Regulating and bringing structure into your journey should not result in feeling restrictions. Regard it as an art that can lead to continual development and self-knowledge.
This research firstly sets out to introduce self-regulated learning, explain why it is important for musicians and provide theoretical framework to understand the processes involved in self-regulated learning. Secondly, some interventions carried out on conservatoire students are described. Thirdly applications including some self-regulatory tools and strategies are provided, including a musician’s reflective journal that was designed based on the findings in this research. An extra chapter on self-regulation in coronatimes was added because the pandemic that started in 2020, which occurred during the research period, had a profound effect on students, teachers and teaching institutions and highlighted the value and need for a better understanding of self-regulation.
Even the most talented, intuitive and creative people benefit from having a conscious understanding of how goals, structure and reflection can help learning and performance. Each of you needs to be able to ultimately steer this process yourself.
Autonomous self-regulation includes
Intention: Having clear goals beforehand
Attention: Being able to focus fully on the task during an activity
Reflection: Looking back and assessing how it went
If you are taking care of each of these three aspects in some way, you are headed for success – and more importantly – you are engaged in and enjoying the process.
But what are the pre-requisites and fundamental qualities that can facilitate the process? What are your reasons for choosing this particular path and how confident and motivated are you? Aspects such as identity and self-knowledge, autonomy, self-belief and motivation play a large role.
Each individual is on a unique journey and needs a customised strategy. Find a structure to suit your own needs and adjust it as you go. Structures, plans and routines can help you to reach deadlines and fulfil your objectives, but it is more about creating a space and environment for your creative process.
Finding the right shape, size, flexibility, complexity and quality of your space is something that is worth spending time working out.
Self-regulation should not be about creating a detailed map, which is be then followed faithfully and rigorously. A map could be a trap, as it does not allow for the realities and unforeseen aspects of life. A map shows the destination and also how to get there – pointing out turns on the road, obstacles and what to look for along the whole path. If you can map out your future life it would either be something someone else has done, something that's already happened or an illusion – something that you want to happen but cannot know if and how it will come about. The future is largely unknown and yet we need to be able to feel we are on a path and to have navigation skills.
Since being too controlling of one’s process can get in the way of growth and change it is useful to replace the concept of a roadmap with that of a compass.
A compass doesn't tell you where you are going, what you will find or how to get there. Rather it triggers responsiveness by making you open to what is calling you. By being aware and alert to what you resonate with involves a complex blend of conscious and unconscious knowledge and self-knowledge involving logical thought processes as well as intuition and instinct.
Developing an inner compass involves developing and accessing one’s intrinsic motivation. This exposition emphasises how essential intrinsic motivation is to self-regulated learning and to a healthy learning process. It is also important to accept that real growth means going into the unknown as well as developing awareness, responsiveness, courage and trust. Fundamental to this journey is having some self-acceptance and self-worth and a positive belief system.
- What are the self-regulation issues that face conservatoire students and what are their self-regulation habits?
- What can help music students navigate their learning process?
- How can teachers and conservatoires support self-regulated-learning?
- How can self-regulation tools help us in coronatimes?
Highly motivated students are more attentive to learning processes & outcomes, progress better and achieve higher levels of mastery, and are likely to persist more (e.g. regular practice). Also they enjoy more satisfaction (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2012, p. 3).
“To be motivated means to be moved to do something”. Motivation can be autonomous or controlled (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Autonomous motivation involves willingness, volition and choice whereas controlled motivation refers to being pressured or obliged to do something. Controlled motivation has found to be much less effective than autonomous motivation. A person who is steering their own process is likely to be more alert, engaged, active and invested in comparison to if he/she is following outside instructions or expectations. Motivation is usually referred to as intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to when someone finds something interesting and enjoyable. Alternatively, extrinsic motivation means doing something because it leads to a certain outcome e.g. for reward, approval or to avoid punishment. However, the person can decide that something is important for them even if s/he is not intrinsically motivated. This can lead them to internalising the values of it and then experiencing it as their own: e.g. “I understand that ear training can really help my playing, so I will make a real effort to do the assignments”. Thus extrinsic motivation can also be autonomous and thus effective (Ryan & Deci).
Self-regulation relies on and also promotes autonomous and intrinsic motivation, as can be seen in the above model of positive and negative learning cycles.
Most people have recognised the difficulty of changing habits – be it their own or those of others (e.g. their students). Research in the last few decades has opened up and changed the general views about the nature/nurture debate. Much of what we previously thought of as pre-determined in our behaviour and thinking has been put into question. Psychologists such as Dweck, Bandura and Csikszenmihaly offer insights into how behaviour, our belief system and our identity can be changed: by offering strategies to promote a growth mindset, high self efficacy and flow experiences. Such changes require metacognitive insight and determination in order to set up effective self-regulated learning processes.
An individual’s development of optimal competence requires more than basic talent and high quality instruction; it involves self-regulatory skill and accompanying self-motivational beliefs – Zimmermann & Kitsantas, 2005
Alternatively, when a goal or expectation is unrealistic or when failure is considered as a disaster rather than a learning moment, the learner will experience fear and stress, a lack of autonomy, be de-motivated and expect future failures.
An underlying quality belonging to this phase is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to learn and attain your goals. Albert Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments”. A high self-efficacy leads to self-confidence and positive expectations, resulting in enhanced learning and performance.
Carol Dweck’s research on self theories and mindset (Dweck 2000, 2008) reinforces Bandura’s ideas. She found that people can show behaviours that reflect a growth mindset: e.g. enjoying challenge, regarding mistakes as valuable information, and the belief that success is based on one’s own effort; or a fixed mindset: e.g. avoiding challenge, seeing mistakes as “bad”, the belief that success is based on talent, and that effort is a sign of a lack of talent. Shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset involves addressing one’s negative thoughts and beliefs and replacing them with more positive ones.
It is important to note both self-efficacy and mindset are continuums and not just positive or negative, and that they refer to specific domains – one can have high self-efficacy and a growth mindset for improving one’s basketball skills and low self-efficacy and fixed mindset for learning languages.
Researchers in different fields – from psychology and pedagogy to motor learning – have recognised that when a learner has positive expectations they are more likely to learn well and to succeed. This implies that the learning and practice process should be set up for collecting successful ‘mastery experiences’: “Success in attaining challenging goals increases people’s beliefs in their capabilities. Accomplishing desired goals also creates self-satisfaction and increases interest in what one is doing” (Bandura 1997, p. 461).
According to Bandura (1997), a learner’s expectations are based on things like:
- How well they have done these tasks in the past
- How they experienced their last performance
- What their teachers, peers and parents express and think about their performances
- How difficult they assess a specific task to be
Csikszenmihaly (1996) explains the importance of balancing skill and challenge. Whilst one’s skill may be set at any one moment, it is possible to raise or lower one’s challenge or expectation in to match the skill level, in order to reach a highly engaged state that is optimal for both learning and performance.
In their OPTIMAL theory of motor learning, Wulf & Lewthwaite (2016) state that the three things needed for both learning and performance are autonomy, enhanced expectancies and external focus. By ‘enhanced expectancies’, they refer to “The conviction that one is doing well and the confidence in being able to perform well in the future” (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016).
By careful selection of goals (specific, realistic and yet challenging) and use of strategies a learner can set the stage for development and successful performance. This in turn will motivate them to continue in a positive learning spiral.
What enhances and in turn is enhanced by self-regulation is having a clear sense one’s identity and direction. Musicians tend to decide their profession earlier than in other fields – often in their teenage years – and experience music-making as a vocation rather than just a job. The fact that identity for musicians is so closely linked to their practice can bring challenges: a bad performance can be experienced as "I am not good enough" rather than "I didn't play well". Being able to learn and perform music benefits from being able to be objective about one's process and able to take distance and observe what does and does not work, in a neutral way.
Researchers in self-regulated learning point out one of the underlying characteristics that autonomous self-regulated learners have, is a positive belief system: intrinsic motivation, positive expectations, a growth mindset and high self-efficacy. Each of these qualities can be developed and changed, even in adults.
