Metacognition and Learning最新文献

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial to students’ learning. SRL is characterized by students taking initiative, showing perseverance and adaptively regulating their learning. Teachers play an essential role in promoting and fostering this process. However, several studies have shown that in primary education explicit instruction of SRL strategies barely takes place. Given the relevance of SRL for learning and preparing students for the knowledge society of the 21st century, it is of crucial importance that teachers in primary education learn how they can improve their students’ SRL. In the present study, we implemented a professional development program (iSELF) in which primary teachers were trained and coached in promoting and fostering their students’ SRL. The extent to which iSELF contributed to teachers’ explicit instruction of SRL strategies was evaluated in a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design using video-based classroom observations. Thirty teachers from fourteen different primary schools participated in this study and were assigned to either a control (twelve teachers) or an experimental group (eighteen teachers). Results indicate that in both conditions explicit SRL strategy instruction is rare. However, explicit instruction of SRL strategies is significantly higher in the experimental group on the post-test compared to the control group showing that teachers do benefit from learning about explicit SRL instruction.

Abstract

Metamemory judgments, defined as predictions of memory performance, are often influenced by misleading cues, such as fluency. However, how fluency cues compete to influence retrospective metamemory judgments is still unclear. The present study investigated how multiple fluency cues concurrently influence immediate feeling of knowing (FOK) judgments with two fluency manipulations—font size (large vs. small font size) as a perceptual cue and level of processing (deep vs. shallow processing) as a conceptual cue. In Experiment 1, participants studied large or small unrelated word pairs and were either directed to process the conceptual aspects of each word pair (deep) or to focus on the perceptual aspects of the word pairs (shallow). Then participants were presented with a cued recall test and asked to make an FOK judgment. Lastly, participants received a five alternative- forced-choice recognition test. Experiment 2 was similar except the deep condition was replaced with a no-processing (no instruction) condition. Results revealed that perceptual fluency (large font size) influenced FOK judgments only when word pairs were processed in the shallow condition in both experiments compared to no-processing condition. This interaction of multiple cues suggests that, participants rely on information which is easily accessible to them (perceptual fluency) for FOK judgements in presence of certain secondary cues despite those cues being less diagnostic of future memory performance. These new insights inform how people integrate different sources of information in metamemory decisions and have broad implications for settings including academic learning and everyday decision making.

To become proficient problem solvers, science and engineering students have to acquire the skill of self-regulating their problem-solving processes, a skill supported by their metacognitive abilities. The Disciplinary Learning Companion (DLC) is an online tool designed to scaffold students’ use of metacognitive activities through discipline-specific and even topic-specific reflective prompts. Our research focuses on the effectiveness of these reflective prompts in fostering metacognitive abilities. A prior study demonstrated a positive relationship between students’ interaction with the DLC and their academic achievement. The current study investigates whether an increase in metacognitive abilities can partially explain this relationship. To this end, we study the relationship between students’ interaction with the DLC and their strategic approach to solving an exam problem, using the latter as an indicator for metacognitive abilities. Additionally, since students’ prior metacognitive abilities may influence this relationship, we investigate how the results are affected by students’ prior abilities. Our findings indicate that, compared to students who had minimal or no interaction with the DLC, those who engaged more frequently with the DLC exhibited a more strategic approach to solving an exam problem. Notably, this effect was particularly pronounced among students who interacted with the DLC’s reflection module that focused on the physics topic relevant to the specific exam question. These results persist when we control for students’ prior metacognitive abilities. In conclusion, students’ improvement in academic achievement can be attributed to a combination of enhanced conceptual understanding of the particular physics topic and an improved strategic approach to problem solving.

To become proficient problem solvers, science and engineering students have to acquire the skill of self-regulating their problem-solving processes, a skill supported by their metacognitive abilities. The Disciplinary Learning Companion (DLC) is an online tool designed to scaffold students’ use of metacognitive activities through discipline-specific and even topic-specific reflective prompts. Our research focuses on the effectiveness of these reflective prompts in fostering metacognitive abilities. A prior study demonstrated a positive relationship between students’ interaction with the DLC and their academic achievement. The current study investigates whether an increase in metacognitive abilities can partially explain this relationship. To this end, we study the relationship between students’ interaction with the DLC and their strategic approach to solving an exam problem, using the latter as an indicator for metacognitive abilities. Additionally, since students’ prior metacognitive abilities may influence this relationship, we investigate how the results are affected by students’ prior abilities. Our findings indicate that, compared to students who had minimal or no interaction with the DLC, those who engaged more frequently with the DLC exhibited a more strategic approach to solving an exam problem. Notably, this effect was particularly pronounced among students who interacted with the DLC’s reflection module that focused on the physics topic relevant to the specific exam question. These results persist when we control for students’ prior metacognitive abilities. In conclusion, students’ improvement in academic achievement can be attributed to a combination of enhanced conceptual understanding of the particular physics topic and an improved strategic approach to problem solving.