Current Self-Regulation Views of Learning and Motivation Viewed Through a Deweyan Lens: The Problems With Dualism

Self-regulation has emerged as a key construct in learning and motivational theory. From a Deweyan perspective, however, the focus on self-regulation is problematic because it legitimates dualist distinctions within and between the domains of learning and motivation. For example, dualism is evidenced within the learning domain by the distinction between strategy and content; it is evidenced within the motivational domain by the distinction between interest and effort. At a deeper level, these distinctions reflect the longstanding tendency of philosophers and psychologists to ignore the problems associated with the mischievous ontological distinction between mind and world, a practice which has given rise to a number of other false dichotomies—such as that between subject and object and that between child and curriculum, to name two. Problems associated with the adoption of a dualist ontology in the learning and motivational domains are discussed in this article.