Month: January 2019

On the Benefits of Metacognition: Seeking Justice by Overcoming Shallow Understanding

By John Draeger, SUNY Buffalo State

In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. responds to the white moderates of Birmingham who believed his protests were ill-timed and unnecessary. He writes:

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. (King, 295)

White moderates baffled King because he knew them to be people of good will. Why would they talk the equality talk without walking the walk? For example, they worried that King’s protests threatened to undermine the rule of law. Yet, King argued that respect for the law and for the human beings governed by those laws, demanded standing against injustice even when, perhaps especially when, it would be convenient for whites to do otherwise. Moreover, King’s respect for the system of law was underscored by the fact that the protests were nonviolent and the protestors were willing to accept the consequences of their lawbreaking. King’s letter challenged the white moderates of Birmingham to consider why they were so reluctant to side with those being treated unjustly. In short, King called on them (and us today) to be more metacognitive.

The Benefits of Metacognition

            Metacognition is the ongoing awareness of a process and a willingness to adjust when necessary. King’s letter argued that the white moderates needed to become aware of a broader set of issues and adjust their actions accordingly. For example, white moderates were concerned about the safety of their families and the fact that protests might turn violent. This seems reasonable until we consider the living conditions and often violent treatment of their black neighbors. King suggests that white moderates were emotionally disconnected from the lived experience of those affected by segregation and this disconnect helped explain their tepid endorsement of the civil rights movement. Willful ignorance can shield us from uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the world around us. It is often easier not to ask tough questions than to face unflattering answers. However, metacognition prompts us to consider the quality of our thought processes and then take action based on a new awareness of ourselves.

Raising awareness by purposefully engaging our reasons for action (or non-action) might prompt us to ask the following sorts of metacognitive prompting questions.

  • How well do I understand those around me?
  • When am I less likely to question what I am doing?
  • What are the forces that keep me from being connected to the suffering of others?
  • When am I less likely to see the harms done to others? Are the harms invisible (e.g., internal struggles that I could only see with careful listening)? Or would harms be visible to me if I were paying attention?
  • Why am I not paying attention to others?
  • Do I tend to avoid bad news because ignorance is psychologically easier?
  • Am I afraid of asking myself difficult questions because I doubt I can do anything about it anyway?
  • Am I afraid to rock the boat?
  • Am I afraid to ask questions that will paint me in a bad light?

The list of relevant questions could go on for pages and it will likely depend on the particular circumstances, but it is worth remembering that it was in inability of white moderates to ask such questions led King to write his letter. If we want to avoid similar pitfalls, then each of us must find the wherewithal to take a hard look in the mirror and adjust when necessary.

Looking forward

            I find King’s letter especially relevant at a time when many of us are coming to grips with how address issues raised by the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements as well as the worldwide conversation surrounding immigration. I believe that there are rich research opportunities at the intersection of metacognition and ethical reasoning. For example, how might metacognition help overcome implicit bias or microaggression? How might it support the development of respect for humankind? I hope to consider these issues in future posts.

References

King, M. L. (1963).  “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., ed. James Washington (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1986).


Utilizing Student-Coded Exams for Responsive Teaching and Learning

by Dana Melone, Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School

Welcome to the start of a semester for most teachers.  My name is Dana Melone and I teach AP Psychology and AP Research at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School.  Most educators will give some sort of multiple-choice test during the semester, and as educators we want our students to use their exams as a learning tool, not just as a summative experience.  Unfortunately, many students just pop a graded exam into their folder and move on.  Today I would like to give you some strategies you can use as a teacher to get students to learn from their mistakes as well as their correct answers.  

pencil laying across a multiple-choice test question

These strategies also give teachers the opportunity to look at their own teaching and find commonalities in the mistakes their students are making. If your students are all making similar mistakes you can reteach this topic in a new way.  If mistakes are spread out it may inform you that your students need to work on study skills.  Your students can use these examples to examine their own thinking and learning (become more metacognitive) and become advocates for themselves.   You and your students utilize metacognitive processes to become better teachers and learners.

Let’s start with the exam itself.  Students often get their exam back and struggle to remember what their thinking was when they took it. If you are giving a paper exam, students can use a coded system as they take their test to remember their thinking later.  For example, if a student feels they knew the answer to the question and they feel confident in their choice then they can put a checkmark next to that question.  If they were able to narrow it down but were not entirely sure they made the right choice they can put a dash next to the question.  If they had no idea than they can use an x.  This allows students to remember their thinking as they look back at their exam. Students can find out if they are always missing similar style or topic questions that they thought they already knew.  They can use these self-coded exams as they get close to finals as a study tool.  Students can also take note whether or not their thinking was correct.  If they are the ones about which they felt confident wrong, they need to explore that further.   Student-coded exams also allow teachers to look at patterns for their own use and modify their teaching appropriately, i.e. be metacognitive in their teaching.  For example, teachers can change their focus if a large number of students indicated that they did not know similar concepts or struggled with application questions.  Or, if students indicate that they narrowed down to the best two choices but chose poorly, teachers can share strategies to deal with that issue.  Why do this?  The hope is that students will become more aware of what is working and what isn’t and that by making them more aware, they will make adjustments. By regularly practicing these metacognitive skills, we hope that students will learn to adjust on their own.

Once students get their exam back a next step for many teachers is to have students complete exam corrections.  I have seen many formats of exam corrections.  The methods that really get students thinking about the content and their own testing strategy produce metacognitive awareness.  Here are some methods that you could use individually or combine:

  1. Have students write why they think they got the question wrong.  Was it an error in reading the question?  Did they not know the content?  Did they narrow it down to two but chose incorrectly?
  2. Have students explain why the answer they chose is incorrect or why the correct answer is correct.
  3. Have students rewrite the question to make their wrong answer right.
  4. Have students write a memory aid to help them remember that concept in the future.
  5. Have students write out what they found tricky about that concept.
  6. Have students write out how that concept relates to them or another concept in the course.
  7. Have students categorize the concepts they missed by learning target or standard and draw a conclusion about that target or standard as a whole.  Many classrooms are moving to standards-based learning or a select few overrising concepts students must master to be proficient in the course.  If you can organize your exam to show students patterns they are making with these standards, it can help them make good study decisions and help you make good teaching decisions.

How can we as educators know if students have gotten the most out of this process?  Try including questions on the most commonly missed topics on future exams at no cost to the students. Meaning, do not penalize their score.  Make these questions formative to see if they are making progress.   Do you have great ideas for test corrections that produce metacognition? Let us know.