Anton Tolman and Nathan Martin from Utah Valley University and Greg Mullen from Exploring the Core presented at the 2021 Lilly Conference Online in May on “Building Better Teachers: Metacognition Enhances Student Transfer to Higher Education.” Nate Martin is an undergraduate research assistant doing this research, and Greg is an educator. Nate began by defining metacognition as “thinking about thinking… but it is much deeper than that: planning and thinking about how we learn.” Nate explained that metacognition requires deliberate practice, and students are often not taught how to use metacognition to enhance their learning. TTM was described as a process for “transtheoretical model of behavior change” and Dr. Tolman’s research involves adapting TTM for students. Anton described the adaptation and validation of their instrument for high school teachers and community colleges. Phase 2 is planned for a federal grant supported longitudinal study. The first survey was for the faculty, and they have samples 124 teachers and community college instructors with a median of ten years teaching. Tolman shared results and noted that schools are different: the readiness to change teaching methods varied and there were gender effects. Tolman graphed data along the TTM scale of stages. Also, first-generation teachers were at different stages of thinking about the implementation or readiness to change. Their conclusion was that first-generation teachers were more open to change but “most not as committed yet to collaborative learning.” They used an instrument to measure effective teaching strategies (TSSA, Teaching Strategy Self-Assessment)) too. Preliminary results suggested interesting patterns in terms of a gender effect with females showing higher scores for both high school and community college teachers. Their results also suggest significant differences between teachers in high school and community colleges, and effects seem to be influenced by gender and by first-generation status. Their second phase will focus more on observation instead of self-perceptions. Mullen went over the survey they are using. They presented statements and asked which statement did audience members choose. Each statement reflects one of the stages in the TTM. Mullen then asked: can the TTM improve professional development? Fifty-one percent of high school teachers chose the pre-contemplation statement while community college instructors mostly (44%) selected the maintenance stage. Their suggestions were to introduce metacognition and cognitive dissonance for high school students and to lead collegial collaboration and reflection for community college teachers. The TTSA (Teaching Strategy Self-Assessment). Mullen suggested shifting from “improving teacher instruction” to “improving student learning.” For this, Mullen explained how connecting the TTM and TSSA could be done. The TTM has been used mostly in health professions and medical settings for public health interventions, for example. Mullen supports metacognition coaching to help students “learn how to learn” by helping the educators first. Mullen also spoke about their work to validate their surveys in different settings. Mullen ended with a quote from John Dewey and a slide that seems to suggest the creation of TTM modules. This reminded me of the work Jeff Maloy is doing with locus of control and mindset. I appreciate the surveys and instrument validation this group is doing. The preliminary results are intriguing: there seem to be major differences between the “profiles” of teachers and the stages of TTM. It will be interesting to learn what else they uncover and the impact of interventions.
