herndon, VA, USA: Stylus Publishing, 2013. Web. 19 January 2015.
A recent study asked 132 veterinary students to
identify the factors that they considered important in their
learning.1 They most commonly cited the planning and
practices of the instruction they were receiving . . . . The
respondents . . . rarely names their own effort, learning
skills, or study methods. . . .
Specifically, these students take little or no
responsibility for their own learning, blaming their
shortcomings in achievement on their ineffective
instruction and the too advanced or irrelevant course
material.2
_______

progress. They fail to evaluate and reorient their learning

methods, if necessary. They rely on the feedback of others
and compare their performance with others, rather than
self-assessing and restructuring goals they have not met. .
. . Experts, on the other hand, manage and control their
learning all along, acknowledging failures as a signal to
modify their learning strategies.7 . . .
Schraw8 developed a three-stage model of the process
planning, which precedes the learning task. At each stage,
he posited, the self-regulated learner answers a regulatory
checklist of questions, much like those experts ask
themselves while they are learning or problem solving.

Because many schools focus on building self-esteem,

few students face daily public accountability for doing
their homework, if they are even assigned any. In many
cases, they receive passing grades without passing scores,
honors without excelling in their coursework, and the aura
of achievement without earning it. Sadly, these students
do not have the opportunity in secondary school to learn
how to learn. . . .
Learning is about ones relationship with oneself and
ones ability to exert the effort, self-control, and critical
self-assessment necessary to achieve the best possible
resultsand about overcoming risk aversion, failure,
distractions, and sheer laziness in pursuit of real
achievement. This is self-regulated learning.
In short, self-regulated learning is a total engagement
activity involving multiple parts of the brain. This activity
encompasses full attention and concentration, self
awareness and introspection, honest self-assessment,
openness to change, genuine self-discipline, and
acceptance of responsibility for ones learning.3 . . . [S]elf
regulation has little to do with measured intelligence and
just about anyone can develop it.4 . . .
Self-control, self-discipline, perseverance, and
determination in pursuing long-term goals outweigh IQ as
predictors of postsecondary academic success.5 . . .
Grossman6 analyzed the very different perspectives
that novices and experts take on their own learning.
According to Grossman, novices tend to believe in an
external locus of control and may give up on learning
challenging material because they see their innate abilities
as inadequate for the task. . . . They do not see goals or
break up the task into steps or monitor their learning

Planning questions: What is my goal and how will I

know I have reached it? How motivated am I to
perform the task, and how can I increase my
motivation if its low? How much time and how
many resources will be necessary? What do I already
know about the topic? What additional information,
if any, will I need? What strategies should I use?
What strengths can I bring to the task? How can I
compensate for my weaknesses? What might
interfere with my completing the task, and how can I
prevent this interference?

Monitoring questions: Am I sure I know what I am

doing? Does my approach to the task make sense?
How well are my strategies working? Am I making
good progress toward my goal? What changes in
approach or strategies should I make, if any? What
material is the most important? What material am I
having trouble understanding? What material am I
having trouble recalling? How does what I am
learning relate to what I already know? How does it
relate to my experience or my future? How is my
thinking on this topic changing?

Evaluating questions: How well did I achieve my

goal? How well did I master what I set out to learn?
How well did I avoid sources of interference and stay
on task? What approach or strategy worked well?
What didnt work? What do I need to do differently
when taking on a similar task? What were the most
important points I learned? What am I still having
trouble understanding? What do I need to review?
What questions do I have that should be answered by
an expert? How does what I learned relate to other
things Ive been learning or have experiences? How
had my thinking on the topic changed?

Ruohoniemi & Lindblom-Ylnne, 2009

Elliott, 2010; Singleton-Jackson, Jackson & Reinhardt, 2010; Twenge, 2007
3
Zimmerman, 2001, 2002; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001
4
R. J. Davison, 2003; Schraw, 1998; Schraw & Dennison, 1994; Schunk
& Zimmerman, 1998; Tinnesz, Ahuna, & Kiener, 2006
5
Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007; Duckworth &
Seigman, 2005; Tough, 2012
6
Grossman, 2009
2

12

7
8

Zimmerman, 2002
Schraw, 1998

Creating Self-Regulated Learners

Research has amassed overwhelming evidence that

self-regulated learning enhances:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Student performance/achievement (learning) in

courses and course units1
The amount and depth of student thinking2
Students conscious focus on their learning3
The development of reflective and responsible
professionalism4

In fact, the ability to self-regulate predicts SAT

scores more strongly than does IQ, parental education, or
parental economic status.5 . . .
The successful learner internalizes his locus of
control and feels empowered to attribute success and
failures to his own study habits and efforts.6 . . .

Azevedo & Cromley, 2004; Boud, 1995, 2000; Cooper & Sandi-Urena, 2009;
Garner & Alexander, 1989; Glenn, 2010; Hattie, 2009; Kitsantas &
Zimmerman, 2009; Lovett, 2008; Masui & de Corte, 2005; McDonald & Boud,
2003; McGuire, 2008; Ottenhoff, 2011; Pintrich, 2002; Pressley & Ghatala,
1990; Rolf, Scharff, & Hodge, 2012; Schraw & Dennison, 1994; Zimmerman,
2002; Zimmerman, Moylan, Hudesman, White & Flugman, 2011
2
Jensen, 2011
3
Ottenhoff, 2011
4
Sluijsmans, Dochy, & Moerkerke, 1999
5
Goleman, 1996
6
Glenn, 2010; Masui & de Corte, 2005; Zimmerman, 2002;
Zimmerman et. al., 2011

Creating Self-Regulated Learners

13