Student Self-Monitoring: Teaching Independence by Having Students Monitor Their Own Behavior

Self-Monitoring Defined

Self-monitoring refers to the process where the student has ownership in his or her behavior and academic progress and monitors the behavior himself or herself so that he or she is able to observe progress. Another term used is self-regulation. Self-monitoring is a metacognitive strategy designed to teach students to actively think about their situation or actions, evaluate their actions, and then determine a course of future action (Menzies, Lane, & Lee, 2009).

These interventions begin with the identification of a target behavior for the student to monitor, such as time on task or work accuracy. Students are then taught to discriminate between ...