Tag: Reflective Thinking

Exploring the Developmental Progression of Metacognition

by Sarah L. Bunnell at Ohio Wesleyan University (slbunnel@owu.edu)

As a developmental psychologist, it is difficult to consider student learning (and my own learning as well) without a strong nod to developmental process. Metacognition, as has been described by many others on this blog and in other venues (e.g., Baxter-Magolda, 1992; Flavell, 1979; Kuhn, 1999; Perry, 1970), requires the cognitive skills of reflection, connection, evaluation, and revision. Metacognitive acts are initially quite cognitively demanding, and like most conscious cognitive processes, require practice to become more automatic or at least less consuming of cognitive resources. In addition to examining how students acquire the tools required for the hard work of metacognition, I have also been interested in whether there are developmental differences in students’ ability to make connections and reflections across the college years.

I recently conducted two examinations of metacognitive development; the first project involved my Introductory Psychology course, which enrolls primarily first year students, and the second project involved my Adolescent Psychology course, which enrolls primarily sophomore-level students. Below, I will provide a brief summary of each study and then discuss what I see as some take-home points and next-steps for inquiry.

In the Introductory Psychology course (n = 45), each student completed a metacognitive portfolio (hosted through the MERLOT website; http://eportfolio.merlot.org/) throughout the semester. In this portfolio, students responded to a series of prompts to reflect on their current thinking about course concepts and the ways in which these concepts play out in their own lives. At the end of the semester, students were asked to review their responses, identify any responses that they would now change, and explain why they would now alter their responses. They were also asked to describe how they thought their thinking had changed over the course of the semester.

Given the large body of work on the learning benefits associated with metacognition, I was not surprised that students who wanted to change a greater number of their responses performed significantly better on the final exam than did students who identified fewer points of change. More surprising, however, was the finding that students who did well on the final exam were significantly more likely to have endorsed changes in their thinking about themselves as opposed to changes in their thinking about others. A year after this class ended, I contacted these same students again, and I asked them to reflect on their thinking at the end of the course relative to their thinking about Psychology and themselves now. Of note, an analysis of these responses indicated that the students who were high performers on the final exam and in the course overall were no longer reporting many self-related metacognitive links. Instead, these students were significantly more likely to say that they now had a greater understanding of others than they did before. Thus, there was a powerful shift over time in the focus of metacognition from self to other.

In my Adolescent Psychology course (n = 35), students conduct a semi-structured interview of an adolescent, transcribe the interview, and then analyze the interview according to developmental theory. This assignment is designed to foster connection and application, and I have compelling evidence indicating that this experience enhances learning. What was less clear to me, however, is whether participating in this course and in the interview paper activity contributes to students’ metacognitive awareness of self? To address this question, I implemented a pre-post test design. On the first day of class, students were asked, “Are you currently an adolescent? Please explain your answer.” To answer this question, one must consider multiple ways in which we may conceptualize adolescence (i.e., age, legal responsibility, physical maturity, financial responsibility); as you can clearly see, the lens we apply to ourselves and others leads to quite varied views of when adolescence ends and adulthood begins! At the end of the term, students were again asked the same question, plus an additional prompt that asked them to reflect on how their thinking about themselves had changed across the semester.

On Day 1, 17 students endorsed currently being an adolescent, 16 students reported no longer being an adolescent, and 2 students said they did not feel that they had enough information to respond. It is important to note that all students in the course were between the ages of 18 and 21 years and as such, all were technically late adolescents. On the last day of class, 21 class members labeled themselves as adolescents, 4 students said that they did not consider themselves to be adolescents, and 5 said that they were an adolescent in some contexts of their life and not others. As an example of a contextual way of thinking, one student said: “I believe that neurologically I am still an adolescent because I am below the age of 25 and therefore do not have a fully developed frontal lobe, which can alter decision making, and from a Piagetian standpoint I believe I am out of adolescence because I have reached the formal operational stage of development and possibly even beyond that. Overall though, I believe that I can’t fully define myself as an adolescent or not because there are so many factors in play.”

I examined these group-level differences in terms of course performance from a number of angles, and two interesting patterns emerged. First, students who adopted a more context-dependent view of self did significantly better on the application-based, cumulative final exam than did students who held an absolute view of self. This first finding is consistent with the work on Marcia Baxter-Magolda (1992), William Perry (1970), and others, which views contextual knowing as a complicated and mature form of meta-knowing. Second, students who changed their view of themselves across the semester conducted significantly more advanced analyses of the interview content relative to those whose view of self did not change. Thus, the students who displayed greater advances in metacognition were better able to apply these reflections and connections to themselves and, in turn, to the lives of others.

Taken together, this work suggests to me that the ability to engage in metacognitive reflection and connection may initially develop in a self-focused way and then, following additional experience and metacognitive skill attainment, extend beyond the self. Please note that I am careful to suggest that the ability of other-related connection emerges following experience and the acquisition of lower-level preparatory skills, rather than merely the passage of time, even though there is clearly a temporal dimension at play. Instead, as Donald Baer warned us, age is at best a proxy for development; at the most extreme, development is “age-irrelevant” (Baer, 1970). Why do students demonstrate improved metacognition across the college years? It is certainly not merely because the days have ticked by. Instead, these advances in thinking, as well as students’ willingness to refine their thinking about the self, are supported and constructed by a range of experiences and challenges that their college experience affords. To understand age- or college-level changes in thinking, therefore, we should focus on the developmental tasks and experiences that support this development. I hope that my lines of inquiry contribute in small part to this process.

References

Baer, D. M. (1970). An age-irrelevant concept of development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 16, 238-245.

Baxter Magolda, M. B. (1992). Students’ epistemologies and academic experiences: implications for pedagogy, Review of Higher Education, 15, 265-87.

Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906 – 911.

Kuhn, D. (1999). A developmental model of critical thinking. Educational Researcher, 28, 16-25.

Perry, William G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.


Linking Mindset to Metacognition

By Charity Peak, Ph.D. (U. S. Air Force Academy)

As part of our institution’s faculty development program, we are currently reading Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Even though the title and cover allude to a pop-psychology book, Dweck’s done a fabulous job of pulling together decades of her scholarly research on mindsets into a layperson’s text.

After announcing the book as our faculty read for the semester, one instructor lamented that she wished we had selected a book on the topic of metacognition. We have been exploring metacognition as a theme this year through our SoTL Circles and our participation in the multi-institutional Metacognitive Instruction Project. My gut reaction was, “But Mindset is about metacognition!” Knowing your own mindset requires significant metacognition about your own thinking and attitudes about learning. And better yet, understanding and recognizing mindsets in your students helps you to identify and support their development of mindsets that will help them to be successful in school and life.

If you haven’t read the book, below are some very basic distinctions between the fixed and growth mindsets that Dweck (2006) discovered in her research and outlines eloquently in her book:

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset
Intelligence is static. Intelligence can be developed.
Leads to a desire to look smart and therefore a tendency to:

  • avoid challenges
  • give up easily due to obstacles
  • see effort as fruitless
  • ignore useful feedback
  • be threatened by others’ success
 Leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to:

  • embrace challenges
  • persist despite obstacles
  • see effort as a path to mastery
  • learn from criticism
  • be inspired by others’ success

 

What does this mean for metacognition? Dweck points out that people go through life with fixed mindsets without even realizing they are limiting their own potential. For example, students will claim they are “not good at art,” “can’t do math,” “don’t have a science brain.” These mindsets restrict their ability to see themselves as successful in these areas. In fact, even when instructors attempt to refute these statements, the mindsets are so ingrained that they are extremely difficult to overcome.

What’s an instructor to do? Help students have metacognition about their self-limiting beliefs! Dweck offers a very simple online assessment on her website that takes about 5 minutes to complete. Instructors can very easily suggest that students take the assessment, particularly in subjects where these types of fallacious self-limiting attitudes abound, as a pre-emptive way to begin a course. These assessment results would help instructors easily identify who might need the most assistance in overcoming mental barriers throughout the course. Instructors can also make a strong statement to the class early in the semester that students should fight the urge to succumb to these limiting beliefs about a particular subject area (such as art or math).   As Dweck has proven through her research, people can actually become artistic if taught the skills through learnable components (pp. 68-69). Previously conceived notions of talent related to a wide variety of areas have been refuted time and again through research. Instead, talent is likely a cover for hard work, perseverance, and overcoming obstacles. But if we don’t share those insights with students, they will never have the metacognition of their own self-limiting – and frankly mythical – belief systems.

Inspired but wish you knew how to apply it to your own classes? A mere Google search on metacognition and mindset will yield a wealth of resources, but I particularly appreciate Frank Noschese’s blog on creating a metacognition curriculum. He started his physics course by having students take a very simple survey regarding their attitudes toward science. He then shared a short video segment called “Grow Your Brain” from the episode Changing Your Mind (jump to 13:20) in the Scientific American Frontiers series from PBS. Together, he and his students began a journey of moving toward a growth mindset in science. Through an intentional metacognition lesson, he sent a very clear message to his students that “I can’t” would not be tolerated in his course. He set them up for success by demonstrating clearly that everyone can learn physics if they put their minds (or mindsets) to it.

Metacognition about mindsets offers instructors an opportunity to give students the gift of a lifetime – the belief that they can overcome any learning obstacles if they just persevere, that their intelligence is not fixed but actually malleable, that learning is sometimes hard but not impossible! When I reflect on why I am so deeply dedicated to education as a profession, it is my commitment to helping students see themselves using a growth mindset. Helping them to change their mindsets can change their future, and metacognition is the first step on that journey!

 

References:

“Changing the Mind.” (11/21/00). Scientific American Frontiers. Boston: Ched-Angier Production Co. Retrieved from http://chedd-angier.com/frontiers/season11.html

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Noschese, F. (September 10, 2012). Metacognition curriculum (Lesson 1 of ?). Retrieved from https://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/metacognition-curriculum-lesson-1-of/

 


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


Metacognition for Purposeful Living

by Charity Peak, U.S. Air Force Academy*

One of my most remarkable professional experiences was teaching a humanities course called “Leading Lives That Matter.” After reading a variety of philosophical texts in an anthology by the same name, students explored the meaning of their lives.  Students identified what type of monuments they would want erected in their honor and wrote their own obituaries.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t a philosophy course; it was actually quite pragmatic.  It also wasn’t a higher level course for juniors or seniors.  And it wasn’t optional.  It was a mandatory requirement for all freshmen before embarking on their educational journeys.  The course was designed to help students reflect on why they were pursuing an education and determine a potential vision for their future after obtaining their degrees.  After all, if you’re going to spend thousands of dollars over several years, why not ask the important questions first?

Many students will say that they are going to school because they want to improve the lives of their families or because they hope to earn more money in a better paying job. But what do faculty do to help students see the grander vision?  What is an instructor’s role in supporting students to understand how their gifts and talents could transform the world around them?  Metacognition requires developing self-awareness and the ability to self-assess. It requires reflection about one’s education and learning – past, present, and future.  Helping students develop metacognitive skills is essential for them to become self-regulated learners with a vision for the future (Zimmerman, 2002).  Faculty, then, are ideally positioned to help students learn to leverage their self-awareness for purposeful living.

Each semester I teach, I encounter a student in distress, desperately struggling to identify how their education can help them develop into the person they wish to become. I am not a trained counselor, yet I often find myself coaching and mentoring these adults – both young and old – to determine how they can utilize their gifts to contribute to the world in some way.  As John F. Kennedy so eloquently shared with us, “One person can make a difference, and every person should try” (http://thinkexist.com).  But so many people seek higher education for such limited reasons – money and jobs.  Instead of being focused on how an education could aid students’ chances of surviving fiscally, what if faculty embraced their role of facilitating greatness?

This insight has transcended all of the settings in which I have taught throughout my career – from elementary school up through adult learning – but it has never been more evident than where I am now. Advising students at a military service academy lends itself to even more critical conversations about purpose and meaning.  These young people are receiving a “free” education, which helps their family’s financial commitment, but at a great price – risking their lives for their country.  It becomes apparent very quickly that what brings students to a military service academy is not what keeps them there.  While all college students go through a bit of an identity crisis, these students will potentially pay the ultimate price for their commitment to their country.  They must be solid in their decision, and they must evolve into an altruistic state much earlier than the average college student.  Money and job security are not enough to get you through a service academy’s rigor, let alone the life of a military officer.  As a faculty member, it is my duty to help these young people make the right choice, one that is good for them and their country.

While these metacognitive insights are quite visible at a military service academy, all faculty should commit to the duty of enabling metacognitive reflection about purposeful living at their own institutions. They should facilitate courses, or even a series of conversations, that encourage students to be metacognitive about who they want to be when they grow up – not what job they want to possess (self-seeking) but how they want to contribute (community building).  In order to venture down this path, however, we as faculty and advisors need to provide ample time and guidance for self-reflection in and out of our courses.  We should help students to gain self-awareness about their gifts and talents so that they can see their collegiate journey as a path toward purposeful living.

If vocation is “the place where deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (Buechner, p. 112), faculty should consider what role they play in helping students to become metacognitive about how their talents lead to majors, which guide careers, and eventually become paths to greatness. By helping our students identify how to intentionally lead lives that matter, we too can benefit vicariously by renewing our spirit to teach.  After all, many of us chose this vocation because of our own yearning to live purposefully.

References:

Buechner, F. (2006). Vocation. In Schwehn, M. R., & Bass, D. C. (Eds.), Leading lives that matter: What we should do and who we should be (pp. 111-12). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice 41(2): 64-70. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1477457

 

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


Metacognition and Reflective Thinking

By Steven C. Fleisher, California State University Channel Islands

Imagine that we are reading an assignment. As we read, do we think: “How long will this take?” “Will this be on the test?” If so, try this instead. Presume that we are reading the article as preparation for meeting later with an important person such as our supervisor to discuss the article. How would this situation change the questions we ask ourselves? Such thinking can make us aware of what constitutes satisfactory mastery of knowing and how to achieve it.

Think back for a moment to learning a psychomotor skill, such as learning to ride a bicycle. It is normal to master that skill with normal innate balance and strength. We might think: “That’s all there is to it.” However, watching cyclists in a serious bicycle race or triathlon, reveals that reliance only on innate ability cannot produce that kind of performance. That level of expertise requires learning to pedal with cadence, to deliver equal power from both legs, use the gearing appropriately, exploit position within a group of racers and pace oneself relative to challenges. Untrained innate ability can rarely get us far in comparison to the results of informed training.

The same is true in learning. Metacognitive skills (learnable skills) enhance academic performance. People with metacognitive skill will usually outperform others who lack such skill, even others with greater innate intelligence (natural ability). Metacognitive training requires developing three strengths: 1) metacognitive knowledge, 2) metacognitive monitoring, and 3) metacognitive control.

Metacognitive knowledge refers to our understanding about how learning operates and how to improve our learning. We should have enough of this knowledge to articulate how we learn best. For example, we can know when it is best for us to write a reflection about a reading in order to enhance our learning. We should be alert to our misconceptions about how our learning works. When we learn that cramming is not always the best way to study (Believe it!), we must give that up and operate with a better proven practice.

Metacognitive monitoring refers to developed ability to monitor our progress and achievement accurately. For example, self-assessment is a kind of metacognitive monitoring. We should know when we truly understand what we are reading and assess if we are making progress toward solving a problem. When we become accurate and proficient in self-assessment, we are much better informed. We can see when we have mastered certain material well enough, and when we have not.

Metacognitive control. This competency involves having the discipline and control needed to make the best decisions in our own interests. This aspect of metacognition includes acting on changing our efforts or learning strategies, or taking action to recruit help when indicated.

Putting it together. When we engage in metacognitive reflection, we can ask ourselves, for example, “What did we just learn?” “What was problematic, and why?” “What was easy, and why?” “How can we apply what we just learned?” Further, when we gain metacognitive skill, we begin to internalize habits of learning that better establish and stabilize beneficial neural connections.

Reflective Exercises for Students:

  1. Metacognitive knowledge. Consider three learning challenges: acquiring knowledge, acquiring a skill, or making an evidence-based decision. How might the approaches needed to succeed in each of these three separate challenges differ?
  2. Metacognitive monitoring. After you complete your next assignment or project, rate your resultant state of mastery on the following scale of three points: 0 = I have no confidence that I made any meaningful progress toward mastery; 1 = I clearly perceived some gain of mastery, but I need to get farther; 2 = I am currently highly confident that I understand and can meet this challenge.
  3. Next, see if your self-rating causes you to take action such as to re-study the material or to seek help from a peer or an instructor in order to achieve more competence and higher confidence. A critical test will be whether your awareness from monitoring was able to trigger your taking action. Another will come in time. It will be whether your self-assessment proved accurate.
  4. Metacognitive control. To develop better understanding of this, recall an example from life when you made a poor decision that proved to produce a result that you did not desire or that was not in your interests. How did living this experience equip you to better deal with a similar or related life challenge?

References

Chew, S. L. (2010). Improving classroom performance by challenging student misconceptions about learning. Association for Psychological Science: Observer, Vol. 23, No. 4. http://psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2666

Dunlosky, J. and Metcalf, J. (2009). Metacognition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Leamnson, R. N. (1999). Thinking about teaching and learning: Developing habits of learning with first year college and university students. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Pintrich, P. R. (2002). The role of metacognitive knowledge in learning, teaching, and assessing. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 219-225.

Wirth, K. (2010). The role of metacognition in teaching Geoscience. Science Education Resource Center, Macalester College. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/activities/27560.html