Day: August 20, 2014

Assessing Metacognitive Awareness

Constructed by Rayne Sperling and Gregory Schraw (1994), the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) is a well established and useful assessment of metacogntion. The MAI has been used in hundreds of studies, ranging from basic to applied research. It is a 52-item inventory with two broad categories (i.e., knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition), with several sub-categories.

Schraw, G., & Dennison, R. S. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness.Contemporary educational psychology, 19(4), 460-475.

 


The Effects of Metacognition and Concrete Encoding Strategies on Depth of Understanding in Educational Psychology

Suzanne Schellenberg, Meiko Negishi, and Paul Eggen (2011) from the University of North Florida describe a useful method to increase the metacognition of their students. They found that when educational psychology students were taught specific encoding strategies they academically outperformed a control group in learning course material.

Schellenberg, S., Negishi, M., & Eggen, P. (2011). The Effects of Metacognition and Concrete Encoding Strategies on Depth of Understanding in Educational Psychology. Teaching Educational Psychology, 7(2), 17-24.


Changing Epistemological Beliefs in Pre-service Teacher Education Students

Joanne Brownlee, Nola Purdie, and Gillian Boulton-Lewis (2010) describe an interesting method to increase student’s epistemological beliefs using reflective journal assignments. Brownlee and colleagues found that when students engaged in these reflective practices, they had significantly improved their epistemological beliefs over that of students who did not complete these activities.

Brownlee, J., Purdie, N., & Boulton-Lewis, G. (2001). Changing epistemological beliefs in pre-service teacher education students. Teaching in higher Education,6(2), 247-268.