Students who are able to regulate their own learning can modify and monitor their behaviour using metacognition, motivation, self-awareness, and self-efficacy to reach a desired learning outcome. Students who can regulate their learning are proposed to gain the most out of education, because their motivations and strategies are focused on learning rather than on receiving external rewards (Boekaerts & Corno, 2005; Pintrich, 2004; Zimmerman, 2002; Zimmerman & Schunk, 1989).
As part of the study ‘Realising the Potential of Australia's High Capacity Students,'conducted by the Assessment Research Centre in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, 3741 Victorian public school students in Grades 5-8 answered a multiple-choice, 30-item, self-report questionnaire designed to capture their learning motivations and self-regulated learning strategies. Analysis of responses resulted in the assignment of a self-regulated learning competency level to each student.