Empowering students to become self-regulated learners.

Professional school counselors must focus their efforts to accomplish objectives central to their school's overriding mission (Sprinthall, 1981). Today, as never before, schools must empower students to enhance their academic achievement and become motivated, lifelong learners. In the future, students will need to be able to proactively and assertively thrive in an information-rich and technology-driven economy. As the tragic events of September 11, 2001, bear witness, a new generation will be severely challenged to live up to the ideals and fulfill the civic obligations of a true pluralistic democracy. Growing connections across the globe require individuals who can establish positive relationships with others, who may be markedly different from them. While there are some positive trends in the academic achievement data in the United States (e.g., equivalent mathematics achievement scores between girls and boys, at all ages), there are also realities that threaten a democratic society (e.g., the gross disparity in academic achievement levels between different ethnic and racial groups; U.S. Department of Education, 2000). Many studies have connected lower academic performance to high levels of student disengagement from classroom learning activities.

This article discusses how professional school counselors can enhance academic achievement by empowering all students to become self-regulated learners. Researchers have clearly demonstrated that students who employ self-regulated, self-determined approaches to learning achieve more and are more satisfied in their work (Pintrich, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). School counselors can make a unique contribution to facilitating student academic development by intervening at two different levels. First, school counselors need to play an active role in shaping those pivotal structural components of the school context that nurture the development of self-regulated learners. Second, school counselors should work with students and teachers to increase student use of specific learning strategies whose effectiveness have been supported by empirical research. Counselor involvement at both levels has clear benefits for students and places school counseling at the forefront of national efforts to enhance student academic achievement.

To connect current research findings on self-regulated learning to school counselor intervention strategies, this article is divided into three parts. The first part presents a framework for integrating current research on self-regulated learning. The next part outlines components of the school context that either encourage or inhibit the development of self-regulated learners. It is argued that by more fully implementing a comprehensive school counseling program (Campbell & Dahir, 1997; Gysbers & Henderson, 2000), school counselors can shape those aspects of the school context creating the conditions that encourage the development of self-regulated learning. Finally, the third part identifies both effective learning strategies and the steps necessary to motivate students to use these strategies. School counselors have a critical role to play in working with both teachers and students to increase the use of achievement-enhancing learning strategies.

Self-regulated Learning

Pintrich (2000) defined self-regulated learning as an

   active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning
   and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition,
   motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the
   contextual features of the environment. These self-regulatory activities
   can mediate the relationships between individuals and the context, and
   their overall achievement. (p. 453)

Pintrich (2000) identified four common assumptions about self-regulated learning. First, self-regulated learners do more than passively consume information that has been presented to them by others. In the process of learning, they actively create strategies, goals, and meaning. Second, self-regulated learners can to some extent, given the constraints imposed by individual differences, contexts, and biology, monitor and influence their actions. Third, self-regulated learners use goals or standards to assess the adequacy of their learning and make changes if necessary. Fourth, these learners use self-regulating processes to mediate the influence of external contexts and personal characteristics so as to enhance academic achievement and performance.

A visual representation of a three-step sequence characteristic of self-regulated learning and the contexts that can increase the likelihood that these steps will occur is provided (See Figure). The first step focuses on the strategies employed by self-regulated learners during the planning, performance, and outcome phases of any learning activity. Following from these actions, the second step highlights how more effective learners bring the learning of both inherently interesting and uninteresting academic tasks under more self-regulated control. The third step summarizes the critical academic outcomes that are more likely to accrue for self-regulated learners who are more fully engaged in the learning process.

Planning, Performance, and Outcome Cycles

Zimmerman (2000) illustrated how self-regulatory learning activities are interwoven within a three-phase cycle: (a) forethought; (b) performance/volitional control; and (c) self-reflection. The more effective learner exerts some degree of control and direction in each phase of this three-part cycle. Before impulsively acting, self-regulated learners engage in forethought. During this planning phase, more successful learners conduct a task analysis and then combine this planning with the positive self-motivational beliefs needed to see a high quality project through to successful completion (Bandura, 1997; Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995). Self-regulated learners develop the declarative knowledge to know about specific learning strategies, the procedural knowledge to know how to implement these strategies, and the conditional/metacognitive knowledge to know the conditions and contexts when these strategies should be used (Garner, 1990). These students focus their efforts on mastering academic tasks, improving their skills, and enhancing their understanding versus competition and evaluation of self in relation to others (Ames, 1992; Pintrich & Schunk, 1996).

Self-directed learners also exert control during the performance phase of the self-regulatory cycle (Zimmerman, 2000). To improve performance and learning, these students employ a variety of strategies such as: (a) self-instructional techniques to better execute a course of action; (b) imagery to enhance both the encoding and retrieval of important information; (c) attention focusing tactics to screen out distracting events and concentrate on the task to be accomplished; and (d) reconfiguring of tasks into their essential parts and then reassembling these elements into a more meaningful whole (Pressley & Wolloshyn, 1995). In addition, self-regulated learners observe and track different aspects of their performance. This allows them to more accurately record information that can be used for valuable feedback and to gain awareness of recurrent behavioral patterns that either enhance or hinder performance. These learners then use this information to experiment with changes in personal styles and approaches to academic tasks.

After performance has occurred, self-regulated learners actively engage in self-reflective acts (Zimmerman, 2000). Judgments are made about one's actions and causal attributions are inferred. Self-regulated learners are less likely to attribute poor performance to ability. They are more likely to understand poor performance as being due to insufficient effort or the implementation of ineffective strategies. These are factors that they have some degree of control over and, thus, can be remedied in the future (Weiner, 1972; Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 1997). These students evaluate their performance in relation to goal attainment in ways that promote mastery learning, self-improvement, normative social comparisons, and collaborative team efforts (Bandura, 1997).

By completing this planning, performance, and outcome cycle, self-regulated learners experience a sense of personal satisfaction in their work and are more inclined to make adaptive changes to enhance future performance. Zimmerman (2000) suggested that the use of this self-regulatory cycle can to a great extent "explain the persistence and sense of self-fulfillment of achievers as well as the avoidance and self-doubts of nonachievers" (p. 24). This framework is particularly well suited for assisting students to experience a sense of autonomy and self-direction when pursuing academic tasks that hold little inherent interest for the learner, a major problem for schools, school counselors, and teachers.

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Self-regulating Inherently Interesting and Uninteresting Academic Activities

To be successful in school, students need to become proficient in a wide range of tasks and knowledge domains. Ideally, young people should find certain activities and subjects in their school's curriculum to be inherently satisfying. The reward for engaging in the task would be the enjoyment, fascination, and inspiration of the activity itself, not an outcome external to one's engagement in this interaction. However, students vary greatly in terms of what activities and subjects more fully engage them, pique their interests, and feed their imagination.

Ryan and Deci (2000) identified a continuum of self-regulating motivational styles that progress towards intrinsically motivated actions (i.e., engaging in a task for its inherent interest, enjoyment, and satisfaction). At the negative end of this continuum, individuals do not exhibit the intention to act in a self-determined manner. They may not value the activity they are being required to perform nor believe in their ability to do the task competently and believe that more satisfying situations will not be realized even if one performs the task successfully (Bandura, 1997). Dinkmeyer and McKay (1989) described children and adolescents who exhibit such unmotivated styles as defeated and discouraged individuals, who have given up hope that they can succeed. Instead of continuing to attempt to belong in more pro-social ways, these students are more likely to display their inadequacies and seek negative attention.

Ryan and Deci's (2000) research has shown how specific extrinsic motivational styles can facilitate a student's progression from an unmotivated to a more intrinsically motivated approach to learning. Extrinsic motivation refers to those situations where an individual acts to obtain an outcome that is external to the activity itself. For example, a student does her or his homework not because he or she is intrinsically interested in the activity itself but only because of the reward or consequence system imposed by the parents. Ryan and Deci's research suggested that externally motivated actions can be brought increasingly under the control of self-regulatory processes. This becomes possible if an individual engages in an active process of internalization and integration (i.e., where the person "takes in" the value of the activity and makes it one's own).

Ryan and Deci (2000) described four motivational types that differ in the extent to which the regulation and value of an externally motivated behavior has been internalized and integrated, becoming an activity that is increasingly more self-determined. First, as in the homework example described above, an external regulatory style relies upon external rewards and punishments to motivate behavior. Second, students can begin to internalize the need to learn about a particular subject without really accepting this value as their own. This introjected self-regulatory style relies on internal rewards and punishments to motivate behavior (e.g., do one's homework to maintain self-worth, demonstrate ability, or avoid failure in the eyes of others). Third, students can develop an identified self-regulatory style wherein they consciously begin to value the activity and see it as personally important. And finally, students can exhibit an integrated self-regulatory style where the activities are more fully assimilated. As certain externally motivating behaviors become increasingly more self-determined, students experience a sense of choice, control, and autonomy over their actions. For example, the motivation for mastering less interesting academic content can become more self-regulated as the high school student sees its value if she or he is to successfully pursue a particular career path following graduation.

Engaging Students and Increasing Academic Achievement

Engaging students in classroom activities and their academic work is one of the most significant challenges facing educators and parents. Positive engagement in classroom learning activities has been closely linked to increases in academic achievement, as well as cognitive and social development (Steinberg, 1996). Marks (2000) defined positive engagement as "the attention, interest, investment, and effort students expend in the work of learning" (p. 155). She went on to say "Engagement is an important facet of students' school experience because of its logical relationship to achievement and optimal human development" (p. 155). Unfortunately, several studies that have explored the level of engagement of students in their academic work have found glaring evidence of chronic disengagement. Excluding dropouts, 40% to 60% of secondary school students have been found to be more disengaged than engaged in their academic work (e.g., Goodlad, 1984; Steinberg, 1996). In addition, low-income minority students have been found to be even more disengaged from their classroom activities than their nonminority peers (Steele, 1992).

Students, who can unite the planning, performance, and outcome cycle proposed by Zimmerman (2000) with the internalization process described by Ryan and Deci (2000), will be fully engaged and successful students. They are more likely to demonstrate a more self-directed commitment to their learning that will result in greater levels of academic achievement. Students, who experience a greater sense of competence and self-direction in their daily learning tasks, will be more likely to have an enhanced sense of personal well being and satisfaction (Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 1998; Sheldon & Kasser, 1998).

These are the very conditions that seem most likely to facilitate the development of a personal commitment to the pursuit of valued life long learning projects. More fully engaged students are then more likely to continue and expand their use of self-regulated learning strategies. This feedback loop reinforces the use of purposeful, self-directed strategies. As students approach future learning tasks, enhanced feelings of personal satisfaction and competence reward and motivate further uses of self-regulated learning behaviors. Shaping the School Context to Promote Self-regulated Learning

Lapan (2001) outlined a planning and evaluation framework school counselors could use when developing and implementing a comprehensive school counseling program concept in their schools. Central to this framework was the position that school counselors make a significant difference when they help shape those critical learning contexts that have a profound effect upon student development. Ryan and Deci (2000) argued that self-determined actions are more likely to be undertaken by individuals who live in social contexts in which they are: (a) attached to others who model and value such behaviors; (b) able to experience competence in carrying out such actions; and (c) supported to have opportunities to be autonomous and express choice. School counselors can play a pivotal role in the creation of school, family, and community contexts that empower students to become self-regulated learners. Because of space limitations, this article focuses primarily on those features of the school context that promote self-regulated learning. A more complete discussion of family, community, and school contexts that empower self-regulated learning is available by request from the principal author.

Across critical components of the school context, school counselors work to build in resiliency-promoting characteristics (e.g., caring and support, setting high expectations, and providing opportunities for meaningful participation), while removing factors that create vulnerability and risk for students (Henderson & Milstein, 1996). It is assumed that at a minimum, each young person needs to live in safe, structured, and drug free environments. This section discusses those aspects of the school context that have been shown to play a pivotal role in creating conditions conducive for the development of self-regulated learners. School counselors can play a critical role in enabling each of these components to better accomplish this objective.

The School Context

Eight interrelated components (See Figure) of the school context play critical roles in a school's ability to facilitate the development of self-regulated learners. Many national reform initiatives have stressed that, first and foremost, schools need to do a better job of offering all students a quality curriculum (e.g., National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1996). One often cited feature of a quality curriculum is the connection, whenever possible, to real-world applications that help students integrate their learning with possible futures. School counselors can impact students' experience of the curriculum to increase the likelihood that this will happen.

Innovative curricula currently under development and implementation contain natural opportunities for collaboration with professional school counselors. For example, Math Thematics (Billstein & Williamson, 1998) is an innovative middle school mathematics curriculum developed (with funding from the National Science Foundation) to meet standards established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1995). Each unit of Math Thematics requires students to solve interesting, real-world problems. Even a casual inspection of each of these units reveals an opportunity for school counselors to integrate a career exploration activity within the overall flow of the mathematics content covered. Many studies have now documented the positive impact for students' academic achievement when a career-planning and development focus is connected to the curricula (e.g., Baker & Taylor, 1998; Evans & Burck, 1992). Integrating a career planning focus into curricula such as Math Thematics would enhance the connection to real-world opportunities and possible futures, thus improving the curriculum for all students.

In addition, school counselors can play a pivotal role in providing emotional and instrumental support to students as they make decisions and follow varying curricular paths through the middle and high school years. In a nationwide study funded by the Sloane Foundation of the educational and career ambitions of high school students, Schneider and Stevenson (1999) found that the most effective high schools had counselors who significantly engaged students in career planning and personal counseling activities. In describing the most effective high school found in their study, they stated

   The curricular planning process at Maple Wood involves thinking about the
   long term. These plans are developed in consultation with the student, the
   student's parents, and the student's counselor--or, in the language of
   Maple Wood High School, the student's "dean." Each student at Maple Wood
   High School is assigned to a dean at the beginning of freshman year, and
   the dean is responsible for that student until graduation. Deans perceive
   their responsibilities to be broader than those of a traditional high
   school counselor. Explicit policies direct the dean to counsel students and
   their parents about the student's educational, behavioral, and personal
   problems. In addition, the dean has specific responsibilities in the areas
   of student testing, college admission, vocational planning, and
   scholarships, and financial aid. Deans are full time counselors and have a
   caseload of 225 students who are assigned alphabetically. (pp. 121-122)

Schneider and Stevenson (1999) described some of the central components and expected results of a comprehensive school counseling program that could be implemented in all schools by professional school counselors (Campbell & Dahir, 1997; Gysbers & Henderson, 2000). Students, who attend such schools, are more likely to engage in more planful, exploratory, and self-regulated behaviors.

Educational psychology research has increasingly emphasized the importance of the motivational orientation that characterizes a school and finds expression in classroom teaching practices. Many studies have found that achievement goals (i.e., the beliefs and reasons students have for engaging in academic activities) substantially influence a student's overall approach to school work and ultimately the level of achievement attained (Paris & Cunningham, 1996; Wigfield, Eccles, & Pintrich, 1996). Researchers have explored the consequences for students of adopting either a mastery goal orientation (i.e., where a student's objective is to expand their understanding of a subject or improve their skills) versus adoption of a performance goal orientation (i.e., where a student's objective might be to best others, avoid inferiority, or avoid looking bad in relation to peers; Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984). In summarizing research conducted across different age groups (from elementary to college students) and in diverse content areas (e.g., English, social studies, science, and math), Pintrich (2000) concluded that adoption of mastery goals accounted for 10% to 30% of the variance in all the cognitive outcomes studied. Students who adopted a mastery orientation that focused on personal improvement and learning used more effective and sophisticated learning strategies (e.g., deeper processing, elaboration, and organizational strategies), and interpreted performance in terms of greater self-efficacy in relation to the progress they were making. These students were engaging in more self-regulated behaviors and, as a result, were more likely to enjoy and value their schoolwork.

In a more fully implemented comprehensive school counseling program, counselors act as consultants for teachers and administrators. The achievement goal orientations promoted by the school and reinforced in each classroom could be an important part of the counselor's agenda for consultation activities. Research has suggested that teacher instructional practices, procedures used to evaluate students, reward systems employed, reactions to student success and failure, and distribution of power and responsibility in classrooms contribute in a profound way to the kinds of goal orientations adopted by students (e.g., Ames, 1992; Anderman & Midgley, 1997; Nicols, 1996). Further, the climate and structural processes that differentiate elementary from middle schools may lead older students to become more concerned about comparisons and evaluation of themselves in relation to peers. By attending to these aspects of the school environment, school counselors can assist teachers and administrators to adopt institutional practices that focus student attention on mastery, effort, and self-improvement. Counselors can help shape classroom practices and school policies to promote greater choice, challenge, and collaboration for students (Paris & Cunningham, 1996).

The American School Counselor Association (1999) has taken the position that student development can be enhanced by understanding and appreciating multiculturalism and diversity. Given the profound demographic changes in the United States and the increasingly interconnected global marketplace, a culturally responsive school offers all students the best opportunity to gain access, equity, and educational justice (Lee, 2001). In such schools, counselors perform the following critical tasks: (a) advocacy for the elimination of institutional biases and cultural insensitivities; (b) assisting teachers and administrators to become aware of systemic factors that restrict student progress; (c) initiation and carrying out of professional development opportunities for all school personnel; and (d) bridging the gap between school and culturally diverse home and community life (Lee, 2001).

By following professional guidelines and strategies suggested by researchers and practitioners, school counselors can assist schools to capitalize on the diversity needs of their student body in ways that motivate self-regulated learning. Diversity practices that help all students to value self and, at the very least, to be tolerant of other cultures will more effectively prepare young people for active participation in the demanding obligations of a pluralistic democracy. In school, family, and community contexts, counselors can liberate the positive potential of our increasingly diverse society to help all students. Such diversity practices can nurture the self-defined and self-determined motivation essential for self-regulated learning.

School counselors play an important role in shaping the interpersonal climate in a school. Counselors can promote more positive relationships between students, and between students and their teachers (Lapan, Gysbers, & Petroski, 2001; Lapan, Gysbers, & Sun, 1997). Effective schools help students to better manage the critical transitions that they inevitably encounter across the K-12 years (e.g., the transition to school during the elementary years, the transition to middle school, then to high school, and then to posthigh school opportunities). More effective schools build partnerships with key stakeholders (e.g., parents, business and community leaders; Lapan & Kosciulek, 2001). Schools that create a context that more effectively deals with these issues place their students in a more optimal position to become self-regulated learners. School counselors can play a critical role in promoting the evolution of specific institutional practices that ensure that such a growth-producing context is created and sustained.

Learning Strategies

Learning strategies refer to any activities, techniques, or procedures used by learners to enhance their understanding of or to improve their performance on learning tasks (Alexander, Graham, & Harris, 1998; Mayer, 1996). Mayer (1996) argued that effective learning and knowledge constructions involve the cognitive processes of selecting, organizing, and integrating information. Researchers have been clear in their findings that the use of effective learning strategies plays an important role in enhancing student academic development (e.g., McCormick & Pressley, 1997). Self-regulated learners actively apply a variety of learning strategies appropriate to specific learning tasks. Seven categories of effective learning strategies are discussed, along with suggestions for motivating students to use these self-regulating learning processes.

Effective Learning Strategies

Research has identified, at least, seven different categories of learning strategies that can enhance student academic performance across the K-12 years. The following presents each strategy, along with some of the literature supporting their effectiveness:

1. Identification of important information. The ability to separate important from nonessential information by paying attention to "signaling devices" --underlined and highlighted words and phrases as well as story grammars that structure information (Mandler, 1984; Ormrod, 1999).

2. Summarizing. The identification of main ideas and the creation of superordinate concepts that subsume and integrate more specific information (Ormrod, 1999).

3. Activation of prior knowledge. Relating new information to information the student already knows. When students draw inferences or generate new examples, they can more effectively add to, expand upon, and elaborate new information by making connections to previously learned material (Gagne, Yekovich, & Yekovich, 1993).

4. Notetaking. Effective notetaking requires the student to summarize main ideas and include details that support those concepts (Ormrod, 1999).

5. Organization. The process of dividing the information to be learned into subsets and indicating the relationships among subsets (Gagne et al., 1993). Examples include: determining which words in a list to be remembered are related in some way and grouping them together; creating an outline of major topics and ideas; creating graphic representations of the material to be remembered; and developing concept maps.

6. Comprehension monitoring. Having students stop and periodically ask themselves whether they are truly understanding what they are reading or learning and taking steps to remediate any comprehension difficulties they are experiencing (Baker, 1989). Self-questioning techniques can be particularly effective by having students formulate questions before, throughout, and after a lesson or a reading assignment. Such strategies can be used in peer tutoring formats.

7. Imagery. Teaching students to construct internal images that represent the meaning of the text that is being read or studied. Mnemonic imagery is especially helpful for learning lists, pairs of words, and isolated facts (Ormrod, 1999).

Motivating Students to Use More Effective Learning Strategies

Why don't all students use more effective learning strategies? Ormrod (1999) noted several reasons, including the following: (a) students have goals that are inconsistent with effective learning (e.g., "I just want to pass the test"); (b) learning tasks may require mainly rote recall and, thus, do not lend themselves to more sophisticated strategy use; (c) the strategies require too much time and effort; and/or (d) students do not have sufficient prior knowledge regarding the content they are studying to determine which information is important or what sorts of questions they should ask themselves about the content. However, the single most important reason that students do not use effective learning strategies is that they have not been taught which ones to use, how to use them, or when to use them (Ormrod, 1999).

As noted by Pressley and Harris (1990) "We realize now that many students do not learn strategies automatically" (p. 31). Unfortunately, even in those cases where study strategies are taught explicitly, either teachers tend to focus on strategies of limited value that are unsupported by the research (Kardash & Amlund, 1991; Pressley & Harris, 1990), or the strategies are taught as separate, isolated skills in "stand-alone" study skills classes (Mayer, 1996). School counselors can support and assist teachers to enable students to use effective learning strategies within the context of actual classroom instruction, model strategy use for students on real learning tasks and assignments, and give students ample opportunities to practice their newly acquired strategies.

In addition to explicitly teaching learning strategies within the context of specific subjects, school counselors can use the following general guidelines to work with both students and teachers to promote effective strategy use.

1. Explain the strategy to students, tell them the types of tasks for which it is helpful, and explain to them why it is helpful (Ormrod, 1999). Such knowledge makes it more likely that students will generalize the strategy to other, similar learning tasks.

2. Model the strategy for students, thinking aloud as you do so (Brown & Palincsar, as cited in Ormrod, 1999). As students learn how to execute the strategies independently, you can gradually fade out your supportive structuring of their attempts.

3. Have students practice effective strategies on a variety of learning tasks, across the curriculum, and on an ongoing basis (Brown & Palincsar, as cited in Ormrod, 1999). This will help to promote both generalization and maintenance of the strategy.

4. Show students the concrete benefits of strategy use by having them evaluate their performance on learning tasks both with and without applying the strategies (Harris & Pressley, 1991).

5. Have students rehearse the use of both overt and covert strategies (Kardash & Amlund, 1991). Overt strategies are those that can be seen (e.g., underlining, notetaking). Covert strategies are internal mental processes (e.g., imagery, relating new information to prior knowledge).

6. Have students practice learning strategies with their peers (Ormrod, 1999).

7. Help students to develop ways to monitor and evaluate their own performance, and actively involve students in the modification and construction of new strategies (Harris & Pressley, 1991).

Counselors Promoting the Use of Effective Learning Strategies

Professional school counselors have a central leadership role to play in working with teachers and students to increase the use of effective learning strategies, thus encouraging more self-regulated learning. This is clearly supported and emphasized in the National Standards for School Counseling Programs (Campbell & Dahir, 1997) and leading models around which school counseling programs can be designed (Gysbers & Henderson, 2000). For example, school counselors could develop guidance curriculum units that promote student use of effective learning strategies within the context of specific courses. When working with middle school students on career planning activities within the context of a highly innovative mathematics curriculum like Math Thematics (Billstein &Williamson, 1998), counselors could integrate activities that both teach and promote the use of effective learning strategies. In addition, counselors could use their understanding of effective learning strategies and methods to motivate students to use these strategies in consultation and professional development activities with teachers. Such approaches increase students' ability to be self-regulating in their learning and consequently, more successful in their academic work.

Conclusion

To a very great extent, the political and economic success of our pluralistic democracy rests on each community's collective ability to help students maximize their academic potential. Students who become self-regulated learners achieve more academically and experience greater levels of personal well being. Professional school counselors have a critical leadership role to play in the academic success of all students. This article describes a framework counselors can use to empower students to become self-regulated learners. School counselors can work to shape those critical components of the school context that nurture the development of self-regulated learners. In addition, school counselors can work with teachers and students to increase student use of effective learning strategies. By performing a more proactive leadership role in empowering students to become self-regulated learners, professional school counselors will both motivate young people to more fully realize their academic potential and further the growth of the school counseling profession.

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Richard T. Lapan. Ph.D., is a professor, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri at Columbia.

CarolAnne M. Kardash, Ph.D., is a professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

Sherri Turner, Ph.D., is an assistant professor, Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology Program, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.