Promotion of Student Success and Positive Chemistry Course Perception through Frequent Metacognitive Reporting

Abstract

Explicit metacognitive interventions in undergraduate chemistry courses have been shown to improve student outcomes. Less studied have been the outcomes of students who implicitly and frequently practice metacognition and the resultant effects on the student-instructor relationship. In this project set within a large enrollment introductory chemistry course, we elevated student voice and enhanced student-instructor communication through weekly metacognitive reporting to study the characteristics of reporting students and their perceptions of the effects of metacognitive reporting. Data on course success and gender of reporting relative to non-reporting students were quantitatively analyzed using standard statistical techniques. Inductive thematic coding was used to qualitatively assess student responses to open-ended post-survey questions on perceived value of metacognitive reporting. Reporting students finished the semester with a final course grade point average 0.64 points higher than non-reporting students. In addition, reporting students were more successful (more ABC grades) than non-reporting students though small effect sizes and lack of directional causality limit data interpretation. However, female students tended to engage in reporting at a higher rate than did male students. Metacognitive reporting helped to establish a more positive and productive student-instructor relationship via enhanced student communication (i.e., student voice) that informed just-in-time teaching modifications. Students indicated that the metacognitive reporting assisted them in focusing their studies on more challenging topics and in modifying their study habits. In addition, students recognized that their instructors were reading and responding to the reports, which improved overall student-instructor interactions and their view of the instructor as beneficent. Based on these findings, it is recommended that instructors create frequent, low-stakes assignments built into the course structure to support their students’ implicit use of metacognition with the broad goal of growing metacognitive strategies over time.