Self-Management

Executive Summary for Educators

Education researchers at Pearson are conducting a series of summaries around Pearson’s Per-
sonal and Social Capabilities (PSC), the “soft” skills that are crucial for employability. This review
focuses on teaching and assessing the skill of self-management in K-12 and college classrooms.
What follows is a summary of the most significant findings.

Why Is Self-Management Important?

Self-management is identified as an important skill that can lead to success in college and in
the workforce and that supports physical and psychological health. Research suggests that a
focus on developing self-management skills is important for several reasons:

• Self-management predicts academic success, even after controlling for other relevant
factors such as IQ, standardized test scores, and high school GPA.

• Employers identify several aspects of self-management as important for occupational

success. These aspects include time and workload management, work ethic, and
attention to detail.

• Higher levels of self-management in childhood are associated with lower rates of

unemployment, higher income, and more financial security across the lifespan.

• Individuals with better self-management skills report better relationships, increased

physical health, and less substance use.

What Does Good Self-Management Look Like?

Self-management is broadly defined as the ability to intentionally and strategically manage
one’s emotions, behavior, effort, and environment in the pursuit of goals. The terminology
used to refer to self-management or its component skills (e.g., self-control, self-discipline, self-
regulation, self-regulated learning, effortful control, and willpower) varies across disciplines.
Through careful evaluation of discipline-specific terms and definitions across several different
fields, Pearson has defined self-management as consisting of six core skills:

1. Planning: Sets realistic yet challenging goals and plans activities ahead of time; manages
time according to plans.

2. Organization: Keeps work artifacts in an organized fashion to improve efficiency.

3. Persistence: Applies appropriate levels of effort to tasks, in spite of obstacles or difficulty.

4. Progress monitoring: Accurately tracks and assesses one’s knowledge, skills, and
progress; chooses appropriate strategies to evaluate and improve knowledge, skills,
and progress.

5. Control: Effectively regulates behaviors and emotions, typically to support goal pursuit.

6. Attention to detail: Pays attention to detail and has careful and precise work habits.
How Can I Teach Students Self-Management?
Like any skill, self-management must be taught explicitly. For many self-management skills,
instructors can provide direct instruction regarding useful strategies. For example, students
can learn characteristics of effective goals, tools to support time management, and progress-
monitoring strategies.

One particularly useful tool for supporting goal pursuit is the development of implementation
intentions. Implementation intentions are “if-then plans” that help students identify good
opportunities to act on their goals and then coordinate these opportunities with the specific
behaviors that are effective in accomplishing goals.

Strategy instruction also supports effective emotional control. The most useful strategies are
typically behavioral (e.g., to avoid situations that are likely to cause anger) and cognitive (e.g.,
to reframe one’s thinking about a situation to decrease anxiety), with mindfulness meditation
also supporting emotional management and concentration.

How Should I Design Self-Management

Activities for My Classroom?
Self-management skills help students organize their learning and behavior, and, as such,
self-management activities should both supplement specific class assignments and function
broadly across classes. For example, including a planning activity can be a useful addition to
course assignments such as writing a paper or completing a science project. Planning activities
should also target academic behavior more broadly. It is useful for students to learn how to
schedule their time so that they can balance priorities in different courses and ensure all their
work is completed.

Research suggests that several factors contribute to designing effective social and emotional
learning activities. In particular, these activities should involve active forms of learning and
should be aligned to specific social and emotional learning skills. Additionally, instructor
feedback in any academic activity can support the development of self-management skills,
particularly persistence. Avoid labeling students as “smart” or “good.” Instead, praise students’
effort, hard work, and behavior. This type of feedback will support a “growth mindset” which
will help students work harder when they experience difficulty. Additionally, when students are
struggling, it can be helpful to emphasize the control they do have as they can work harder or
try something different next time.

When designing self-management classroom activities, it is important that activities be

accessible to students with a range of skill levels. Scaffolding can be useful to help students
with underdeveloped self-management skills to successfully participate in these activities. For
example, students who have no experience with planning will probably struggle with an open-
ended goal-setting activity. Students need guidance and structure around how to set goals. As
students develop greater competence in these skills, the scaffolding can be gradually
phased out.
 How Should I Evaluate Students’ Self-Management Skill?
Measures of self-management are typically self- and teacher-report questionnaires, which
ask individuals to report on their own or others’ characteristics and behavior. Teacher-report
questionnaires in particular allow instructors to systematically report on their observations of
student behavior.

Recent advances in technology have also allowed the assessment of self-management skills
through real-time performance data from game and simulations. Specific behaviors captured
in these games and simulations can provide direct evidence of different self-management
skills. For example, revisiting unsolved problems multiple times suggests greater levels of
persistence; taking longer between action corresponds to more attention to detail; and
spending more time on task indicates better behavioral control.

The main conclusions and implications of the research for classroom practice are shown in the
table below.

CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATION
Self-management skills are important for academic and occupational Educators should integrate self-management
success and are associated with other positive life outcomes. skills instruction in their teaching.
Self-management involves the skills of planning, organization, Educators should address each of these specific
persistence, progress monitoring, control, and attention to detail. self-management skills in their instruction.
Improving self-management often involves strategy instruction When teaching self-management, educators should include
and structured practice implementing these strategies. Specific instruction in the following strategies: goal-setting, time
strategies include: goal-setting, time management, organization, management, organization, emotion regulation, and metacognitive
emotion regulation, and metacognitive monitoring. monitoring. Educators should explain these strategies and then
provide students with structured opportunities to practice them.
Implementation intentions are a particularly useful When setting goals, students should be encouraged to identify
tool for supporting goal-setting and goal pursuit. times or settings where they can act on their goals as well as the
specific behaviors they can complete that will support their goals.
Control can be supported through instruction and practice Educators should consider teaching students to rethink situations
in cognitive restructuring and mindfulness meditation. that cause unhelpful and distressing emotions. Educators may also
wish to incorporate brief mindfulness practice into their classrooms.
How instructors provide feedback can influence students’ When providing feedback to students, educators should avoid
capacity for self-management in general, and for the skill labeling students as “smart” or a “good student.” Instead
of persistence more specifically. Feedback should focus on praise students’ effort, hard work, and behavior. This type
the student’s effort and behavior, as opposed to ability. of feedback will support a “growth mindset” which will help
students work harder when they experience difficulty.
There are many self-and informant-report questionnaires Educators may consider self- and informant-report
that assess skills in self-management. These questionnaires questionnaires to measure students’ self-management skills.
allow students to rate their own self-management skills and
allow teachers to rate students’ self-management skills.
Evidence-centered design (ECD) provides a useful Consider utilizing evidence-centered design (ECD) to
framework for developing new assessments, particularly develop new assessments of self-management skills.
those that focus on self-management behaviors.
Recent advances in technology have allowed the Specific behaviors captured in these games and simulations
assessment of self-management skills through real-time can provide direct evidence of different self-management
performance data from game and simulations. skills. For example, revisiting unsolved problems multiple
times suggests greater levels of persistence.
Table 1 Conclusions and recommendations.

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