**4.3. The self-regulation component of strategic learning**

These scales measure how students' perceptions of how they manage, self-regulate, and control the whole learning process through using their time effectively, focusing their attention, and maintaining their concentration over time, checking to see if they have met the learning demands for a class, an assignment or a test, and using study supports such as review sessions, tutors or special features of a textbook. The LASSI Scales related to the selfregulation component of strategic learning are:


There is a wealth of research, making use of the LASSI as a measure of metacognition, which identifies the value of learning to learn interventions in schools, colleges and universities (Loomis, 2000; Downing, 2009; Ning and Downing, 2010c), however few studies have tried to identify factors outside the learning institution which might impact upon the development of metacognitive skills in students. For example, to what extent are metacognitive skills enhanced or inhibited by particular life events or circumstances? Most of us would accept that there are times in our lives when we are forced to review and take stock of our thinking, and moving away from home to study at university for the first time is probably one of these. Does this have an impact upon the development of our metacognitive skills? This study casts light on the potential importance of one particular life event (moving away from home), and identifies some interesting preliminary correlations using demographic data gathered from first year students at a university in Hong Kong.
