Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is an instructional approach designed to enhance writing skills among students of varying ages and abilities, including those with learning disabilities. This method empowers learners to actively manage their writing process by organizing, monitoring, evaluating, and revising their work. SRSD has demonstrated effectiveness in improving writing quality, motivation, and overall academic performance, making it particularly beneficial for students who face challenges, such as those with autism spectrum disorders or learning disabilities.

The SRSD framework comprises five key steps: discussing the assignment, modeling the writing process, allowing students to practice independently, providing ongoing support, and fostering independence. Each step builds on the previous one, ensuring that students develop both the skills and confidence needed to succeed. Instructors play a crucial role, especially in the early stages, as they guide students through the process, helping them set goals and manage their time effectively. By internalizing the SRSD strategies, students can apply these skills not only in writing but across various academic disciplines, ultimately enhancing their overall learning experience.

Published in: 2021

By: Hahn, Allison, PhD

Subject Terms

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

Abstract

Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is a pedagogical approach to teaching writing to a variety of different students. While all students benefit from SRSD, those who have learning disabilities may have the most to gain from the technique. SRSD has been shown to improve writing quality, skills, speed, motivation, and feelings of success among students. SRSD works because it teaches a process of writing alongside providing instruction in planning a project, setting goals, learning to evaluate work, and revising one’s own work.

Overview

Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an intervention-based pedagogical tool that is used to encourage students to organize, monitor, evaluate, and revise their work. This tool encourages students to take charge of their own learning and direct the course of their work. Sometimes SRSD is used with adult students and sometimes with younger students (Alitto, Malecki, Coyle & Santuzzi, 2016). It is at times used for English language learners, for those with learning disabilities, and for those experiencing both a new language and disability (Marboyeh & Razmjoo, 2017). For example, children with autism spectrum disorders have been helped by SRSD’s ability to teach self-regulation and monitoring. In Asaro-Saddler’s 2016 study, students with autism significantly improved in their writing and persuasive capabilities after being taught the SRSD method.

Regardless of their age or learning capabilities, the largest challenge in using SRSD is that students must take charge of their own work. Once they have done so, they will be more successful in their work, both in quality and quantity. Other strategies are based on instructor regulation and continual monitoring. Additionally, the skills of SRSD, particularly those of regulating one’s own time and effort, will transfer to other aspects of life.

Scholars have studied the effect of SRSD by examining the ways in which student work improves after the implementation of this teaching methodology. They have found that when instructors have a systematic method of introducing SRSD, students are quickly able to improve their skills and are able to begin submitting higher quality work (McKeown et al., 2018). Some scholars have focused on the ways that SRSD has improved learning for both children and adults with learning disabilities. Some of these students benefit from the ways that SRSD encourages careful planning and provides steps for success.

While much of the literature focuses on the ways that elementary school children gain from SRSD, it is also an effective skill for the instruction of older students studying for college entrance exams (Ray, Graham & Liu, 2018). Adult students who are reentering the university most likely already have specialized skills, but they frequently return to school with the need to improve those skills (Alitto et al., 2016). At times it is difficult for adult students to get back into the flow of schooling, particularly in the production and submission of long-term assignments. SRSD is one way in which adult students can be welcomed back into the classroom and can work on productive study and writing skills that will ensure their work in both the classroom and in their future careers.

When teaching SRSD, instructors need to highlight that students need to learn to be both effective and efficient in the task on which they are working. This means that they need to complete their work to a high standard while ensuring that they meet both self-imposed and external deadlines. When students first begin using SRSD they require a good deal of attention from their instructor. However, after the tool has been successfully used several times, students can be trusted to do much of their work independently.

Applications

SRSD is used in many fields though much of the scholarly literature focuses on writing, and foreign language instruction. When used for writing instruction, SRSD teaches students to make a plan for their work, monitor their progress, assess their results, and then revise their efforts. In doing so, students organize and manage all aspects of the writing process. Instructors must be sure to encourage students to complete each step, as the student will not be successful if one step is skipped, or if not enough attention is paid to each step. For example, a student might spend all of his or her time planning an assignment, completing extensive research, collecting materials, and setting up a workspace. This is all necessary, but if the student does not allow time or effort for the other aspects, such as the actual writing and revision, the project will not be successful. Similarly, a student might successfully manage the planning and writing processes, but not leave time for revision. Missing one of these steps will ensure that the student will not be successful.

When implementing SRSD, many instructors use the five steps outlined in 2003 by S. Graham and K. R. Harris in “Students with Learning Disabilities and the Process of Writing: A Meta-analysis of SRSD Studies,” a chapter in the Handbook of Learning Disabilities. These steps are discuss, model, make your own, support, and independence. The first step is discussion. In this stage, students think through the specific assignment and the various parts of that assignment. The instructor works with students to identify anything that worries them and pays special attention to any negative comments from students. For example, an instructor would pay special attention to any expression of doubt by a student that they can successfully complete an assignment or that they do not fully understand the work that needs to be done. The instructor should also work with the students at this time to create a clear timeline for completing the project, and if necessary, establish milestones to help the student track their progress.

The second step is modeling. In this step, the student talks or thinks through the entire process. This might be a discussion of each step or a reflection of past work with an emphasis on overcoming difficulties from that project. At this stage, the instructor might bring in examples of past student work or published texts so that students can see what a finished project should look like and can talk through how they will achieve a similar outcome. They will also work with the instructor to clarify expectations by asking questions about the completed models. For some students, it may help to dissect the completed work, focusing on each part specifically and giving background information about what successes and difficulties past students have had with the assignment or project.

The third step is for students to make this practice their own. In this step, the students apply their prior work and begin making their own work. This might be the completion of the entire project, or it might be a simplified version that allows the student to practice a full set of steps. In making SRSD their own, students need to see that they have completed something, but they also need to see that it was their own effort at using the SRSD that contributed to their success. Put another way, “make your own” does not refer to a specific project so much as making the method of SRSD one with which students feel comfortable and are able to incorporate into their future work and projects. In this step, the instructor needs to stress individualization. Students need to be reminded that success will not look the same for each student.

The fourth step is support. Again in this step, support is for the method of SRSD, not a specific, actual project. The support, which is offered by the instructor, is with direct assistance for a specific task for a project, as well as support for thinking through how SRSD might be used as a study and work guide in the future. This might include helping a student to create a checklist to better monitor their work, or a chart through which they can compare the progress of their work while using SRSD and when not using SRSD. As students become more accustomed and better as using SRSD, they should require less support. They might check in with instructors to report their progress or catch up on the work of their classmates, but the instructor should be prepared to step back and allow students to learn from their own successes and failures.

The final step is independence. In this step, the learner is successfully using SRSD without assistance or guidance from their instructor. Frequently this means that the student is automatically using SRSD when they are given a new assignment or project. They may have internalized the method to an extent that they no longer have to prompt themselves to use SRSD. For some learners, SRSD is pre-printed on their instructions and worksheets, reminding them to plan and regulate their work through the project.

Viewpoints

Specialized forms of SRSD have been established by instructors to teach commonly difficult tasks. For example, young students often have difficulty reading and determining the meaning of a task. The Read, Ask, Paraphrase, or RAP, method has been designed to help students to remember to complete this process. Using the RAP method, students begin an assignment by reading a new paragraph. Then they ask themselves a series of standardized questions, such as what was the topic, the main characters, the details, and/or the main action. Then, they either silently or out loud paraphrase what they have read. Using this method, students learn to slow down and appreciate a text that they are reading. They also are provided with the skills to address a much more difficult text when the time arises.

The RAP method teaches students to expect that they may not understand all of the material at once, but they do have the skills to work through the material and gain an understanding of what they are learning. Leidig, Grünke, Urton, Knaak, and Hisgen (2018) found that the RAP method, when accompanied by peer tutoring, can have significant impacts on the ability and enjoyment of reading among at-risk fourth graders, who were previously underperforming. Other specialized forms for writing have also been developed. For example, the POW method asks that students pick a topic, organize and write. The TREE method asks students to remember that each paragraph has a topic sentence, reasons, explanations, and ending. The acronyms used to describe these methods are intentional. SRSD is the process of assisting students in the art of learning and producing language. Using acronyms allows students to easily recall the steps of SRSD, and when they recall the steps they are more likely to put them to use.

SRSD has proved successful for a diversity of students. But to be successful, the method must be implemented by teachers who are well trained in the ways that SRSD works. This includes memorizing the acronyms and their meanings, but also practicing the skills necessary to support a student using the SRSD method. This means being able to tell when a student needs support and when the student would be better left alone to produce a finished project. It also means meeting students where they are and remembering that when learning to use SRSD the focus should be on the method rather than the finished project. When taught well, SRSD provides students with the skills to improve their language in both written and spoken form. This capability helps students to better express themselves in a verbal way, which as Garwood (2018) has proven, has a positive impact on student behavior in the classroom. These skills transfer across all academic disciplines and should significantly improve student achievement (Mason et al., 2017).

Terms & Concepts

Acronym: Abbreviation in which the first word of each term produces a memorable word—for example, in SRSD, TREE stands for Topic sentence, Reasons, Explanations, and Ending.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Learning disability that makes it difficult for students to focus on a specific assignment. SRSD assists these students by helping them mark progress and determine where to start again if they have to take a break from their work.

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Condition in which individuals have difficulty making communicative connections and/or using language and abstract concepts correctly. SRSD assists students with autism because it allows them to feel successful at the accomplishment of one task and provides helpful clues for which steps need to be accomplished next. SRSD, when combined with other learning strategies can significantly assist many students with autism as they learn to read and write.

Dyslexia: A learning disability which makes it difficult for students to read, interpret and/or write words. Dyslexia appears in many different forms, each of which can be assisted by SRSD.

English as a Foreign Language: English language instruction for students who do not natively speak English but may have already mastered a different second language.

Learning Disability: A wide range of difficulties that make it hard for students to master their lessons.

Student Responsibility: SRSD stresses student responsibility for their own work. However, with young children that responsibility is always partially assisted by teachers and parents who work with the child to achieve success.

Bibliography

Alitto, J., Malecki, C. K., Coyle, S., & Santuzzi, A. (2016). Examining the effects of adult and peer mediated goal setting and feedback interventions for writing: Two studies. Journal of school psychology, 56, 89–109. Retrieved December 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=115886135&site=ehost-live

Asaro-Saddler, K. (2016). Writing instruction and self-regulation for students with autism spectrum disorders. Topics in Language Disorders, 36(3), 266–283. Retrieved December 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=117593157&site=ehost-live

Garwood, J. D. (2018). Literacy interventions for secondary students formally identified with emotional and behavioral disorders: Trends and gaps in the research. Journal of Behavioral Education, 27(1), 23–52. Retrieved December 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=128266137&site=ehost-live

Gillespie Rouse, A., & Kiuhara, S. A. (2017). SRSD in writing and professional development for teachers: Practice and promise for elementary and middle school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 32(3), 180–188. Retrieved December 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=124518426&site=ehost-live

Leidig, T., Grünke, M., Urton, K., Knaak, T., & Hisgen, S. (2018). The effects of the RAP strategy used in a peer-tutoring setting to foster reading comprehension in high-risk fourth graders. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 16(2), 231–253.

Marboyeh, A. N., & Razmjoo, S. A. (2017). The impact of self-regulatory strategies on the essay writing of EFL students with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Applied Research on English Language, 6(3), 267–290.

Mason, L. H., Cramer, A. M., Garwood, J. D., Varghese, C., Hamm, J., & Murray, A. (2017). Efficacy of self-regulated strategy development instruction for developing writers with and without disabilities in rural schools: A randomized controlled trial. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 36(4), 168–179.

McKeown, D., FitzPatrick, E., Brown, M., Brindle, M., Owens, J., & Hendrick, R. (2018). Urban teachers’ implementation of SRSD for persuasive writing following practice-based professional development: Positive effects mediated by compromised fidelity. Reading and Writing, 1–24.

Ray, A. B., Graham, S., & Liu, X. (2018). Effects of SRSD college entrance essay exam instruction for high school students with disabilities or at-risk for writing difficulties. Reading and Writing, 1–23.

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

On this Page

Subject Terms

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)

Abstract

Overview

Applications

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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