Metacognition Group 2: Centralia, Flathead, Monroe, Yakima

Considering our discussion about metacognition in Activity 4, the videos, Self-Regulated Learner website, slides, Tanner's article, and/or other resources, write a response to ONE (1) or more of these questions.

What is something you currently do to incorporate metacognition in your courses? Do you have evidence that indicate it's been successful? Any suggestions for others who might want to implement something similar?
What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?
What more do you want to know?

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Metacognition Group 2: Centralia, Flathead, Monroe, Yakima

Amanda Colosimo
Feb, 2020

At least once a semester, I look out at my class and have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of them don't REALLY understand a concept, but not one of them, even the talkers, know how to formulate a question. When I want to find out how widespread this is, I'll have them stop and write me a 5-minute paper, explaining the topic to me. Not only do I find out how many of them are lost, but I can also find out if there is a common misconception held by several members of the class. My favorite part is when a student will be mid-explanation and actually write, "You know, I don't get this," because sometimes they think they understand, but when they try to explain it, realize they simply do not. Then I read the results before the next class, and begin the following class by re-addressing the topic, now armed with a better understanding of my students' needs.

I am giving my first exam wrapper next week and am looking forward to reading the results!

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Tim Eichner
Feb, 2020

The term metacognition, and associated strategies is new to me. Reviewing the material has helped me understand the importance of providing more intentional opportunities for students to reflect on their cycle of learning. I have reactively done exam wrappers in the past as a result of poor performance, of course not knowing they were actually called exam wrappers. After our breakout sessions in activity 4, I would like to be more proactive in offering exam wrappers and reflections on studying strategies. Any suggestions on great/fun videos or presentations of effective study strategies would be much appreciated.

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Hillary Goodner
Feb, 2020

What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?
I struggle with students not reading the required text or studying. Part of this issue may be due to not knowing how to study. I recall being a student and struggling on how to study and be more prepared. I thought that the the study cycle is an excellent visual for students to use to be more prepared and learn how to study. I want to incorporate about 30 minutes of one class to discussing studying techniques to be successful.
There are so many metacognition techniques that I want to incorporate but I think starting by getting students to think about how to study will be good.

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Hillary Goodner
Feb, 2020

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Michelle Harris
Feb, 2020

What is something you currently do to incorporate metacognition in your courses? Do you have evidence that indicate it's been successful? Any suggestions for others who might want to implement something similar?

* I was lucky enough to have been introduced to meta-cognition fairly early in my teaching career but have only really begun to develop some great ways to incorporate it. I have used exam wrappers but typically only do so when the students do very poorly on a exam rather than after every exam. Because of this, I do not have a lot of evidence of its success. I do also in cooperate a lot of think pair share activities into my lectures to have them come up with the ideas on their own first. Another thing I do that I was unaware was a meta cognition strategies is to model my own learning. I share with them ways I remembered certain things in college geology classes and they always remember the technique or word better when I do this (for example that the density equation makes a heart, or that a nonconformity indicates a New rock type or that a phaneritic texture has "Ph"atty crystals.... I could keep going.....)

What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?

*I really enjoyed reading Kaatje's page about having students use notebooks and begin a lecture with what do you already know and end with how has that knowledge changed. I recently began asking a question on the finals about "something they used to think but know they know" and that has allowed me insights into some of these misconceptions but only after the class is over. I might try to in cooperate more meta cognition into the test as mentioned by one of the peer leaders during activity 4. I also think that if I have them complete an exam wrapper this quarter, I will require they also watch the you tube clip on meta cognition and reflect on how they studied versus how its suggested they study. For Spring quarter, I want to start talking about meta cognition as part of the introduction to my classes with the importance of Blooms taxonomy and how high school and college differ on that level. I also really like the idea of having them write a letter of advice to the next quarters students. I want to try to work this into the classes I teach every quarter.

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Michelle Harris
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Hillary Goodner

I started providing them with reading guides they could fill out while reading then they can use the reading guides to complete the quiz. It took a bit of time initially but my reading quiz scores have improved dramatically.

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Zachary Schierl
Feb, 2020

What is something you currently do to incorporate metacognition in your courses? Do you have evidence that indicate it's been successful? Any suggestions for others who might want to implement something similar?

I spend a good portion of the second day of class talking about metacognition. I talk a little bit about Bloom's Taxonomy, explain that homework and exam questions will involve comprehending material at the middle to high end of Bloom's Taxonomy, and introduce several basic metacognitive learning strategies (such as the importance of being able to teach concepts to others). I don't have any great evidence that it's been successful; I've done it more or less the same way since I started teaching so I don't have a "before and after" for comparison. At the very least, it seems to keep students more engaged than just rambling on through the syllabus. Beginning this quarter I've also added both pre- and post-exam wrappers that ask students to think critically about how they prepared for the exam and what strategies were most/least effective.

What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?

I would like to be more consistent in reiterating the importance of metacognition throughout the quarter. I think I could also be a little more explicit in explaining the underpinnings of activities such as exam wrappers, explaining to students what I am trying to accomplish, etc. I would also like to incorporate more in-class activities where students have to teach concepts to their classmates. I have a few such activities that I really like, the challenge is finding the time to create these sorts of activities for other subject areas.

What more do you want to know?

As an instructor, I have the ability to incorporate as many metacognition activities in my classroom as I want, which is great. However, it feels like a much harder sell to get students to use these strategies outside of class. Time is a major obstacle for my students. Many work full-time, take care of families, and often both. Many of the meta-cognitive strategies discussed here, while certainly effective, are time-consuming. How do you get a full-time student who also works 50 hours a week and has a family to take care to regularly use a "Study Cycle" like the one presented in the McGuire PPT? From discussions with my students, I get the sense that most of them would love to be able to devote more time to their studies and employ more metacognitive strategies, they just can't. For example, I offered 5 bonus points (half a letter grade!) on a recent exam to students who completed an exam wrapper following the midterm. Just over 50% took advantage of the opportunity. Several students told me they just couldn't afford to devote time to anything that wasn't actually required. I struggle with what can be done about this problem. As we all know, it takes time and practice to become proficient at something and so many students just don't have it. I wonder to what extent metacognition can overcome something as simple as a lack of time to study? I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone who has grappled with this issue.

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Karen Goodwin
Feb, 2020

I am so excited to start using exam wrappers, and this activity reinforced that. However, I am now rethinking how I approach introducing metacognition to my students. The powerpoint was so helpful, and I believe I will incorporate one day of each course I teach to presenting the info to my students. I am wondering what the research shows (or just people's opinion) about WHEN is the best time to introduce this (knowing it's never too late). However, I'm wondering if day one is the best bet, or week one, or ? Thanks!

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Christina Relyea
Feb, 2020

I tried an exam wrapper for an exam I gave last week. Although I gave it before the exam it might not technically count as a “wrap”. I asked the students how much they studied for the exam and what study techniques they used. I was surprised by the results. The students with the 4 lowest grades all mentioned that they worked nights a lot and that they worked the night before the exam. No one in the remaining group (highest grades) mentioned work as an issue. This allowed me to speak to the class about the realities many of them face with having to work nights and knowing this what could they do differently if they did not get the grade that they wanted. There was a lot of class discussion and several students mentioned needing to study earlier than they had for example. I think it normalized the predicament working students find themselves in but also gave them the opportunity to talk about what they could do differently next time.

I think I am going to discuss my decision-making process and why I assign some of the assignments that I assign. I also want to include more reflection in my weekly labs. I feel that many of the students are in a rush to get done with lab as fast as they can so they can leave and aren’t really thinking about what they are doing in the lab. I tried this a little bit last year, but I didn’t continue. This exercise makes me think about the importance of understanding and not just doing.

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Anita Ho
Feb, 2020

Something I currently do: Ever since learning about metacognition from Kaatje Kraft at a SAGE 2YC workshop (in 2013!), I have used exam wrappers after the first few exams in my courses. I just did this in a class and got a list of 18 unique ideas, from as many students, for preparing better for the next exam! At our next class I will take a few minutes to share these (they are already posted on our course web page), and I will also hand back each student’s wrapper a week before the next exam as their own reminders to themselves. I don’t have any evidence that exam wrappers are successful, but students don’t mind them, and they are a good starting point for a quick lesson on metacognition and self-regulation, or at least a reminder that self-reflection can be a powerful and useful tool.

Something new I’d like to try: I like Kaatje’s idea of initial and final prompts within a lesson. It seems natural to start a new topic with “What do you know about…?” and I often do this, especially since there is usually assigned homework that introduces class topics before class. Adding a more formal final prompt after the lesson would complete the learning cycle for students, as they will retrieve and recognize what they have learned, and connect it back to what they thought they knew. The student reflections could also be used for keeping track of attendance and participation in class as well.

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Teresa Adams
Feb, 2020

One thing I do now is a reflection of learning after a test. However, I think having students reflect before and after each class session would help change student’s learning/study habits BEFORE the test. I would like to incorporate those types of questions posed in the article “Promoting Student Metacognition” or possibly have “exit quizzes” with those questions.

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Jamie Hansen
Feb, 2020

What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?

As I mentioned in the previous discussion, I'm excited to try both the Think-Pair-Share technique and exam wrappers and I got some great ideas of how to incorporate them into a hybrid class. I also thought the Study Cycle was very interesting. I've often felt that many students seem to be clinging to the study techniques that they used in high school because they worked for them then, why wouldn't they work now? It's totally understandable, I remember having the same issue when I first went to college. So, I think it would definitely be worth spending some time in the classroom discussing Bloom's Taxonomy and the Study Cycle.

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Jessica Barone
Feb, 2020

What are some (new) ways you might apply metacognition in one or more of your courses?

Active listening checks, exam wrappers, and the study cycle all seem like they would be effective methods to allow the students to reflect on how they are thinking and learning. These methods will also provide guidance on how to make changes to improve their learning.

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Hillary Goodner

Hey Hillary, Shannon here. I think that's a great start. I have been thinking about the same thing, and I want to incorporate more of the studying bit into my own class and not just hit it one single time before tests. I have been thinking about incorporating short review sessions in the beginning of my classes, like 10 minutes for them to take out their notes and review from the last lecture and maybe that will encourage students stop relying on cramming before a test. Do you think you'll lecture about the study technique or have them model it? Have you ever thought about reaching out to the tutoring center on your campus and seeing if they have workshops that cover this and you could invite them to your class to present? That's what I do, the head of the tutoring center comes in and gives a workshop on test taking skills and note taking in my general science classes.

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Michelle Harris

I also think that if I have them complete an exam wrapper this quarter, I will require they also watch the you tube clip on meta cognition and reflect on how they studied versus how its suggested they study. For Spring quarter, I want to start talking about meta cognition as part of the introduction to my classes with the importance of Blooms taxonomy and how high school and college differ on that level. I also really like the idea of having them write a letter of advice to the next quarters students. I want to try to work this into the classes I teach every quarter.

Hey Michelle, I'm sure you know this, but I love a good test wrapper, and it's not just to have students reflect on their learning but also to have them feel like they are being heard. Maybe they really hate my question writing or they are desperate for notes (which I am not sold on at the moment). A test wrapper definitely gives them the ability to speak their mind and I have changed practices almost every year based on comments on my test wrapper, the bonus being the students and I might change our behavior for the better. I also really like the idea of having students write each other a letter. Do you plan on having a true letter or starting a list of advice from previous students?

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Zachary Schierl

As an instructor, I have the ability to incorporate as many metacognition activities in my classroom as I want, which is great. However, it feels like a much harder sell to get students to use these strategies outside of class. Time is a major obstacle for my students. Many work full-time, take care of families, and often both. Many of the meta-cognitive strategies discussed here, while certainly effective, are time-consuming. How do you get a full-time student who also works 50 hours a week and has a family to take care to regularly use a "Study Cycle" like the one presented in the McGuire PPT?

Hi Zachary, this is Shannon. I think it's great that you are already using so much metacognition in your classes. Sometimes students will take the information you give them and use it later, even if you don't see it in your class. I had a student who transferred into nursing and wrote an entire paper about how my teaching metacognition changed the way she studied and her trajectory as a student. So, even if circumstances bar them from total success in your class right now, your sharing the information can have huge implications down the road.

As far as getting students to use that study cycle or other metacognative techniques, sometimes I think we as science teachers say "I have all this content I have to get through, I can't possibly use these techniques." And I like to push back on that a little (which is easy for me to do because I have 3 hr classes). I like to think that I am building the foundation of learning and appreciation for my subject but also the skills and tools for students to be successful in every subject. I might not get to the specifics of magma assimilation but I am teaching my students how to find that information or how to interpret that information. What I am trying to say is that I make time in the class period to focus on these soft skills even if it takes away some of the specifics of the content because I think that is sometimes more important for the student as a whole student, not just the geology student, if that makes sense. Like I replied to Hillary, I want the students to study more so maybe I set 10 minutes aside for them to review their notes each class in a guided study session so they don't lose that information or maybe preview information for the forthcoming lecture so they are ready to answer my essential questions of the day. It seems to me that baking these skills into the class could alleviate some of that pressure they feel (again, I know we are all pressed for time and this suggestion might be laughable to a physics or chemistry teacher).

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Karen Goodwin

Hi Karen, this is Shannon. I think it's never too late but it sort of depends on the scenario for what you are trying to teach them. For instance, I had a tutor come in a give my students a note taking workshop on the very first day before I gave my first lecture, that way they know the "WHY?" of note taking. I also have her come in and give a test taking skills workshop usually a couple weeks before the test, but this term she was sick and it was given the week before class. I think it was more effective earlier in the term, before they started studying for the test. But I can see how after a test it could be helpful too, proactive vs. reactive. You'll probably figure out when you present if it fits or not, but for my take, before and early.

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Teresa Adams

Hi Teri, this is Shannon, I think the exit quiz is a great idea, you can take attendance and easily see where your students are at. I know that Hillary from Yakima (in this chat) uses exit tickets and she would be a great resource if you wanted to know more about their use. I believe she even has some data on their use in her classes (correct me if I am wrong Hillary).

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Shannon Othus-Gault
Feb, 2020

Originally Posted by Jamie Hansen

Hey Jamie, great ideas here. Make sure to reach out to people when you are setting up presentations or activities that address metacognition because all of these peer leaders have stuff on hand and are ready to share, no need to recreate the wheel. I'm thinking Tania from cohort 2, MtSAC has and recently talked about using Blooms in oceanography and had some great ideas with name tent.

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Becca Walker
Feb, 2020

Hi Amanda-
Becca from Cohort 1 here. Your observation that students don't know how to formulate a question really struck me--I'm sure that there a myriad of potential causes for this phenomenon, but I'm thinking back to grad school where often during a class meeting/colloquium presentation/etc. that was outside of my discipline, I saw others around me asking questions and was just dumbfounded because I had absolutely no idea what to ask. For me personally, I think that it was (a) a lack of confidence and (b) feeling like I had so little content knowledge on the topic that I didn't have adequate vocabulary or the big-picture understanding to even know what an "important" question would be. It was a total pickle because by not asking questions, how could I possibly have expected to further my understanding of the topic, right? Bringing this back to our student population, I assume that many of our students feel like they know so little about Earth science that they "don't even know what to ask." (I hear that sentence a lot.)

Having them do some explanatory writing to kind of catch themselves being confused mid-sentence is so clever! Seems like an excellent way to build metacognition and self-awareness in them and an effective method of getting some assessment data for you. I have tried something similar but rather than writing, it's been verbal and I've called it a "thinkaloud". For example, it might involve a student explaining (out loud) the process that they're using to identify a particular igneous rock......often times, the student might realize part of the way through the thinkaloud that they're confused or not really sure if they're on the right track. I like your method that involves writing because in the absence of videotaping a thinkaloud (which I've done), you don't have an archive of their metacognitive process unless they're writing their thoughts down.

Keep us posted on how the exam wrappers go and if you see evidence for them making a difference between this exam and whenever your next one is.

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Becca Walker
Feb, 2020

Hi Tim-
Becca from Cohort 1 here. I really appreciate you acknowledging that your prior use of exam wrappers has been mostly in response to poor performance. I think that this is the norm--we have so much material to "get through" that it's often a tough sell to sacrifice time in class (or even time for homework) to address things beyond the realm of the scientific content. In my oceanography lab, I felt similarly reactive as opposed to proactive because students were taking the midterm and performing fairly dismally overall......so I would often use the week after the midterm to review the labs that were covered on the midterm. From my perspective, the students seemed a bit sheepish about this, and I was also asked repeatedly why we were reviewing labs that they'd already been tested on. A couple of semesters ago, I decided to be more proactive and start using the first ~30 minutes of lab time to do small-group review exercises where they were asked to solve similar problems as the previous week's lab exercise and explain how they came up with their answers to the questions. Initially, I had to grit my teeth that I was using a half hour of lab time reviewing, but I looked at the data after a couple of semesters and saw that students who were present for the reviews wound up with significantly higher final grades in the course than students who missed several reviews. I was sold and feel like this is a much more proactive approach to promote student success (and includes a major component of metacognition.) I would be particularly interested to hear about how you plan to implement the reflections on studying strategies, the kinds of questions you plan to ask, when you will have them do the reflections, etc. Thanks for your thoughts!

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Becca Walker
Feb, 2020

Hi Christina-
Becca from Cohort 1 here. YES! The importance of understanding and not just doing. I feel so discouraged when I observe students just going through the motions and trying to "get through" a task as quickly as possible without truly understanding what they're doing or the purpose of what they're doing. I see this happening quite a bit when students are working on metric and/or English unit conversions. Sometimes, they will make a computational error or set up a unit conversion problem incorrectly, and in their haste to finish as quickly as possible, they'll get an answer that doesn't make sense (for example, tectonic plates moving a few kilometers per year.) If self-regulation isn't happening in the process of rushing to finish, it won't occur to them that something about their answer doesn't make sense. One of the things that I do that I hope diminishes that "let's get out of here" mentality a bit is trying to incorporate as much societal relevance as possible into whatever topic it is that they're tackling. I am interested in what the reflection in your weekly labs looks like. Is it a "muddiest point" exercise where students discuss what about the lab was confusing or is still unclear upon the conclusion of the lab? Or is it a reflection about what they did in the lab (methods, results, importance, etc.)? Thank you for sharing how the conversation about study time evolved during your class meeting and for pointing out the interesting correlation between students' work schedules, reported study habits, and performance on the exam.

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Becca Walker
Feb, 2020

Hi Anita-
Becca from Cohort 1 here. I'm interested in what you would like the final prompt administered after the lesson to look like in your course. Would students be asked to read their answers to the initial prompt and reflect on their learning at present vs. when they wrote the response to the initial prompt? You might be interested in the work of Chew et al (2016)--Improving students' learning in statics skills: Using homework and exam wrappers to strengthen self-regulated learning--where the authors did some qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of exam wrappers on student learning in an undergrad engineering program.

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Becca Walker
Feb, 2020

Hi Jessica-
Becca from Cohort 1 here. It sounds like you're considering a multifaceted approach to applying metacognition in your courses(?) Or maybe you're going to try one different intervention in each of your courses(?) I appreciate that in addition to the reflective exercises being beneficial for student learning, you're planning to use the reflections as data to inform your own teaching and potentially make some modifications.

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