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The human element: Self-regulated learning skills and strategies through rolemodelling and guided mastery
A. Merino*
School of Accountancy,
e-mail: andres.merino@wits.ac.za
M. Aucock*
School of Accountancy
e-mail: michele.aucock@wits.ac.za
*University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of a black male student as he undertook a challenging
academic journey through high school and university to the completion of a four year degree in
Accountancy. Data were collected by means of three in-depth, semi-structured interviews, which
were then analysed to identify the key themes that shaped the students academic journey. Two
distinct cycles of failure followed by success emerged from the analysis of the data. In both
cases, through the role-modelling and guided mastery of Self-Regulated Learning strategies and
skills by a few committed and dedicated persons, the student was able to develop academic
resilience and achieve his goals. Drawing on the findings of the case study, the authors identify
some of the challenges faced by students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds within
the present day South African context, and suggest possible solutions through the adoption of
Self-Regulated Learning and the principles and practices of Guided Mastery.

Keywords: self-regulated learning, motivation, role-modelling, guided mastery, academic

resilience, accounting education

INTRODUCTION

Changes of government and educational policy in the post-apartheid South African context
have resulted in students from diverse economic, educational and cultural backgrounds
gaining access to all tertiary institutions within the country. These institutions, together with
others across the world, face the dual tension of raising educational standards while providing
educationally disadvantaged students with the means to achieve success. With an average
throughput rate of 15 per cent across South African universities (DHET 2013), and with
negative labels such as deficit and at-risk being directed at students, tertiary institutions are

being pressed by the government and by civil society to find effective ways of addressing
these challenges. Research conducted in the field of teaching and learning has shown that
holistic approaches that take into account the behavioural, emotional and cognitive
dimensions of students are best placed to address these. One such approach, Self-Regulated
Learning, offers practical ways of dealing with the challenges associated with maintaining
educational excellence while achieving educational redress (Doll, Zucker, and Brehm 2004;
Schunk and Pajares 2004; Zimmerman 2008; Moseki and Schulze 2010; Dembo and Seli
2013).
This article interrogates the experience of a black student, Calvin (pseudonym), as he
negotiates his academic journey through high school and university until he finally obtains a
degree in Accountancy. Calvin failed the fourth year of his degree in 2011. After undergoing
a journey of self-discovery with the help of mentors, he was able to redirect the behaviours
that had impeded his performance in the previous year to become one of the top performing
students of his class in 2012. After the completion of his degree, Calvin was invited to share
his academic journey with a teaching and learning research group in order to explore the
factors that a) contributed to his initial failure in fourth year in 2011, and b) resulted in his
recovery and graduation in 2012. The aim of the interview was to better understand the
affective, effective and cognitive patterns of behaviour of a student who had overcome
adversity to successfully complete a very challenging degree. Calvin agreed to be
interviewed. The interview was audio-recorded and the content analysed to identify the
themes that played a crucial role in his academic life. A conceptual framework comprising
Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) (Zimmerman 2002; Dembo and Seli 2013), Motivation
(Pintrich 2004; Zimmerman and Schunk 2008), Self-efficacy (Bandura 1977; Bandura et al.
1996; Schunk and Pajares 2004) and Role-Modelling with Guided Mastery (Nicol and
Macfarlane-Dick 2006; Bandura 2011) was used to direct the analysis, while a single casestudy research design was adopted as the methodological framework (Yin 1999). Two
additional semi-structured interviews were conducted with two people who played a crucial
role in his academic journey, the then fourth year course coordinator, and an academic trainee
in the School of Accountancy (SOA), Greg (pseudonym). These interviews, along with notes
drawn up by both interviewees, were also content analysed in terms of the SRL framework,
but with a particular focus on the guided mastery of various aspects of SRL role-modelled to
Calvin by the course coordinator and the academic trainee.
The following questions were used to interrogate Calvin's academic journey:

What is Calvins background?

Who or what were the driving forces assisting Calvin in achieving academic success?

What learning and teaching themes emerged during this journey and what theoretical
constructs are helpful for understanding these themes?

The article starts by setting out the conceptual framework underpinning self-regulated
learning and guided mastery. This is followed by a discussion of the case study findings and
their implications for both teaching and learning practices.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK UNDERPINNING THE CASE STUDY

Self-regulation refers to the thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and adapted to the
attainment of personal goals (Zimmerman 2002), while [S]elf-regulated learning comprises
a number of processes that assist students in managing their thoughts, behaviours, and
emotions in order to successfully navigate their learning experiences (Zumbrunn, Tadlock
and Roberts 2011). These processes involve a series of components that must be utilised by
students in order to meet their goals. The components identified in the literature can be
grouped into three interdependent areas of action: motivational strategies, behavioural
strategies, and cognitive (learning and study) strategies (Zimmerman and Risemberg 1997;
Dembo and Seli 2013). Motivational strategies influence the amount of effort that is put into
the achievement of goals, and include goal setting, self-efficacy beliefs, and effort control.
Behavioural strategies, on the other hand, include time management and the management of
social and physical environments. Finally, learning and study (cognitive) strategies control the
activities that are carried out during learning and assessments within a variety of learning
contexts.
Implicit in the self-regulation model is the idea that students must take responsibility
for the acquisition of knowledge by learning how to monitor and exercise control over the
learning process. In a process referred to as metacognition, students are required to be aware
of and to have knowledge about their own thinking processes (Zimmerman 2002; Dembo and
Seli 2013). This involves assessing ones current reality, setting mastery goals, exploring
alternative strategies and determining those best applicable to meeting those goals,
implementing the strategies, and then reflecting on whether the desired goals have been
achieved (Rock 2007). Students who are able to master this self-regulation cycle of planning,
implementing, monitoring, reflecting and evaluating are able to acquire new skills and to
achieve academic success (Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons 1986; Zimmerman 1989). As can
be seen in Figure 1, the various components of the model interact symbiotically, and unless

all the strategies are addressed in a holistic way, long-term gains in skills development and
academic performance may not be achieved.

Figure 1: Self-regulated learning components and strategies

Motivational strategies

Motivation is believed to be core to students successful academic outcomes. When students

are motivated, the likelihood of them investing the necessary time and energy needed to learn
and apply appropriate SRL skills is far higher (Zumbrunn, Tadlock and Roberts 2011). The
level of motivation of students is influenced by their self-efficacy beliefs. To have strong selfefficacy beliefs means to be confident in ones own ability to complete tasks or to achieve
particular goals (Bandura et al. 1996; Dembo and Seli 2013). Mentors and tutors have an
important role to play in this regard as they can lay the foundational support that students
need to increase their self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura 1986).
Students who display strong self-motivation are also more likely to be able to set
challenging but achievable goals for themselves. Lock and Latham (2002) argue that goal
setting is an important strategy to master as students who set goals outperform those who do
not. Goals have been shown to have a direct impact on performance through four different
mechanisms: they can direct attention and effort to the completion of goal-relevant activities

(Rothkopf and Billington 1979); they can have an energising effect, particularly with regard
to demanding goals (Sales 1970); they can affect persistence and lead to prolonged effort
(LaPorte and Nath 1976); and finally, they can encourage creative thinking (Wood and Locke
1990).

Behavioural strategies

Behavioural strategies focus on how to use time effectively and on the management of
physical and social environments. Time management has been found to be a good predictor of
academic performance (Steenkamp, Baard, and Frick 2009; West and Sadoski 2011).
Problems with time management manifest in the following behaviours: students are unable to
set goals, they fail to break down objectives into a series of tasks, they lack knowledge of
time management strategies, and they are unable to estimate how long it will take them to
complete tasks (Britton and Glynn 1989). Students can, however, be taught time management
and procrastination-avoidance techniques (Ellis and Knaus 1977; Ferrari 2001).
With regard to managing the physical environment, students are required to create
study environments conducive to studying. This requires choosing study spaces in which
they will be able to maintain high levels of concentration. With the advent of new
technologies and the widespread use of laptops, electronic tablets and smart phones, it has
become increasingly important for students to learn how to regulate the use of these tools to
favour learning, above distraction and procrastination (Lavoie and Pychyl 2001; McGlynn
2005; Levine, Waite and Bowman 2007).
Self-regulation of the social environment involves determining when and how to work
with others and also when to seek help from lecturers, tutors or peers. Students refusing to
access help often do so in the mistaken belief that asking for help is an admission of
incompetence or a sign of weakness. On the other hand, students who self-regulate are
inclined to ask for help when they identify a learning need or gap in their knowledge. These
students consult with their lecturers and peers to check their understanding of the subject
matter and to improve their learning strategies (Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons 1990). Rolemodels can play a very important role in helping students engage with tutors and lecturers in
effective ways. If the role-models are able to show how they have benefitted from such
interactions, students may start following their lead (Siln and Uhlin 2008).

Cognitive strategies

A key challenge that students find on exiting high school and entering university is the lack of
academic structure and support that was previously provided to them by their high school
teachers (Cross et al. 2009). At university there is often a shift from a teacher-directed to a
student-directed environment in which students are expected to manage their own learning.
To succeed in this new context, students need to engage in self-creation, self-initiation and
self-evaluation of academic tasks (Weinstein, Acee and Jung 2011).
Alongside the need to acquire skills to learn how to learn is the need to perform well
in assessments. Mastery of the topic being examined, anxiety control and examination
techniques can all influence the marks obtained by students (Pintrich et al. 1993). Although
good examination techniques by themselves are not going to make up for lack of content
knowledge, some students do in fact need to learn how to apply anxiety reducing techniques
to deal with the pressure that comes with formal evaluations (Zeidner 1995). It has also been
shown that students who use examination techniques such as time management, active
reading, determining the best order in which to answer questions, structuring coherent and
cohesive answers, and using appropriate academic discourse, achieve higher marks than
students who fail to use these techniques (Fowler, Aaron and McArthur 2010; Dembo and
Seli 2013).

Role-modelling and guided mastery of SRL skills and strategies

Finally, although it is believed that self-regulation and beliefs of self-efficacy begin to form in
early childhood with exposure to a variety of experiences, tasks and situations, their
development is not necessarily restricted to these early years but continues to evolve
throughout life as long as individuals engage in new experiences and acquire new skills. A
major factor in the growth of self-efficacy is that of role-modelling: from observing others,
one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action (Bandura 1977).
Bandura (2001) has identified, what he terms Guided Mastery, a process through
which new competencies can be acquired based on the current level of self-efficacy displayed
by students. Guided Mastery comprises three distinct stages: first, the appropriate skills are
role-modelled, next, students receive guided practice under simulated conditions, and finally,
they are provided with ongoing support by the role-model so that they persevere in their
efforts to internalise new behaviours. The success of this approach depends on two factors:
first, the ability of the role-model to motivate students and second, perceived similarities
between the role-model and the students themselves. Students are likely to adopt and cultivate

new behaviours more readily if they see someone they can relate to successfully apply
strategies to solve problems similar to the ones that they themselves encounter (Bandura
1986; Siln and Uhlin 2008).

CALVINS ACADEMIC JOURNEY

Calvin was born in a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. His parents
had immigrated to South Africa from a central African country and were both school teachers.
He stayed in his home town until he completed Grade 7 and then moved to Johannesburg with
his father in order to attend a former Model C boys only school. Prior to the early 1990s,
Model C schools were reserved for the more privileged white population. All other race
groups were required to attend comparatively under-resourced schools. The move proved to
be a challenging experience for Calvin as sport was a priority in the school and sporting
ability played a major role in determining whether learners were allocated to the A class or
not. Not being a sportsman, Calvin was allocated to the B class. He deeply resented being
seen as second best, and through determination and hard work he was eventually allocated to
the A class in Grade 9. Throughout this period, Calvin had to endure being ridiculed by his
peers as well as by his class teacher for his ambition to excel academically: they felt that a
boy from a bush school could not hope to achieve the high grades he aspired to achieve.
Although Calvin did well throughout high school, he was allocated to the B class at
the start of Grade 12 as a result of a decline in academic performance due to dating
distractions. Reflecting on this demotion, Calvin admitted: This was a wake-up call and got
me to work harder.
At this stage his father forcefully intervened: He literally pulled me out of bed at 4am,
and made me concentrate on my studies, going over past mathematics and science papers.
Prior to this, his father, along with his mother, had played supportive roles in his
academic life. While at junior school both his parents had encouraged him not only to
conform socially but in particular to excel academically: You cannot afford to be average
was their catch phrase. This was driven by the belief that his background would be a serious
impediment to future educational and job opportunities unless he succeeded academically. At
school he was frequently the recipient of xenophobic remarks, and also had to deal with issues
of racism in a newly post-apartheid society.
During the holidays, Calvin's father would force him to go the town library and
would encourage him to read accounting text books, his aim being to expose Calvin to the

world of finance. Calvin was encouraged to read widely and he succeeded in writing several
childrens books, as well as producing a play.
His relationship with the teachers was ambivalent: he found his Art teacher very
inspirational and creative, but found it difficult to respond positively to his English teachers
who frequently down-graded his essay marks without adequate explanations or feedback.
He did not feel he could challenge the teachers decisions, despite his frustration around the
allocation of marks. Eventually in Grade 12 he was not prepared to sit back and he
questioned his results: he had been awarded 100 per cent for the first essay of the year but
only 80 per cent for the second one. Although the essay had been free of any grammatical or
spelling mistakes, his teacher felt that his use of language was too outlandish. Calvin
challenged what he considered to be an unfair judgement by insisting that his choice of
language was a reflection of his personality and originality; consequently the essay was
reassessed and awarded a 100 per cent. Reflecting on this experience he said, she accepted
that that was my writing style.
When his Biology teacher predicted that he would get a B for his final matriculation
exam, he set out to prove her wrong. At the end of the year, only four students from his
school achieved distinctions in Biology, and Calvin was one of them. He made the following
observation about this success: So that was an interesting motivator in that if I set a goal for
myself I can achieve it. I can always rise back up no matter how much Ive been down or how
much no one believes in me.
Around this time he made the decision to become a Chartered Accountant because he
thought it would be the easiest route for him to become a successful business man. Calvin
applied to and was accepted to study a Bachelor of Accounting Science degree.

University life
In his first year at university, Calvin was very anxious about failing: I wanted to show I was
worthy of being at university. I was a nerd in my first year. Nervous of approaching his
lecturers, he asked for advice from his peers on how best to study for examinations. His
reluctance to approach his lecturers was based on the belief that the lecturer was there to
make you fail. I didnt want them to know me.
In his second year, Calvin began to relax but this period of relaxation was short lived.
He recalls: I started to have fun and having passed the first test for a course became
overconfident and ended up failing that course. After registering for the course again as a
part-time student in the second semester, he was able to pass the course, and moved into third

year. During this year he never consulted with lecturers or tutors as he was still deeply
mistrustful of them.
The situation began to change at the beginning of Calvins third year when his father
was retrenched and could no longer pay for his education. For Calvin, the pressure of getting
the fees paid started to get to me, and mediocrity started to creep in. In addition to his
financial woes, Calvin began to feel the academic pressures of a particularly demanding
degree; the third year of a Bachelor of Accounting Science degree comprises four courses:
Financial Accounting, Finance and Management Accounting, Taxation and Auditing. For the
first time ever, Calvin began to struggle with the academic content, Financial Accounting
being his nemesis. His marks began to decline but he was reluctant to take responsibility for
the situation as he felt that his marks were not a fair reflection of what he actually knew and
could do. He felt victimised by the lecturers, and believed that they intentionally wanted him
to fail. His reaction was one of indifference: Ah! Whatever! You put so much effort in and
the marks dont reflect it. His end-of-year results reflected a pass mark but with a slim 51 per
cent aggregate for Financial Accounting.
Fourth year was a shock to the system. He failed the first test of the year, and things
did not improve as the year progressed. The dynamics at home also changed with his father,
still without work, starting to put enormous pressure on Calvin to perform well. The cracks
finally began to show: [T]here were family problems at home. Unfortunately I allowed those
factors to affect my studies and I became a depressed person. I would go and study but my
mind was not there.
Asked whether he made use of the Counselling and Careers Development Unit
(CCDU) at the university, he replied:

No, Um, unfortunately I didnt; I dont know if thats a weakness and maybe it is also the way I
have been brought up. I think it is more of a black dynamic in that as a man you are supposed to
stand by yourself. You dont go for stuff like psychological or therapy sessions because that is a
sign of weakness. So you try to absorb everything, and cope with it all on your own.

At the end of June, Calvin failed Financial Accounting Four and, in accordance with Faculty
regulations, was required to de-register from the course. Down but not out, Calvin decided to
appeal against his deregistration. Even though Calvin was successful in his appeal, things did
not improve in the second half of the year. After writing his final examinations, his results
were not released because of his yet-to-be-paid fees. With the aid of his mother they were
finally able to secure an education loan and settle his fees. However, he had failed his

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examinations. Initially he reported being stunned, but quickly made the decision to
persevere and overcome the setback and return to [his] studies.

Guided mastery of SRL skills and strategies through lecturer role-modelling

Towards the end of 2011, with imminent failure on the horizon, Calvins attitude and
approach to his studies started to undergo a dramatic change. One particular lecturer, the then
fourth year course coordinator, played a prominent role in his change of behaviour. Calvin
referred to her as The Watchful Eye, and attributed part of his change of attitude, and
ultimate success, to the support and the guidance she offered him in his studies. She took the
role of the stern mother. She motivated me all the time, and because of that she was more
like the watchful eye, you know. Which I think its also very necessary, even though at times
it felt like, Oh my gosh, she is putting a lot of pressure on me.
From the interview it became apparent that, albeit this particular lecturer was the fourth
year academic course coordinator and a lecturer on the Auditing Four course, Calvins
interaction with her did not centre on academic/cognitive support alone. It included the
provision of motivational and behavioural support and guidance in the form of skills and
strategies that would encourage the development of affective and effective patterns of being
in the academic context (Levine 1999). In the interview with the course coordinator, she
explained:

I had to set high expectations of him because he needed somebody to believe that he was capable
of achieving more than he thought he could achieve. So, at the beginning of his repeat year I am
not sure that he really believed that he could get through. But as he changed his way of learning
and he recognized the superficiality of how he had learned the year before, his confidence grew.

In the 2011 academic year the course coordinator had occasionally encountered Calvin when
he accompanied a small group of black students who used to regularly pop into her office if
they needed support or clarification on an issue. Although she was aware of Calvins
presence, she regarded him as the silent partner of the group as he seldom spoke or drew any
attention to himself. The event that precipitated a change in their relationship occurred in
November 2011, just after the release of the fourth year results, but prior to the supplementary
examinations. These are additional examinations for students who have achieved 48 per cent
or 49 per cent to provide them with another opportunity to pass. Although Calvin had not
received his final results due to non-payment of fees, he was informed that he would have to

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undergo two supplementary examinations. It was then that Calvin approached the course
coordinator for the first time, on his own, and opened up with regard to his anxieties. He
reported being devastated by his failure and also highly anxious about his ability to write and
successfully pass the supplementary examinations. His stress was compounded by the family
and financial troubles he was experiencing at the time.
The course coordinators immediate response to him was: [I]f you dont try, you
wont know. This was followed by an invitation to help him through this process. And so
began a series of lengthy meetings with Calvin from December 2011 through to November
2012. During their initial meetings in 2011, the course coordinator worked on providing a
caring or safe-holding space for Calvin to work through his situation as she recognised
how devastating the concept of failure was for him, not only from a financial perspective but
also from a motivational perspective (Christie et al. 2008). Once Calvin was able to take
responsibility for his failure, she challenged him to reflect on what needed to change in all
areas of his life in order for him to return and succeed the following year.
During the first few months of 2012, Calvin visited her office on a regular basis; these
meetings sometimes lasting up to three hours, working through his insecurities as well as
learning motivational and behavioural strategies and skills that could assist with academic
success. However, the main themes of their conversations revolved around the role and
responsibilities of a resilient student and a future professional chartered accountant.
The course coordinator believes that the role she played in Calvins life was meant to
be one of role-model and facilitator rather than of lecturer directing Calvin to the relevant
content lecturers when issues of a more cognitive nature arose. She explains:

The problem with someone like him [Calvin] is that there are no real role-models for him. And
so what I needed to do was give him that role-model. As a white woman, and a young black
man, its a difficult thing to do. I had another student, a Zulu student who used to call me Nkulu
Mama, which means something like Big Mother. For Calvin I was more of the Nkulu Mama
than I was a specific lecturer in a skilled subject.

From the end of February 2012 through to November 2012, Calvin and the course coordinator
continued to meet, but less and less frequently as her role as role-model and motivator had,
for the most part, been fulfilled. During the year he would visit on a fortnightly basis, but for
shorter periods of time, half an hour at most. When he did come for longer periods it was
usually to allay his anxiety before a test, or to discuss how he had done in a test.

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Guided mastery of SRL skills and strategies through mentor role-modelling

As a result of his interaction with the course coordinator, Calvins attitude and approach
towards his lecturers and tutors underwent a dramatic change: Calvin recognised that he could
no longer go it alone and that he needed to reach out to them for academic support and
guidance:

For the first time, I was now going to the lecturers and the tutors and started to consult with
them. I had to throw away my insecurities and say, if I am going to get through, I need to
develop relationships with these people. I need to make sure they get to know me despite my
weaknesses. I tried to get over this so that I do not have fears when I approach them. I stopped
seeing them as the enemy, as someone who wants to fail me. I started to see them as liberators.
They are the ones who are going to get me through.

Early in 2012 he began to interact with the academic trainees on a more regular basis. He
explained: I needed to know what they were doing that made them so successful. He began
by approaching a previous classmate, Greg, now an academic trainee within the School, and
asked him to become a mentor to him. Academic trainees are students who have finished their
four year degree and who are afforded the opportunity to further their technical and
professional skills for a year in an academic environment prior to moving into the profession.
Calvin credits Greg with having played a pivotal role in his turn-around strategy and
success. Not only did Greg role-model a number of learning skills and strategies, but he also
acted as a great source of motivation and inspiration to him through the use of guided mastery
practices. As mentor and role-model, Greg motivated Calvin in a number of different ways.
First and foremost, be began by assuring Calvin that his being in fourth year was no
accident and that he truly believed Calvin was more than capable of succeeding in Financial
Accounting Four. He encouraged Calvin to drop a defeatist mind-set in favour of one that
viewed his fourth year as a challenge, an opportunity to learn and to better himself, to do the
best he could, because his best was good enough. Second, he emphasised the need to stop
thinking in terms of periods of time for studying and not studying. Greg suggested that
Calvin view his entire university experience as one continuous period of study: the aim was
to make him realize that half the job of the year was already done and thus worth celebrating.
In addition Greg strove to make Calvin understand that all his studies should be done with the
bigger picture in mind, that is, that of passing the South African Institute of Chartered
Accountants (SAICA) Part I Qualifying Exam the following January.

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Having created the big picture scenario for Calvin, Greg then set about assisting
Calvin with taking back control of his Achilles heel: Financial Accounting. From the very
beginning of their relationship, Greg emphasised two things: a) that although the approach he
adopted worked for him, it may not necessarily work for Calvin, and b) there was no silver
bullet and that to become proficient in Financial Accounting, a large time commitment was
needed. This was, however, followed with the following piece of encouragement:

[A]t the end of your articles youre going to be paid a nice sum of money each month as a
Chartered Accountant you are being paid for your knowledge of IFRS [International Financial
Reporting Standards] as an expert in the field. And the general consensus is that it takes 10,000
hours to become an expert in anything and fourth year is where youll be putting in some of
those hours. Youre going to be regarded as an IFRS expert one day, so put the time in to make
this opinion justified!

The tone set for the year, the two of them met on a regular basis to get feedback from Calvin
with regard to the weekly targets that they had agreed upon. These meetings comprised
assessing Calvins current work situation, prioritising tasks, setting new goals, and drawing
up realistic timetables (West and Sadoski 2011). For the first time in his academic life, Calvin
was being guided and supported by someone he admired and in whose footsteps he now
wanted to follow: to not only pass fourth year, but to pass it well enough to be selected as an
academic trainee within the School the following year.
With the motivational and behavioural supports in place, Greg and Calvin began
working on developing appropriate and effective learning and study strategies. His weekly
schedule comprised variations on the following practices: pre-reading before the lecture, with
particular reference to understanding IFRS completely; attending lectures in order to get
greater depth and insights from the lecturers; post-reading on the day of the lecture to gain
greater understanding of the topics covered and in order to prepare for the application thereof
in the tutorial questions (every two-hour lecture required two hours of post-reading); and
finally, compulsory attendance at the Friday discussion sessions to gain greater understanding
of the link between the theory and the principles in the financial standards.
In addition to the above, Greg introduced a new way of approaching preparation for
the weekly tutorials session in which each tutorial question was to be treated as a mock test.
This included the following: giving oneself ample reading time for every question and
sticking to the time limit when it came to answering the question, and then marking each
answer thoroughly, bearing in mind that if one was unable to follow ones own logic, one

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could not expect an external marker to do any better. Finally, and most importantly, after
marking each answer, one had to draw up a principles page in which one was required to
write down every principle one had learnt from the tutorial question.
By the time of the actual tutorial session, Greg expected Calvin to have resolved 60
75 per cent of his questions. Gregs motivation for such stringent tutorial preparation lay in
his belief that the tutorials were designed to consolidate concepts and not teach them. On
completion of the tutorial session, Calvin was required to go back to his place of study to
rework the notes he had made during the tutorial and to merge them with his principles page;
the purpose of this being to review what he had learnt from the tutorial and to reinforce the
knowledge gained.
Greg, who went on to become the number one candidate when he sat both the SAICA
Part I Qualifying Exam and the Part II Qualifying Exam, was happy to act as role-model and
provide guided mastery to Calvin and other students, but only to the extent that he felt that his
advice was of some value. On numerous occasions he would reiterate the need for students to
take ownership of their studies and not to rely on his techniques if they were not of specific
benefit to them. In his personal notes to his fellow students on how to Navigate Financial
Accounting Four, Greg writes: If you think my advice isnt working, STOP FOLLOWING
IT. Speak to someone, think about potential changes in your approach, and see if your new
approach works!
The new approach paid off and by June Calvin was one of the top performing students
of his class. At this point he approached an auditing firm regarding a bursary and he was
successful in his application. Calvin was now able to focus solely on his studies, and on his
second attempt he not only passed the fourth year but was selected by the School of
Accountancy to remain at the university for his first year of articles as an academic trainee.

The human element: The catalyst for change

Two major cycles of failure followed by significant success in his academic career
emerged from analysis of the interview with Calvin. The first was his demotion to the B
stream in grade 12, followed by his excellent matriculation scores (one score being an A for
Biology), which guaranteed him access to a challenging university degree: the Bachelor of
Accounting Science. The second was his failure in fourth year at university in 2011, followed
by his subsequent graduation in 2012.
In both cases, cognitive, motivational and behavioural strategies and skills were
needed to create his successful turn-around in academic achievement (Doll, Zucker and

15

Brehm 2004). With regard to his school career, Calvin identified a number of power strategies
modelled, fostered, and in some cases enforced by his father: time-management, the value and
practice of reading for growth, the value and practice of writing extensively, and the value and
practice of perseverance and discipline. Other SRL strategies may well have been modelled
and fostered in his years at a former Model C school when his father moved him to
Johannesburg.
With regard to his time at university, Calvin made special mention of the skills and
strategies that he had been exposed to and ultimately adopted, through his interaction with a
course coordinator and an academic trainee as role-models. These included, among others,
being able to assess his current academic reality, taking responsibility for his weaknesses
while still leveraging his strengths, identifying the type of help he needed and whom to
approach for that help, the value and practice of drawing-up academic goals and enabling
timetables, making ones own notes during the lectures and tutorials, and converting these to
principle (summary) pages afterwards.
Running parallel to the development of these skills and strategies is the presence of
motivation both extrinsic and intrinsic (Bembenutty 2011). Interestingly, the spark
igniting intrinsic motivation appears to differ radically in the two cycles. Although his father
appears to have played an extremely positive role in motivating Calvin and providing a safe
space (both literally and figuratively) for his academic growth and development, Calvins
general experiences with teachers and peers was not as positive. Ironically, it was their
seemingly negative and prejudiced behaviour towards him that motivated him to prove them
wrong, and to ultimately succeed at school. It may well have been these negative motivating
experiences that laid the ground for his failure at university: his deep mistrust of
teachers/lecturers and resultant reluctance to engage with them, even when he desperately
needed both cognitive/metacognitive assistance and personal guidance. It would appear that
without the presence of the human element, particularly in the form of the academic
coordinator and the academic trainee, Calvins old motivating pattern of prov[ing] them
wrong would not have earned him his academic success. He himself acknowledges this, and
as an academic trainee he has been able to use his own experience of failure followed by
success to encourage demotivated and failing students within the School of Accountancy.

CONCLUSION
Calvins personal mantra is failure is not an option. His academic journey to success is
testimony to the fact that, although it has been a difficult one, and one in which he has

16

stumbled and sometimes fallen, he has ultimately succeeded. During the course of his
academic journey, Calvin acquired the skills, strategies and attitudes of a self-regulated
learner. His successful journey strengthens the findings of advocates of SRL and guided
mastery, which suggest that when students become more engaged in their learning and
achieve greater success therein, that is, they adopt self-regulatory processes, and they are far
more likely to achieve academic success.
Unfortunately, few students are prepared or know how to use self-regulatory processes
independently, and as a result, many are unable to take full control of and accountability for
their learning. But as shown in this account of Calvins journey, self-regulation can be taught
through role-modelling and acquired through guided mastery. Findings from this case study
suggest that use of the SRL model may well be a way forward for lecturers and students in
tertiary institutions across South Africa. The greatest challenge to the successful
implementation of SRL may, however, reside with the human element, in terms of the time,
energy and commitment needed for the role-modelling of motivational, behavioural, cognitive
and metacognitive strategies to students, alongside the guided mastery thereof.
Having seen the major roles that Calvins father, the fourth year course coordinator,
and the academic trainee, Greg, played in his journey, it would appear that without the human
element to provide a safe space, to motivate the individual, and to model the skills and
strategies of SRL, the potential of the SRL process to increase throughput rates may be
severely limited. It may not be possible for lecturers to address the individual needs of
students when faced with large classes. However, a possible way forward may be through the
use of small-group tutorial sessions run by lecturers or tutors (peers, in some cases) schooled
in SRL practices and willing to operate as role-models. The advantage of using this system is
that it could create a more enabling environment for the students, one that could be more
conducive to the development of SRL and a resilient student body. This, in turn, could lead to
an improvement in the performance and results of the tertiary student population in South
Africa.

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