Category: Resources

How Curiosity Fuels Reflection and Learning: Inviting Metacognition through I Wonder Projects

by Marna Winter, Associate Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning, Elon University

“Looking at our course goals for the past semester, what lingering question do you still have? What are you still wondering about?”

Rethinking the End of the Semester

Research consistently shows that when learning experiences invite student choice and creativity, students engage more deeply and demonstrate stronger understanding (Bovill, 2020). Opportunities for autonomy and collaboration within a supportive classroom community also enhance motivation and performance. Encouraging students to reflect on their own learning processes, what psychologist John Flavell (1976) called metacognition, is another key component of meaningful learning. Structured reflection helps students connect new knowledge with prior understanding, strengthen conceptual links, and sustain curiosity.

After years of preparing junior and senior teacher candidates to meet national and state professional requirements, I was eager to work with second-year students in our foundational course, Foundations of 21st Century Teaching. This course, which introduces classroom community, unit and lesson planning, and technology integration, lays the groundwork for later methods courses. Because students must carry this knowledge into their practicum experiences and student teaching, I wanted an approach that invited deeper understanding and transfer.

Three students writing on a white board as part of the I Wonder activity
Photo credit – M. Winter with student permission. Students engaging in a Chalkboard Splash brainstorm

To help students think beyond our course outcomes, I created the I Wonder Project. After observing students’ energy and engagement as they explored their own lingering questions, I began using the assignment in other cross-disciplinary courses, including a First-Year Seminar and an activity-based course, Joyful Living.

The I Wonder Project intentionally invites students to reflect on their learning, explore lingering questions related to course goals, and make deeper connections with the content. It is a brief yet powerful end-of-semester assignment that can be adapted across disciplines and completed in a single class period.

How the I Wonder Project Works

Step 1: Invite Reflection

I begin by revisiting the course goals as a class. I post the goals, facilitate a discussion about each of them, and briefly review what we did to address each one. This helps students make explicit connections between the experiences and their current level of understanding before I ask, “What are you still wondering about?”

Students reflect independently, using the awareness gained from reviewing the goals to generate a question that stands out to them the most. They then post their responses on a shared Padlet, Google Doc, or whiteboard, creating a visible brainstorm of curiosity that sparks connection and shared inquiry. We spend a few minutes reflecting on the major themes they notice in each other’s questions, which allows students to compare their thinking with their peers. Noticing patterns in their classmates’ questions challenges students to examine their own thinking in relation to others.

Step 2: Explore the Question

In the research phase, each student selects one question they are still wondering about. This becomes their way to follow through on the learning needs they identified. They spend about 15–20 minutes researching, drawing from class materials, readings, or quick online searches.

Step 3: Share and Learn Together

Students create a single slide to capture their question, key findings, and rationale, and share their work in small groups or with the class. This exchange allows them to deepen their own understanding while benefiting from their peers’ perspectives.

Across four semesters, this process has consistently revealed increased curiosity, ownership of learning, and appreciation for peer collaboration compared with more traditional end-of-semester activities. These steps guide students through a metacognitive cycle of noticing, evaluating, and investigating their own wonderings.

What the Data Reveal

Curious about students’ perceptions, I gathered data. Nearly half of the students connected their topics to personal experiences or well-being, suggesting that personal meaning is a powerful driver of curiosity. Many demonstrated metacognitive awareness by explaining why certain topics resonated and how prior knowledge shaped their questions. Others showed strong transfer of learning, linking their wonderings to future careers, teaching practices, or personal growth.

Others revealed strong transfer of learning, linking their questions to future careers, teaching practices, or personal growth beyond the classroom. Many students also demonstrated metacognitive thinking as they reflected on how course goals connected to their personal lives, future teaching, and professional contexts. One student noted, “It made me reflect on the overall course content and how it can be applied to my placement.” Another shared, “It made me feel like I could apply what I was learning to my own personal life.” A third explained, “This project allowed me to combine what I learned and see how applicable it is to my personal life.”

These patterns demonstrate that when students have space to ponder their own lingering questions at the end of the semester, they engage meaningfully in metacognitive reflection, monitoring what they understand, evaluating what they are still wondering about, searching out responses and connections, and identifying next steps in their learning.

From Summative Assessment to Reflective Closure

Traditionally, the end-of-course assessments often emphasize performance over reflection, leaving little room for students to pause and make meaning of their learning. The I Wonder Project reframes the final week as an opportunity for metacognitive reflection and renewal. Rather than asking, “What did you memorize?” it asks, “What are you still curious about?”

At the end of each semester, I now dedicate one of our final classes to this reflective exploration. Students revisit course goals, discuss how they’ve been addressed, and then identify new directions for their learning. By reviewing the goals and evaluating their progress, students build an awareness of how their learning has unfolded and where gaps or developing interests remain. They then use that awareness to decide what they still wonder and where their learning should go next. The result is a classroom atmosphere filled not with anxiety but with energy, curiosity, and a sense of shared accomplishment.

Closing the Reflective Circle

In the final step, students complete a brief post-assignment reflection as part of my IRB-approved study. What began as a data-collection tool became an essential part of the reflective cycle. The survey prompts students to analyze their motivations, challenges, and learning patterns, transforming the project from an exploration of curiosity into an exercise in thinking about thinking.

  • Why did you choose your question?
  • How did the I Wonder Project influence your sense of ownership and engagement?
  • How did the freedom to choose impact your motivation or interest?
  • Compared to other assignments, what aspects did you find most meaningful or challenging?

This final step transforms the project from an activity about curiosity to an exercise in thinking about thinking. Students not only research their lingering questions but also analyze their motivations, challenges, and learning patterns. By naming these cognitive processes, they become more aware of how curiosity, autonomy, and reflection shape their learning experiences.

Fostering Lifelong Learning

By engaging students in structured metacognitive reflection, the I Wonder Project cultivates motivation, curiosity, and deeper understanding. Their freedom to choose topics encourages critical thinking about why certain questions matter, making explicit the connection between knowledge, identity, and purpose.

This shifts the learning from a finite performance to a continuous process. By inviting curiosity and personal relevance, the project reinforces the broader purpose of education: to foster lifelong learners who remain curious, reflective, and capable of applying their learning beyond the classroom.

As a complement to traditional assessments, the I Wonder Project offers a simple yet powerful way to end the semester with intention, inviting students to pause, make meaning, and wonder what comes next.

 

References

Bovill, C. (2020). Co-creating learning and teaching: Towards relational pedagogy in higher education. Routledge.

Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp. 231–235). Erlbaum.


Writing as Tool to Think (Substack)

Created by Dr. Gina Burkart, the Writing as Tool to Think Substack is a free resource for anyone and everyone. It is especially intended for college educators and college students to practice using writing as tool to find success in setting goals, achieving goals, learning, engaging in metacognitive practices, better understanding themselves, finding meaning, joy, and purpose through writing. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/writingasatool/p/writing-as-a-tool-to-learn-and-think?r=50umd1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true 


Metacognition: ideas and insights from neuro and educational sciences

The authors of this article point out that “the educational and neuroscience disciplines have largely developed separately with little exchange and communication.” Their article provides useful summaries of metacognition in cognitive neuroscience research and metacognition in educational sciences research. They conclude with several useful directions for future interdisciplinary research on metacognition and how it’s developed.

Fleur, D.S., Bredeweg, B. & van den Bos, W. (2021). Metacognition: ideas and insights from neuro- and educational sciences. npj Sci. Learn. 6(13). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00089-5 


Metacognitive Strategies and Development of Critical Thinking in Higher Education

This paper studies a metacognitive intervention to develop both critical thinking and metacognition skills. Their data “have shown that this relation is bidirectional, so that metacognition improves thinking skills and vice versa.” (P 10)

Rivas, S., Saiz, C., & Ossa, C. (2022). Metacognitive Strategies and Development of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. Frontiers in Psychology. Vol 13 (article 913219). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.913219


Supporting thinking about thinking: examining the metacognition theory‑practice gap in higher education

This study investigated higher education academics’ familiarity with both aspects of metacognition, knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition, as well as their incorporation of metacognitive supportive practices (MSPs) in their courses. The authors conclude that “despite extensive investigation of metacognition in the literature, academics are broadly unfamiliar with metacognition and did not explicitly include it in their teaching.”  This paper also includes a table summarizing MSPs grouped according to their theoretical alignment with metacognition constructs, and shares data showing the prevalence of their use.

Dennis, J. & Somerville, M. (2023). Supporting thinking about thinking: examining the metacognition theory‑practice gap in higher education. Higher Education. Vol 86: 99-117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00904-x


Investigating the Effects of Academic Coaching on College Students’ Metacognition

The authors “conducted this exploratory study to situate an academic coaching model within theories of SRL and to examine academic coaching’s effects on undergraduate students’ metacognitive awareness. Results from the RCT indicated that both in-person and online academic coaching increased students’ use of metacognitive skills over the course of the intervention, which is a key component to engaging in and facilitating SRL processes. Students in both treatment conditions reported that they perceived the intervention to be helpful, that they would engage in academic coaching in the future, and that they would recommend academic coaching to their peers.” (p. 199)

Howlett, M., McWilliams, M., Rademacher, K., O’Neill, J., Maitland, T., Abels, K., Demetriou, C., & Panter, A. (2021). Investigating the Effects of Academic Coaching on College Students’ Metacognition. Innovative Higher Education. Vol 46:189–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09533-7


Assessing Reflective Writing with the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge

Reflection is a staple of contemporary writing pedagogy and writing assessment. Although the power of reflective writing has long been understood in writing studies, the field has not made progress on articulating how to assess the reflective work. Developed at the crossroads of research in reflection and metacognition, the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge (IMK) is designed to help writing researchers, teachers, and students articulate what is being rewarded in the assessment of reflection and to articulate the role of metacognitive knowledge in critical reflective writing.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dc6w4hg

Ratto Parks, Amy. (2023). What Do We Reward in Reflection? Assessing Reflective Writing with the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge. Journal of Writing Assessment, 16(1). DOI:  10.5070/W4jwa.1570


Flexcaption

Welcome to Improve with Metacognition!

Metacognition is the use of reflective awareness to make timely adjustments (self-regulation) to behaviors that support a goal-directed process (e.g. learning, teaching, driving, cooking, writing).

Through metacognition, one should become better able to accurately judge one’s progress, and select and engage in strategies that will lead to success.


Fostering Metacognition to Support Student Learning and Performance

This article by Julie Dangremond Stanton, Amanda J. Sebesta and John Dunlosky “outline the reasons metacognition is critical for learning and summarize relevant research … in … three main areas in which faculty can foster students’ metacognition: supporting student learning strategies (i.e., study skills), encouraging monitoring and control of learning, and promoting social metacognition during group work.” They then “distill insights from key papers into general recommendations for instruction, as well as a special list of four recommendations that instructors can implement in any course.”

CBE Life Sci Educ June 1, 2021 20:fe3

https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-12-0289


Promoting Learning Integrity Through Metacognition and Self-Assessment

by Lauren Scharff, Ph.D., U. S. Air Force Academy*

When we think of integrity within the educational realm, we typically think about “academic integrity” and instances of cheating and plagiarism. While there is plenty of reason for concern, I believe that in many cases these instances are an unfortunate end result of more foundational “learning integrity” issues rather than deep character flaws representing lack of moral principles and virtues.

photo of a hand holding a compass with a mountain scene background (by Devon Luongo)Learning integrity occurs when choices for learning behaviors match a learner’s goals and self-beliefs. Integrity in this sense is more like a state of wholeness or integrated completeness. It’s hard to imagine this form of integrity without self-assessment; one needs to self-assess in order to know oneself. For example, are one’s actions aligned with one’s beliefs? Are one’s motivations aligned with one’s goals? Metacognition is a process by which we gain awareness (self-assess) and use that awareness to self-regulate. Thus, through metacognition, we can more successfully align our personal goals and behaviors, enhancing our integrity.

Metacognitive Learning and Typical Challenges

When students are being metacognitive about their learning, they take the time to think about (bring into awareness) what an assignment or task will require for success. They then make a plan for action based on their understanding of that assignment as well their understanding of their abilities and current context. After that, they begin to carry out that plan (self-regulation). As they do so, they take pauses to reflect on whether or not their plan is working (self-awareness/self-assessment). Based on that interim assessment, they potentially shift their plan or learning strategies in order to better support their success at the task at hand (further self-regulation).

That explanation of a metacognitive learning may sound easy, but if that were the case, we should see it happening more consistently. As a quick example, imagine a student is reading a text and then realizes that they are several pages into the assignment and they don’t remember much of what they’ve read (awareness). If they are being metacognitive, they should come up with a different strategy to help them better engage with the text and then use that alternate strategy (self-regulation). Instead, many students simply keep reading as they had been (just to get the assignment finished), essentially wasting their time and short-cutting their long-term goals.

Why don’t most students engage in metacognition? There are several meaningful barriers to doing so:

  • Pausing to self-assess is not a habitual behavior for them
  • It takes time to pause and reflect in order to build awareness
  • They may not be aware of effective alternate strategies
  • They may avoid alternate strategies because they perceive them to take more time or effort
  • They are focused on “finishing” a task rather than learning from it
  • They don’t realize that some short-term reinforcements don’t really align with their long-term goals

These barriers prevent many students engaging in metacognition, which then makes it more likely that their learning choices are 1) not guided by awareness of their learning state and 2) not aligned with their learning goals and/or the learning expectations of the instructor. This misalignment can then lead to a breakdown of learning integrity with respect to the notion of “completeness” or “wholeness.”

For example, students often claim that they want to develop expertise in their major in order to support their success in their future careers. They want to be “good students.” But they take short-cuts with their learning, such as cramming or relying on example problem workout steps, both of which lead to illusions of learning rather than deep learning and long-term retention. These actions are often rewarded in the short term by good grades on exams and homework assignments. Unfortunately, if they engage in short-cutting their learning consistently enough, when long-term learning is expected or assessed, some students might end up feeling desperate and engage in blatant cheating.

Promoting Learning Integrity by Providing Support for Self-Assessment and Metacognition

Promoting learning integrity will involve more than simply encouraging students to pause, self-reflect, and practice self-regulation, i.e. engage in metacognition. As alluded to by the list of barriers above, being metacognitive requires effort, which also implies that learning integrity requires effort. Like many other self-improvement behaviors, developing metacognition requires multiple opportunities to practice and develop into a way of doing things.

Fortunately, as instructors we can help provide regular opportunities for reflection and self-assessment, and we can share possible alternative learning strategies. Together these should promote metacognition, leading to alignment of goals and behaviors and to increased learning integrity. The Improve with Metacognition website offers many suggestions and examples used by instructors across the disciplines and educational levels.

To wrap up this post, I highlight knowledge surveys as one way by which to promote the practice and skill of self-assessment within our courses. Knowledge surveys are shared with students at the start of a unit so students can use them to guide their learning and self-assess prior to the summative assessment. Well-designed knowledge survey questions articulate granular learning expectations and are in clear alignment with course assessments. (Thus, their implementation also supports teaching integrity!)

When answering the questions, students rate themselves on their ability to answer the question (similar to a confidence rating) as opposed to fully writing out the answer to the question. Comparisons can be made between the confidence ratings and actual performance on an exam or other assessment (self-assessment accuracy). For a more detailed example of the incorporation of knowledge surveys into a course, as well as student and instructor reflections, see “Supporting Student Self-Assessment with Knowledge Surveys” (Scharff, 2018).

By making the knowledge surveys a meaningful part of the course (some points assigned, regular discussion of the questions, and sharing of students’ self-assessment accuracy), instructors support the development of self-assessment habits, which then provide a foundation to metacognition, and in turn, learning integrity.

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* Disclaimer: The views expressed in this document are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U. S. Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U. S. Govt.


How Metacognitive Instructors Can Use Their Learning Management System to Facilitate Student Learning

by John Draeger and Brooke Winckelmann

This essay explores ways instructors can be metacognitive about course design, including selecting tools in the Learning Management System (LMS) to support student learning. It offers strategies for being intentional about learning within the LMS and examples of online modules that can be directly incorporated into course instruction or can be self-contained, student-directed, and stand alone. These examples serve as a blueprint for creating predictable structures that offer guidance and opportunities for students to learn about their own learning. We also argue that purposeful use of LMS tools can provide opportunities for instructor to monitor student progress toward learning goals and make adjustments to their instructional method when appropriate.

Draeger, J., & Winckelmann, B. (2020). How Metacognitive Instructors Can Use Their Learning Management System to Facilitate Student Learning. Journal of Teaching and Learning With Technology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.14434/jotlt.v9i1.29159

 


Learning in Pandemic Times

In this video, Dr. Stephen Chew shares a model about how people learn, and highlights key points about memory that will benefit students as they are trying to learn and cope, especially in stressful times like we are experiencing with the Covid pandemic. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOKG2LrnwYo&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3gTAiimRTNoNRNJiPGp4IdAQIH0-4JjlEd6iwd4mER1KeXQmQ3TAKEAFM

 


How can I help students become more expert learners, so they engage in active learning?

by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder

“This chapter focuses on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms by teaching students reflect on their learning and develop productive mindsets towards learning. It is part of a series on helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms.” It includes a list of tangible teaching and student metacognition strategies to use when working with students.


How to Get the Most Out of Studying

Dr. Stephen Chew has put together a highly lauded series of short videos that share with students some powerful principles of effective learning, including metacognition. His goal was to create a resource that students can view whenever and as often as they want.

They include

  • Video 1: Beliefs That Make You Fail…Or Succeed
  • Video 2: What Students Should Understand About How People Learn
  • Video 3: Cognitive Principles for Optimizing Learning
  • Video 4: Putting the Principles for Optimizing Learning into Practice
  • Video 5: I Blew the Exam, Now What?

Links to the videos can be found here:

https://www.samford.edu/departments/academic-success-center/how-to-study

Dr. Chew also provides an overview handout that summarizes the purposes of the videos, gives guidance on how to use them, and outlines the main points within the videos:

https://www.samford.edu/departments/files/Academic_Success_Center/How-to-Study-Teaching_Resources.pdf


Developing Metacognition with Student Learning Portfolios

In this IDEA paper #44, The Learning Portfolio: A Powerful Idea for Significant Learning, Dr. John Zubizarreta shares models and guidance for incorporating learning portfolios. He also makes powerful arguments regarding the ability of portfolios to engage students in meaningful reflection about their learning, which in turn will support a metacognitive development and life-long learning.

 


Developmental Framework for Teaching Expertise

A group of faculty at the University of Calgary share a framework for growth of teaching expertise that demonstrates that “teaching expertise involves multiple facets, habits of mind (or ways of knowing and being), and possible developmental activities.” They share this framework with the hope that others will share, adapt and use it in their own local contexts. The full paper is also available. Note that they also refer to it as a “framework for self-reflection” for faculty, which means it can be used to support metacognitive instruction.

 

Developing a Learning Culture: A Framework for the Growth of Teaching Expertise