Tesia Marshik considers widespread misconception that effective learning depends on a particular learning style.
Category: Resources
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments
This sometimes humorous article by Justin Kruger and David Dunning describes a series of four experiments that “that incompetent individuals have more difficulty recognizing their true level of ability than do more competent individuals and that a lack of metacognitive skills may underlie this deficiency.” It also includes a nice review of the literature and several examples to support their study.
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6. 121-1134
Incorporating Metacognition in Tutoring
In this post by by Leonard Geddes, Transforming Your Tutoring Program: How to Move Beyond Important to Being Impactful, he makes a case for training tutors so that they can help their clients become metacognitive learners. The post is largely an advertisement for a LearnWell webinar, but the idea of training tutors seems worthwhile.
Meta-Studying Video
This is a very good video by Elizabeth Yost from Xavier University about how to teach metacognitive skills in the higher education classroom.
http://youtu.be/Tr37GOSEukw?list=PLxf85IzktYWJH0behJ-ZQeZnsUQGzvFFf
Measuring Metacognitive Judgments
In Gregg Schraw’s (2009) chapter, Measuring Metacognitive Judgments, he artfully provides a taxonomy of calibration measures that attempt to assesses metacognitive judgment of learning. For more information, follow the hyperlink below.
Schraw, G. (2009). Measuring Metacognitive Judgments. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.). Handbook of metacognition in education, 415.
Effects of Strategy Training and Incentives on Students’ Performance, Confidence, and Calibration
“This study examined the effect of strategy instruction and incentives on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy. Individuals (N = 107) in randomly assigned treatment groups received a multicomponent strategy instruction intervention, financial incentives for high performance, or both. The authors predicted that incentives would improve performance, while strategy instruction would improve performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy as a result of better monitoring and self-regulation of learning. The authors compared pre- and posttest items and 20 new posttest-only items. They found significant effects for strategy training on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy, as well as the interaction between strategy training and time on calibration accuracy. Incentives improved performance and calibration accuracy, either directly, or through an interaction with strategy training. Implications for future research are discussed.” For more information about this article, follow the link below.
Gutierrez, A. P., & Schraw, G. (2014). Effects of Strategy Training and Incentives on Students’ Performance, Confidence, and Calibration. The Journal of Experimental Education, (ahead-of-print), 1-19.
Four cornerstones of calibration research: Why understanding students’ judgments can improve their achievement
“The target articles make significant advances in our understanding of students’ judgments of their cognitive processes and products. In general, the advances are relative to a subset of common themes, which we call the four cornerstones of research on metacognitive judgments. We discuss how the target articles build on these cornerstones (judgment bases, judgment accuracy, judgment reliability, and control) and how they are relevant to improving student achievement.” (p. 58) For more information about this article, follow the link below.
Dunlosky, J., & Thiede, K. W. (2013). Four cornerstones of calibration research: Why understanding students’ judgments can improve their achievement. Learning and Instruction, 24, 58-61.
Advancing Task Involvement, Intrinsic Motivation and Metacognitive Regulation in Physical Education Classes: The Self-Check Style of Teaching Makes a Difference
In a metacognitive field study, Papaioannou, Theodosiou, Pashali, and Digeelidis (2012) found that having 6th grade students use metacognitive techniques (self-check) significantly improved several mastery oriented variables over that of a practice technique in a physical education course. For more information about the article, please see the reference below.
Papaioannou, A., Theodosiou, A., Pashali, M., & Digelidis, N. (2012). Advancing task involvement, intrinsic motivation and metacognitive regulation in physical education classes: the self-check style of teaching makes a difference. Advances in Physical Education, 2(03), 110-118.
Improving Student Success: Some Principles from Cognitive Science by Dr. John Dunlosky
Below you will find a great lecture by the preeminent scholar Dr. John Dunlosky
A review of research on metacognition in science education: current and future directions
In an extremely comprehensive meta-analytic review, Zohare and Barsilai (2013) analyzed 178 studies of metacognition in science education (mainly K-12). They identified several key trends and made suggestions for future research. One of their findings was that the use of metacognitive cues was the most common metacognitive intervention for learning science content. For more information, please see the reference below.
Zohar, A., & Barzilai, S. (2013). A review of research on metacognition in science education: Current and future directions. Studies in Science Education, 49(2), 121-169. doi:10.1080/03057267.2013.847261
“Clickers” and metacognition: A quasi-experimental comparative study about metacognitive self-regulation and use of electronic feedback devices
In this quasi-experimental study by Brady, Seli, and Rosenthal (2013), the authors demonstrated that through the use of “clickers” they could increase metacognition and exam performance. For more information please see the reference below.
Brady, M., Seli, H., & Rosenthal, J. (2013). “Clickers” and metacognition: A quasi-experimental comparative study about metacognitive self-regulation and use of electronic feedback devices. Computers & Education, 65, 56-63. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2013.02.001
How do students really study (and does it matter)?
In this article by Regan Gurung (2005), he investigated specific study techniques and how they correlated with academic performance (exam scores). Not surprisingly, Gurung found that effective study techniques (i.e., elaboration) were positively correlated with performance, while ineffective study techniques (i.e., listening to music) were negatively correlated withe academic performance. For the full article, see reference and hyperlink below.
Gurung, R. A. (2005). How do students really study (and does it matter)?. Education, 39, 323-340.
The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire
The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1993). This measure has been cited in over 1600 articles and is a very well established measure of not only metacognition, but motivation. The MSLQ is split into two main scales. The Motivation Scale is comprised of the Intrinsic Goal Orientation, Extrinsic Goal Orientation, Task Value, Control of Learning Beliefs, Self-Efficacy for Learning and Performance, and Test Anxiety sub-scales. the Learning Strategies Scale is comprised of the Rehearsal, Elaboration, Organization, Critical Thinking, Metacognitive Self-Regulation, Time and Study Environment, Effort Regulation, Peer Learning, and Help Seeking sub-scales. For more information on the MSLQ please refer to the reference and hyperlink below.
The Need for Cognition Scale
A classic personality measure of metacognition was developed by John Cacioppo and Richard Petty (1982) entitled, The Need for Cognition Scale (NCS). This is a widely used 18-item Likert scale that assesses “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking” (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116). The NCS has been cited in over 3000 articles and has well established psychometric properties. For more information please read the original article by Cacioppo and Petty (1982).
The Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Berry and colleagues (1989) developed the Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ). This metacognitive measure is a cross between a self-report and actual measure of metacognition. It requires respondents to rate their confidence of remembering grocery lists, phone numbers, pictures, locations, words, and digit span. Essentially, in the MSEQ, respondents are given up to 10 pictures (or grocery items), then they are asked how confident they are in remembering 2 items, then 4 items, then 6 items, then 8 items, then all 10 items. It has been found to be both reliable and valid in many populations. For more information check out the original article by Berry et al. (1989).
Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI): The 5 Perspectives
There are a lot of free surveys/inventories “out there” for all sorts of things, most often related to some aspect of personality. If you use them in a reflective manner, they can help you better understand yourself – your . The TPI (also free) offers a chance for you to reflect on your teaching perspectives (one aspect of metacognitive instruction). The TPI suggests 5 perspectives: Transmission, Apprenticeship, Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform.
The Teaching Learning Group at CSUN
Two years ago, eight faculty at California State University, Northridge, began studying how people learn as a grassroots effort to increase student success by focusing on what instructors do in the classroom. Our website shares our efforts, Five Gears for Activating Learning, as well as supporting resources and projects developed to date (e.g., documents, videos, and a yearlong Faculty Learning Community in progress). Although all five gears interact when people learn and develop expertise, our fifth gear, the Developing Mastery gear, focuses on assisting students in developing their metacognitive skills.
The Six Hour D… And How to Avoid It
This great essay by Russ Dewey (1997) evolved from a handout he used to give his students. He shares some common examples of poor study strategies and explains why they are unlikely to lead to deep learning (even if they are used for 6 hours…). He then shares a simple metacognitive self-testing strategy that could be tailored for courses across the disciplines.
Making Thinking Visible
Ritchhart, R., Church, M., and Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
In Making Thinking Visible, the authors propose that we must make our students’ thinking visible in order to create places of intellectual stimulation. To do this, the authors suggest first determining which modes of thinking are necessary for our disciplines or courses. Then, through a series of research-based thinking routines, we can scaffold and support the development of individuals who can think, plan, create, question, and engage independently as learners. If you are looking for both inspiration and pragmatic strategies, this book offers ideas that can be applicable to all educational settings and audiences.
Using metacognitive writing assignments to improve course performance
Mynlieff, Manogaran, St. Maurice, and Eddinger discuss the use of metacognitive writing exercises in large biology classes. Students were asked to explicitly consider why they made mistakes on exams and discuss why another answer would have been more appropriate. Students completing these assignments showed marked improvement in subsequent course assessments.
Mynlieff, M., Manogaran, A. L., Maurice, M. S., & Eddinger, T. J. (2014). Writing Assignments with a Metacognitive Component Enhance Learning in a Large Introductory Biology Course. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13(2), 311-321.