Self-regulation refers to the process whereby students activate and sustain cognitions, behaviors, and affects, which are systematically oriented toward attainment of goals. Effective self-regulation requires that students have goals and the motivation to attain them, and maintain a sense of self-efficacy for learning and performing well. A social cognitive view of self-regulation is presented that highlights the roles of goals, progress feedback, and self-efficacy. Research is described in which elementary school children were taught to use a paragraph writing strategy and received either a process (learning) goal, a product (performance) goal, or a general goal. Some process goal students also received goal progress feedback that linked their performances to use of the writing strategy. Providing a process goal with progress feedback led to the highest levels of self-efficacy, strategy use, and writing skill. Suggestions for fostering students' motivation during classroom writing instruction are provided. (Contains 25 references.) (Author)