Calibration and self-regulated learning: Making the connections

The critical component of formal education is helping students become self-regulatory agents of their own thinking and that successful self regulation requires that students accurately monitor their cognitive and affective states and processes. The study of calibration, defined as a measure of the degree to which people's subjective judgments of performance correspond to their actual performance, helps to understand the accuracy of the learner's monitoring. This chapter reviews the calibration research. It is organized in three sections: research that has examined factors that may contribute to calibration; research that has investigated whether calibration accuracy can be improved; and research that has sought to establish a link between calibration accuracy and academic performance. The chapter discusses how the empirical evidence supports the theoretical claims and learning implications associated with each major phase in B. J. Zimmerman's (see record 2008-03648-007) model as well as the cyclical interactions among components of these phases. According to Zimmerman's model, the forethought phase encompasses task analysis, learning goals, strategic planning, and self-motivation beliefs. The self-reflection phase of the theoretical model includes self-judgment and self reaction.