This afternoon, the NIST FALCoN session featured Julie Stanton. The talk was entitled “Using metacognition to help students adapt their learning in and out of the pandemic.”Julie Stanton asked the group: what is metacognition? Stanton defined metacognitions as the awareness and control of thinking for the purpose of learning. Students develop metacognitive knowledge by, for example, distinguishing between concepts they have mastered and those that require further study. Stanton said that metacognitive regulation is how we regulate our own learning: for example, a student who can select the appropriate learning strategies for an exam and modify them based on the exam outcomes. Stanton emphasized that metacognition correlates with learning and academic achievement. I didn’t know that metacognitive awareness emerges around age five and develops linearly in high school!
After breakout groups where we discussed metacognition, Stanton talked about exam self-evaluation by analyzing exam data. The study identified barriers students face, and they proposed a continuum of metacognitive development. About fifty percent of students evaluated their strategies after exam 1. Stanton’s group proposed a metacognitive continuum: not engaging was used for students who did not engage in metacognition. Struggling was used for students who accepted a need to change but could not select appropriate strategies and sometimes carry out the strategy. Emerging was students who saw the need to change and could choose appropriate strategies and carry out these strategies sometimes. Developing was used for those who could follow through to enhance their learning. Stanton mentioned that context can influence metacognition.
Stanton mentioned that conditional knowledge is when and why to use a learning strategy. Stanton also mentioned that students “are used to seeking out expert thinking for complex processes,” and we can do think-aloud modeling by stating our thought processes. How, when, and why we use an approach can be very helpful. Stanton suggested constructing a chart for mastering related concepts and showed a table with DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Stanton wrote an evidence-based teaching guide on metacognition for LSE CBE with colleagues. They also have an instructor checklist to help implement metacognition. The other is a short guide. Both resources can be found on the LSE CBE website: Instructor-Checklist: Four Strategies to Foster Student Metacognition and Student Metacognition. The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory with a revised number was mentioned by Stanton as a tool for comparing qualitative data with a forced-choice survey. I’ll keep these resources in mind when sharing with students and instructors.
