Self-Regulation in Learning: The Role of Language and Formative Assessment

In their new book, Alison L. Bailey and Margaret Heritage illustrate how to help students become more self-regulated learners—that is, to be able to monitor and take charge of their own learning when working independently and in groups. Language provides the foundation for the development of self-regulatory skills, enabling students to express themselves and negotiate interactions with others; the demands of these self-regulatory processes in turn can support the development of rich vocabulary and social language skills. The authors also emphasize the role of formative assessment as a means of supporting students in engaging in language-rich, self-regulated learning.
 
Self-Regulation in Learning shows how classrooms can be intentionally designed to support ambitious learning. Detailed vignettes from real-life classrooms illustrate the teacher’s role in helping students gradually master the processes of self-regulation, socially shared regulation, and coregulation. Each chapter also includes strategies for addressing the needs of English learners in the general education classroom.
 
Students’ capacity for self-regulation is central to the set of outcomes that compose college and career readiness: communicating and collaborating effectively, problem-solving, setting goals and following through on them, and applying knowledge in deep and rigorous ways. Self-Regulation in Learning represents an invaluable contribution to research-based classroom practice.

Alison L. Bailey is Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. A graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Bailey is a developmental psycholinguist working on issues germane to children’s linguistic, social, and educational development. Her areas of research include first- and second-language acquisition, early literacy development, and academic-language pedagogy and assessment practices with school-age English learners. Her most recent books include Children’s Multilingual Development and Education: Fostering Linguistic Resources in Home and School Contexts (Cambridge University Press), with Anna Osipova, and Language, Literacy and Learning in the STEM Disciplines: How Language Counts for English Learners (Routledge), with Carolyn Maher and Louise Wilkinson. She serves as an advisory board member for numerous states and organizations developing next-generation English language assessments. She is a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Standing Committee on Reading (US Department of Education), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) President’s Task Force on Classroom Assessment, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Consensus Committee on STEM and English Learners.

Margaret Heritage is an independent consultant in education. For her entire career, her work has spanned both research and practice. In addition to spending many years in her native England as a practitioner, a university teacher, and an inspector of schools, she had an extensive period at UCLA, first as principal of the laboratory school of the Graduate School of Education and Information Students and then as an Assistant Director at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) UCLA. She has also taught in the Departments of Education at UCLA and Stanford. Her current work centers on how formative assessment supports regulatory processes. Her recent books include English Language Learners and the New Standards: Developing Language Content Knowledge and Analytical Practices in the Classroom (Harvard Education Press), with Aida Walqui and Robert Linquanti, and Using Assessment to Enhance Learning, Achievement, and Academic Self-Regulation (Routledge), with Heidi Andrade.