Metacognition and Learning最新文献

Abstract

The writing system – the transparency of orthography in alphabet-based systems and differences between logographic and phonetic-based systems – can affect the efficiency of inferential word learning when words are introduced visually. It can also shape how people self-evaluate their learning success (we refer to such type of self-evaluation as metacognitive monitoring of word learning). By contrast, differences in metacognition and learning performance do not emerge when words are presented auditorily. To measure metacognition, we assessed retrospective confidence by asking participants to rate their certainty about the correctness of their responses. As this direct question raises a person’s conscious awareness of how well they have learned a particular lexical unit, it allowed us to measure those aspects of metacognition that are modulated by consciousness. Such consciousness comes into play when a word is associated with an object. Differences in conscious awareness of the word learning success when words are represented visually make differential demands on word learning across languages and modalities. The observed differences between populations using different writing systems and between perceptual modalities may potentially modulate the effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition activities during foreign language learning.

Abstract

This descriptive qualitative study examined pre-service teachers’ cognitive conditions, cognitive operations, and metacognitive adaptations during emergency online practice teaching. It further examined the intricate interplay between these components. Using pre- and post-open-ended questions and weekly reflections, qualitative methods were employed to examine participants’ cognitive conditions and processes in detail. The findings uncovered a cognitive paradox: pre-service teachers exhibited less sophisticated beliefs, negative emotions, low self-efficacy, and limited task knowledge while simultaneously holding high outcome expectations and mastery goals. Their cognitive operations revealed a similar cognitive paradox, highlighting the tension between the desired outcomes and the processes employed to attain them. They used both primitive and acquired cognitive operations. Their primitive cognitive operations were predominantly characterized by monitoring and assembling, whereas the acquired processes involved seeking and using feedback and observing. Like cognitive operations, their metacognitive adaptations were reactive and superficial, mainly focused on error identification and rectification. Although their cognitive and metacognitive engagement evolved with time, the presence of simultaneous paradoxical elements accentuates the complexity of the interplay between pre-service teachers’ cognitive conditions, cognitive operations, and metacognitive adaptations, making it a non-linear, complex, and multi-dimensional process driven by contradictory forces. These findings have important implications for teacher education programs, suggesting tailored interventions and support mechanisms.

We collected data on students’ self-assessment behavior from four sections of a Calculus II course. Students were asked to write their expected scores on each of the weekly in-class quizzes and problems in the exams, immediately after they completed them. They were then asked to justify their expectation in writing. One-on-one interviews were conducted with a purposefully selected sample of students. During the interviews, they were asked to explain their perceived reasons for their self-assessment behaviors. While the results from quantitative analysis seemed to partially reinforce the findings of existing research that low performers generally overestimate, high performers underestimate their performance, and those in-between performers were (almost) accurate predictors, results from qualitative analysis provided additional insights into their self-assessment behaviors. After analyzing qualitative data, we identified five categories of student behavior: knowing about knowing (KK), not knowing about knowing (NKK), knowing about not knowing (KNK), knowing something is not known but not sure what (KBNKW), and not knowing about not knowing (NKNK). The quantitative analysis showed that students exhibited greater accuracy in assessing their performance when they belonged to the categories KK, KNK, and KBNKW, while their accuracy was lower when they fell into the categories NKNK and NKK. In other words, students who had greater awareness of their level of knowledge were more accurate in predicting their scores compared to their peers, irrespective of their actual performance levels. The logistic regression model revealed a substantial increase in the likelihood of underperforming students overestimating their performance compared to their high-performing counterparts.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) encompasses cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational learning strategies and is highly relevant for academic achievement. Although students have mostly acquired high-level SRL strategy knowledge by the time they reach college, they often show deficiencies in their application of SRL strategies. In order to investigate the gap between SRL strategy knowledge and its application in more depth, it is necessary to develop instruments that assess conditional SRL strategy knowledge for the whole learning process with sufficient validity and reliability. Therefore, based on four distinct studies conducted in Germany, the development and validation of a new Strategy Knowledge Test for Self-Regulated Learning (SKT-SRL) for college students are described. Study 1 describes the development of the test and the results of expert ratings that speak in favour of the test’s content validity. Study 2, the pilot study, was undertaken to gain insight into the psychometric characteristics of the SKT-SRL, examine its relationship to other SRL assessment methods and academic achievement, and reach a sense of its validity. Studies 3 and 4 present the results of two validation studies for the SKT-SRL; they investigated its psychometric characteristics, convergent validity, factorial structure, test–retest reliability, and its relationship to academic achievement as well as other study-relevant factors. Overall, the results are promising and the SKT-SRL mostly showed sufficiently valid assessments. To conclude, the SKT-SRL is a useful tool for analysing conditional SRL strategy knowledge in college students and can be used for further research on the relationship between SRL strategy knowledge and strategy usage.

Employment of appropriate study strategies is crucial for academic success. Previous findings on whether use of specific strategies is related to academic performance in real educational settings were inconsistent, and their participant samples were largely restricted to undergraduate students. The current study recruited a large sample (i.e., 4,331 participants) of elementary school students to explore the association between use of specific strategies and academic performance by using multilevel linear regression models, in which two potential confounding variables (i.e., SES and gender) are controlled for. The results showed that after controlling for SES, gender and other study strategies, use of spaced study, rereading and help-seeking positively related to academic performance in elementary school students. However, use of self-testing, highlighting/underlining, note-taking, summarizing, making diagrams, making study plans and studying with friends did not positively correlate with academic performance in elementary school children. Instructors and parents are suggested to encourage children to study by using the effective study strategies, and teach them how to maximize the benefits of these strategies.

Abstract

The MITCA method (Homework Implementation Method) was developed with the purpose of turning homework into an educational resource capable of improving students' self-regulated learning and school engagement. In this paper, following current theoretical frameworks, we evaluate the effect of the MITCA method on students' self-regulated learning. In general, MITCA includes the assignment of diverse, concrete and valued by the students tasks which are completed on a weekly basis. We analyze the differences in self-regulation strategies in a sample of 533 fifth (n = 270) and sixth graders (n = 262) with an age range of 10–12 years old (47.5% boys and 52.5% girls), who were about equally distributed to an experimental and a control group. Trained teachers used MITCA to prescribe homework in the experimental group for twelve weeks. The students of the experimental group reported significantly higher time management and environmental management. However, there were no significant differences observed in other aspects of self-regulation, and the experimental group did not perceive a deficit in these areas. Our results indicate the effectiveness of MITCA on students’ self-regulation of learning and discussed in light of current theories and evidence in the field.

Abstract

Previous literature suggests learners can adjust their encoding strategies to match the demands of the expected test format. However, it is unclear whether other forms of metacognitive control, namely, study time allocation and restudy selection, are also sensitive to expected test format. Across four experiments we examined whether learners qualitatively adjust their allocation of study time (Experiment 1) and restudy selections (Experiments 2a, 2b, and 3) when expecting a more difficult generative memory test (i.e., cued-recall) as compared to a less difficult non-generative memory test (i.e., forced-choice recognition). Counter to our predictions, we found little evidence that learners shift their study time allocation and restudy selection choices toward easier material when expecting a relatively more difficult cued recall test, even after acquiring experience with each test format. Instead, based on exploratory analyses conducted post-hoc, learners appeared to rely heavily on the success with which they retrieved associated studied information at the time that restudy selections were solicited. Moreover, counter to some extant models of self-regulated learning, learners tended to first choose difficult rather than easy items when making their restudy selections, regardless of expected test format. Together, these novel findings place new constraints on our current understanding of learners’ metacognitive sensitivity to expected test format, and have important implications for current theoretical accounts of self-regulated learning.

The paper describes a theoretical framework for the study of teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning in the classroom. The Self-Regulated Learning Teacher Promotion Framework (SRL-TPF) utilizes the ICAP theory to assess the affordances of the learning environment for the indirect promotion of SRL, proposes new variables in the investigation of the direct promotion of SRL, and examines how these two ways to promote SRL are related. The SRL-TPF was used to examine the direct and indirect promotion of SRL in filmed observations of 23 Australian classrooms. The results revealed a paucity in the design of Constructive and Interactive lesson tasks that support the indirect promotion of SRL and a preference for the direct support of SRL through implicit strategy instruction and the provision of metacognitive reflection and support. There were important teacher differences in both the direct and indirect promotion of SRL, but the teachers who were more likely to design Constructive and Interactive lesson tasks did not necessarily promote SRL directly and vice versa. The research contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between teaching what to learn (subject content) and how to learn (SRL knowledge and strategies).

When students are left to choose their own approaches to studying, they frequently engage in ineffective learning strategies, such as rereading textbooks or cramming. Given this natural tendency amongst students, there has been significant interest in how to increase the use of more effective methods of studying. Efforts to-date have typically entailed either explicit instruction (e.g., teaching students which study habits are more/less effective) or direct experience (e.g., having students attempt to utilize an effective technique), yielding somewhat mixed results. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a combination of explicit instruction and direct experience with effective learning strategies positively impacts how students study. After an in-classroom intervention, 316 participants (177 women, M age = 19.03) were asked to indicate how frequently they used various studying strategies and how effective they perceived them to be. Participants demonstrated both a change in knowledge regarding the (low) utility of more ineffective strategies and indicated that they were using those strategies less frequently. However, there was not a global change in their perceptions/use of more effective strategies. Instead, there were increases only for a subset of the more effective strategies. These results support metacognitive theories of desirable difficulties, wherein individuals prefer less effortful strategies and less effortful shifts in behavior, as well as suggest possible directions for furthering effective learning practices amongst students.