Identifying and promoting self-regulated learning in higher education: roles and responsibilities of student tutors

This article reports on a case study of learning and academic achievement in engineering education. Two sets of oral exams were used as a source of information in relation to students' learning and needs in the learning situation. Through ensuing interviews, patterns of learning strategies were discerned. Academically successful students utilised self-monitoring skills, such as self-evaluation and comprehension monitoring, while these skills were used only to a minor extent by those less successful. Promoting self-regulated learning could be one way to improve student learning. The research literature, however, suggests that merely teaching self-monitoring skills does not necessarily make a difference. This study therefore focuses on roles of tutors in identifying and promoting self-regulated learning.