Metacognition:
Essential Knowledge and Skills for
Expert Learning
Karl Wirth
Macalester College
InTeGrate Webinar
17 November 2015
Reflective Prompt
• What do you MOST wish your students
understood about their own thinking and
learning?
The Goal of Higher Education is…
“to help college students become Intentional
Learners who can adapt to new environments,
integrate knowledge from different sources, and
continue learning throughout their lives.”
Greater Expectations
(2002 AAC&U Report)
Intentional Learners
Becoming an intentional learner means:
developing self-awareness about the
reason for study, the learning process
itself, and how education is used.
Intentional learners are integrative
thinkers who see connections in
seemingly disparate information to inform
their decisions.
Greater Expectations
(2002 AAC&U Report)
Intentional Learners are Self-Directing
Self-directing learners are highly
motivated, independent, and strive toward
self-direction and autonomy. They take
the initiative to diagnose their learning
needs, formulate learning goals, identify
resources for learning, select and
implement learning strategies, and
evaluate learning outcomes.
Savin-Baden and Major (2004)
Metacognition
Learning for the 21st Century
Knowledge
•
•
•
•
relevant and engaging
applicable
integrative
to support higher thinking
Competencies
•
•
•
•
creativity & innovation
critical thinking
communication
collaboration
Character
•
•
•
•
adaptability
persistence
integrity
ethics
Trilling and Fadel (2009)
Workshop Goals
• Define the terms metacognition, self-regulated learning,
and motivation.
• Describe why self-regulated learning is critical for
student success.
• Give examples of activities that target specific elements
of metacognition and self-regulated learning in students
• Analyze metacognitive activities in
small groups and consider how to
implement one for your InTeGrate
module or course.
How can we make this happen?
Metacognition Involves Reflection
• What kind of problem is this?
• What is the best strategy for solving it?
• How will I know if I solved it correctly?
• How could I do it better next time?
• What additional information do I need?
• What use is this new information?
• How can I use my new understanding to
solve different kinds of problems?
Pedagogical Challenge
• Metacognition is a “self-imposed internal
conversation”
• Shown to improve transfer (Bransford et al. 2000)
• Easily assumed that students are doing it, or can
develop on own; both assumptions are wrong
• Challenge is to keep students in constant contact
with their metacognition
• Instruction must be explicit (Pintrich, 2002)
Geologic Time
Personal Resources
• Prior Knowledge
• Available Strategies
Task Requirements
• Type of Learning Task
• Appropriate Strategies
Expert Learners - Knowledge
Metacognitive Knowledge
(declarative, procedural, conditional)
Personal
Resources
Task
Requirements
Prior Knowledge
Available Strategies
Type of Learning
Appropriate Strategies
Modified from Ertmer and Newby (1996)
Expert Learners – Self-Regulation
Metacognitive Knowledge
(declarative, procedural, conditional)
Personal
Resources
Task
Requirements
Prior Knowledge
Available Strategies
Type of Learning
Appropriate Strategies
Metacognitive Control
(self-regulation)
Plan
Evaluate
Monitor
Modified from Ertmer and Newby (1996)
Solving a Problem
Elapsed Time
(mins)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Read
Novices
Analyze
Explore
Plan
Implement
Verify
Elapsed
Time
(mins)
Read
Experts
Analyze
Explore
Plan
Implement
Schoenfeld (1987)
Verify
0 1 2 3
4 5 6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Expert Learners - Affect
Metacognitive Knowledge
(declarative, procedural, conditional)
Personal
Resources
Task
Requirements
Prior Knowledge
Available Strategies
Type of Learning
Appropriate Strategies
Metacognitive Control
(self-regulation)
Plan
Goals
Beliefs
Attitudes
Motivation
Evaluate
Monitor
Modified from Ertmer and Newby (1996)
Affect – Beliefs About Intelligence
• “fixed” versus “growth”
theories of intelligence
• Affects motivation to
learn and persistence
• Students taught study
skills and brain
plasticity outperform
control groups
Dweck’s “Fixed” vs “Growth” Mindsets
• avoid challenges
• embrace challenges
• give up easily
• persist in face of setbacks
• see effort as fruitless
• see effort as path to mastery
• ignore feedback
• Iearn from criticism
• be threatened by
success of others
• find lessons and inspiration in
success of others
Incoming Motivation & Performance
VALUE
Value
Intrinsic Goal Orientation: a student’s
perception that tasks will help achieve a
personal goal
Task Value: how a student views the
importance/value of a task
EXPECTANCY
Expectancy
Self-Efficacy: self-appraisal in ability to
master tasks
Control of Learning: belief that efforts
will result in learning/performance gains
GARNET Project
Students in the lowest quartile of
performance generally have the
lowest incoming value, expectancy,
and self-regulation; opposite those in
highest quartile
Regulation
REGULATION
Metacognitive: awareness and
regulation of learning strategies
Effort: ability to persist with learning in
face of challenges/difficulties
Expert Learners - Reflection
Metacognitive Knowledge
Metacognitive Control
(self-regulation)
(declarative, procedural, conditional)
Personal
Resources
Task
Requirements
Prior Knowledge
Available Strategies
Type of Learning
Appropriate Strategies
Plan
Reflection
Goals
Beliefs
Attitudes
Motivation
Evaluate
Reflection
Monitor
Reflection
Reflection
Modified from Ertmer and Newby (1996)
Metacurriculum for Metacognition
Activity
Knowledge or Skills
Knowledge Surveys
Goal-setting, Monitor. & Eval.
Reading Reflections
Reflection & Monitoring
Learning Reflections Refl., Monitoring & Evaluation
Critical Thinking
Strategies for Thinking
Exam Wrappers
Evaluation & Goal-setting
How I Earned an “A” Goal-setting & Monitoring
Knowledge Surveys:
Goal-Setting, Monitoring, and SelfAssessment
Example Knowledge Survey Items
Items
Level
I can write a definition of a mineral?
Remember
I can describe the cooling of a basaltic magma
using Bowen’s Reaction Series.
Understand
I can calculate the relief of a region.
Apply
I can compare the generation of melts along
convergent and divergent plate boundaries.
Analyze
I can evaluate three potential sites for a landfill. Evaluate
I can construct a model of the origin of a suite
of rocks from a layered intrusion.
1) I don't know the answer
2) I know some of answer
3) I know the answer
Create
Goal-Setting Self-Assessment
Knowledge Surveys:
• Introduced by Nuhfer (1993, 1996)
• Content & skill objectives of course
• Span levels of thinking (Bloom levels)
• Students indicate knowledge/ability
Survey Items
KS Results - Individuals
Knowledge Survey & Exam Results
Mineralogy Knowledge Survey
Results (by item) of pre-course (orange) and pre-exam I (blue) knowledge
surveys. Full scale = “I can provide an answer.”
Students
“Map” of Learning for Dynamic Earth
Pre-Course Survey
Survey Items
“Map” of Learning for Dynamic Earth
Pre-Course Survey
Pre-Exam I Survey
Pre-Exam II Survey
Pre-Exam III Survey
Assessing Interventions
Average responses to knowledge survey questions before (2000-2003 courses)
and after (2005) an intervention. Interventions were made to the units on
crystallography and x-ray mineralogy.
Utility of Knowledge Surveys
Course Design
Clarification of course objectives and structure
Improved organization and preparation
Students
Full disclosure of course objectives and expectations
Study guide
Formative assessment tool
Development of self-assessment skills
Instructors
Assessment of learning gains
Course assessment
Assessment of instructional practices
Programs
Program Objectives
Student Learning
Learning Reflections:
Supporting Learning with
Reflection-in-Action
Reflecting on Learning
• What are the three most important things
you have learned so far? How do they
contribute insights in other areas?
• Describe the learning strategies that you
are using. How might they be adapted
for more effective learning?
• How does learning in this course relate to
other courses? Other aspects of your life?
Critical Thinking:
Tools and Dispositions for Reflection
Reading Reflections:
Reflection and Monitoring
Reading and Reflecting
Reading Reflections:
• Completed after each reading assignment
• Short responses to a few questions
• What is the main point of this reading?
• What did you find surprising? Why?
• What did you find confusing? Why?
• Submitted online before class
• Credit awarded for “reflective” submissions
Exam Scores in Micro-Economics
Course Grades in Intro Geology
Effect Size = 0.71 (Large)
Wrappers:
A Structured Reflection-on-Action
Exam I Revisions
Name:
Be sure to complete the field in both columns for each question that you would like to have re-graded. Hand in
sheets with diagrams separately (don't forget to put your name on them). DO NOT DELETE UNUSED ROWS.
Use Command+Option+Return keys (use Alt+Enter on a PC) to enter a line break within a cell.
To autmatically adjust cell height to accomodate your text, Double-Click lines between rows at the far left.
This file gets uploaded to Moodle. Submit all maps and diagrams, in order, labeled with question number, and Last
Name in class.
Section/Quest I originally thought the answer was…. but A better answer is…. because….
now I understand this is incorrect
because….
I. Matching
1
2
3
4
5
I originally thought the answer was b. "formed by
chemical precipitation", but now I understand
that the lithosphere is part of the mantle, so can
not be precipitated
A better answer is h. "behaves like a rigid solid"
because the lithosphere is composed of crust
and upper mantle that is cold and rigid, hence
"litho" as in stone.
Exam
“Wrapper”
1. Exam Re-do
2. Reflection
• Self Evaluation
• Preparation Strategies
• Performance Analysis
• Planning
Achacoso (2004)
Lovett (2008)
Exam Preparation
Exam “Wrapper” Results
Study Strategies
Analysis of Errors
Learning Reflection:
Goal-Setting
Planning and Goal-Setting
Journal Activity:
Write a letter describing what you
accomplished in this course. The letter
should be dated for the end of the semester
and written in the past tense. Tell me what
you did, how you did it, and how your
thinking and understanding changed.
Begin your letter with:
I earned an “A” in this course because…
The Art of Possibility (Zander and Zander, 2000)
If Lifelong Learning is Our Goal…
Skill
Character
Knowledge
why do so many of our courses look like this?
…. we should be doing something like this
Knowledge
Skill
Characte
r
Metacognition
Reflective Prompt
Considering:
• Ertmer & Newby’s (1996) model of expert
learnering, and
• the examples metacognitive activities
How might you implement a metacognitive
activity to improve student learning in an
InTeGrate module or a course?
Reflection and closing thoughts…?
Reflection & Learning
Dimension
Description
Habitual Action
Minimal thought and engagement; memorization is
emphasized; correlated with surface learning; tasks treated as
unrelated activities; an attitudinal state of non-reflectiveness
Understanding
Focuses on comprehension without relation to one’s personal
experience or other learning situations; book learning that is
understanding-oriented; learning stays within boundaries of
preexisting perspectives
Reflection
Learning is related to personal experience and other
knowledge; involves challenging assumptions, seeking
alternatives, identifying areas of improvement; active
engagement; characteristic of deep approaches to learning
Critical or
Intensive
Reflection
Highest level of reflective learning; learners are aware of why
they think, perceive, or act as they do; as a result, learner likely
alters or changes firmly held personal beliefs and ways of
thinking
Modified from Mezirow (1991) and Kember et al. (2000)