Category: SoTL Research of Metacognition

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


The impact of metacognitive activities on student attitudes towards experimental physics

This article by Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Ph.D., shares the implementation of metacognitive activities in an advanced Physics lab. She reports that “the introduction of metacognitive activities in an advanced lab where the laboratory work is not carefully scripted may improve students’ enthusiasm for experimental work and confidence in their ability to be successful in such work.” Check out this article to see the metacognitive prompts they used as well as learn about other metacognition-related activities.

Eblen-Zayas, M. (2016). The impact of metacognitive activities on student attitudes towards experimental physics. 2016 PERC Proceedings edited by Jones, Ding, and Traxler; doi:10.1119/perc.2016.pr.021


Metacognitive Awareness of Learning Strategies in Undergraduates

This article by Jennifer McCabe presents the results of two studies focusing on metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates. Participants were asked to evaluate and predict the outcomes of six educational scenarios describing the strategies of dual-coding, static-media presentations, low-interest extraneous details, testing, and spacing. Study 1 showed low awareness of all strategies except for generation; and a correlation of scenario prediction accuracy with an independent metacognition scale. Study 2 showed improved prediction accuracy for students who were specifically taught about these principles in college courses. “This research suggests that undergraduates are largely unaware of several specific strategies that could benefit memory for course information; further, training in applied learning and memory topics has the potential to improve metacognitive judgments in these domains.”

McCabe, J. (2011). Metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates. Memory & Cognition, 39, 462–476. doi:10.3758/s13421-010-0035-2


The relationship between goals, metacognition, and academic success

In this article Savia Countinho investigates the relationship between mastery goals, performance goals, metacognition (using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory), and academic success.

Countinho, S. (2007). The relationship between goals, metacognition, and academic success. Educate. 7(1), p. 39-47


Metacognitive Development in Professional Educators

Stewart, Cooper and Moulding investigate adult metacognition development, specifically comparing pre-service teachers and practicing teachers. They used the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and found that metacognition improves significantly with age and with years of teaching experience, but not with gender or level of teaching (Pre-K though post-secondary ed levels).

Stewart, P. W., Cooper. S. S., & Moulding, L. R. (2007). Metacognitive development in professional educators. The Researcher, 21(1), 32-40.


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


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.


“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 Effects of Metacognition and Concrete Encoding Strategies on Depth of Understanding in Educational Psychology

Suzanne Schellenberg, Meiko Negishi, and Paul Eggen (2011) from the University of North Florida describe a useful method to increase the metacognition of their students. They found that when educational psychology students were taught specific encoding strategies they academically outperformed a control group in learning course material.

Schellenberg, S., Negishi, M., & Eggen, P. (2011). The Effects of Metacognition and Concrete Encoding Strategies on Depth of Understanding in Educational Psychology. Teaching Educational Psychology, 7(2), 17-24.


Changing Epistemological Beliefs in Pre-service Teacher Education Students

Joanne Brownlee, Nola Purdie, and Gillian Boulton-Lewis (2010) describe an interesting method to increase student’s epistemological beliefs using reflective journal assignments. Brownlee and colleagues found that when students engaged in these reflective practices, they had significantly improved their epistemological beliefs over that of students who did not complete these activities.

Brownlee, J., Purdie, N., & Boulton-Lewis, G. (2001). Changing epistemological beliefs in pre-service teacher education students. Teaching in higher Education,6(2), 247-268.


Promoting general metacognitive awareness

This informative article by Gregory Schraw begins with a distinction between knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition (lots of great references included), continues with a a discussion of generalization and a summary of some additional research that examines the relationship between metacognition and expertise (cognitive abilities), and finishes with several strategies that instructors can use to develop both metacognitive awareness and regulation.

http://wiki.biologyscholars.org/@api/deki/files/87/=schraw1998-meta.pdf 


Predictors of college retention/success.

In a recent investigation completed with Randy Isaacson and Tara Beziat, it was found that high school GPA and SAT scores did not predict retention as well as GPA in the first semester. It was also found that first semester GPA was a good predictor of retention and student progression. Now, this is not surprising. What is important, is that individual differences in students’ knowledge monitoring accuracy was correlated with student GPA. Further, knowledge monitoring accuracy increased following a semester of simple training.

This article is accessible from the following links:

http://nrmera.org/researcher.html 

http://nrmera.org/PDF/Researcher/Researcherv26n1Beziat_et%20al.pdf


The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction

Beaman CP, Hanczakowski M and Jones DM (2014) The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction: evidence from recognition memory. Front. Psychol. 5:439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00439

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00439/abstract (open source full text)

According to the authors (p. 11), “The results documented in our study with free-report tests also reveal that effects of distraction do not end with impairing memory processes. Auditory distraction has important consequences for how accurate people are in monitoring their memory processes, as revealed by impaired resolution of confidence judgments under distraction. Even more importantly, auditory distraction modifies metacognitive control and thus shapes performance when the “don’t know”option is available in a memory test. Participants seem to be aware that auditory distraction is harmful for memory as they become much less confident in their correct responses when distraction is present (see also Ellermeier and Zimmer, 1997; Beaman, 2005b).

 


Self-regulation and metacognitive judgments among psychology students

Randy Isaacson and Frank Fujita (2006) consider the effects of metacognitive judgments on anticipated performance, self-efficacy, and learning satisfaction in introductory psychology students. Of note, the study allowed students to choose test questions based on their self-assessment of the comprehension of the material.

Isaacson, R. M., & Fujita, F. (2006). Metacognitive Knowledge Monitoring and Self-Regulated Learning: Academic Success and Reflections on Learning. Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 39-55.