Dr Shyam Barr is an Australian educational leader and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at University of Canberra, advancing the teaching of self-regulated learning (SRL). His research and consultancy focus on strengthening teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and daily instructional practice for teaching SRL—building shared language, explicit strategy instruction, and rich metacognitive dialogue in diverse classrooms.
Working at system, school, and classroom levels, Shyam partners with educators to embed evidence-informed approaches that strengthen student agency, motivation, and metacognition. His work supports sustainable school improvement by equipping educators with practical, research-grounded frameworks for teaching students the ‘how to learn’ capabilities.
Shyam is the author of Educate to Self-Regulate: Empowering Learners for Lifelong Success, with over 2,000 copies sold and multiple sell-out events. He extends this work through his TEDx Talk and as host of the Educate to Self-Regulate podcast, now heard in over 40 countries. He is also the founder of Project SRL, an online professional learning community supporting more than 200 educators and 30+ schools committed to strengthening SRL practice.
Recognised as an Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) New Voice Scholar (2024) and named one of The Educator’s Most Influential Educators (2024), Shyam is also a recipient of the ACEL ACT Excellence in Educational Leadership (2025) Award. These recognitions reflect his sustained contribution to professional learning, leadership development, and system-wide improvement in self-regulated learning.
Across his work, Shyam’s central aim remains clear: equipping educators with the clarity, evidence, and practical tools needed to support our young people to become better learners.
We were born
to learn
– We learnt to walk, to talk, to read, to write etc., but how conscious were we in this process of learning?