Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Regulate the Device Too

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Regulate the Device Too

Self-regulation now includes the screen. Teach students to use focus modes and silence alerts as a deliberate choice, regulating the tool so it serves attention instead of stealing it.

Suggested technology focus mode; app limits · Informed by Zimmerman

Find this under Use technology with greater purpose

Part of Digital Cognition in 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

The environment a pupil has to regulate now includes the one in their pocket. Managing attention used to mean choosing a seat away from friends; it now also means deciding what the device is allowed to do while you work.

The card's distinction is between imposed and chosen: teaching pupils to switch on focus modes and silence alerts as a deliberate act puts the regulation with them, so the tool serves attention instead of stealing it.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Independent study begins with a standing routine: before anything else, pupils set their device to focus mode and silence notifications, the same way they get equipment out. The step takes seconds. Over time the teacher stops cueing it, and watches who still does it.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • Who reaches for focus mode unprompted once the cueing stops. That is the habit either forming or not.
  • What pupils say when asked why they do it. A rule being followed and a choice being understood sound different, and only the second survives leaving school.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • The deliberate choice is the strategy. A block imposed from above does the regulating for the pupil, which has its place as an early scaffold, but is a different card; this one is the handover.
  • What pupils can control on school-managed devices varies, so build the routine within your setting's device policy and around the settings pupils genuinely own.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Zimmerman documented environmental structuring as a strategy self-regulated learners use deliberately; the screen is simply the newest environment to structure. The card’s attribution stands as published: Zimmerman.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Metacognition & Self-Regulation.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Back to this strategy in 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.

Want to take this further?

Support is available

Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.

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