Author: Sarah Benes

Using Learning Portfolios to Support Metacognition

Dr. Sarah Benes, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Nutrition and Public Health, Merrimack College

Over the past four years, I have been exploring the concept of metacognition. In many ways, I think metacognition has been a large part of how I work as a practitioner both in my personal practice of reflection and in how I practice the art of teaching. However, it wasn’t until I switched faculty positions that I really started to dive into intentional research and practice around metacognition.

line drawing of a satchel, pen and paper inside a circleAs noted in the “Finding Your People” blog post, this was largely because I had difficulty adjusting to new students at a new school. The challenges that arose prompted me to find ways to meet the needs of my new students in order to support their growth as learners and as people. One of the strategies that quickly arose as a strategy that could help was metacognition.

I am the kind of teacher who likes to try things. I have done a number of different activities (both research based and more “practice based”) over the past 4 years and have learned much from all of them. However, one practice in particular that stands out to me as having a significant impact on student learning and in the overall experience of the course was the use of learning portfolios. I have used similar strategies previously in both graduate and undergraduate courses, but never with an intentional focus on metacognition. The books, Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy (New Pedagogies and Practices for Teaching in Higher Education) by Kaplan et al., (2013) and Creating Self Regulated Learners by Nilson (2013), were resources I used (along with other research) to put the pieces together to design and develop the learning portfolio.

I primarily teach two courses: Introduction to Public Health (mostly first-year students) and Health Behavior and Promotion (mostly sophomores and juniors). Both courses serve students in the School of Health Science. I first integrated the learning portfolio into my Health Behavior and Promotion course with great success. I plan to create a learning portfolio for my Introduction to Public Health course this fall and am excited to see how it works!

Overview of the Learning Portfolio

The learning portfolio was a “deliverable” that students worked on for the whole semester. The learning portfolio was connected to a course “e-book” in which I introduced weekly topics and objectives, outlined the class preparation & included prompts for the learning portfolio (more on the “e-book” below). Students kept notes, reflections, and responses to other assignments in their portfolios. In order to support student success, students submitted the portfolios 4 times over the semester (about every 3 weeks). Each time students submitted the portfolio they received a grade based mainly on completeness. I considered “completeness” the extent to which they addressed all prompts.

I should note here that not all of their reflections are necessarily connected to metacognition. However, in most sets of prompts given, the majority of the prompts related to metacognition. Students were asked to reflect specifically their experiences in the course, how their experiences were impacting their learning, connections they are making to the content, their perceptions of the usefulness and applicability of content in their lives, their use (or lack of) metacognitive and self-regulation strategies, etc.

E-Book

One component of the learning portfolio involved responding to prompts in the “e-book”. The “e-book” included the following three “components”: 1) an introduction to the content for each week (and how it connects to previous learning), 2) guidance on what to focus on in the class preparation, and 3) metacognitive reflective questions.

The introduction to the content included connections to the learning objectives (which were also presented in the syllabus), described why they were learning the material and how it connected to previous learning. I hoped that the introduction would help them monitor and evaluate their understanding of the course content week to week and within the broader context of the whole course.

With the class preparation guidance, I was hoping to help students develop task oriented skills. I have often found it a challenge to get students to complete class preparation. Students have also been honest and shared that my concerns around the lack of class preparation completion were not unfounded. I thought that providing some guidance on what to focus on and look for might help increase the number of students completing the class prep and also increase students’ ability to retain the information and be ready to use the content in class. I also hoped that the guidance might also help them with task oriented and evaluative skills.

While I don’t have any specific data about the impacts, I definitely noticed a positive difference in student participation during this semester compared to others. Students also seemed to have a stronger grasp on the content. Of course, there are many reasons that I could attribute to these improvements, but my teaching itself didn’t change that much and the one variable that was definitely different was the “e-book” and learning portfolio.

The final component of the “e-book” were the reflective questions. Questions varied week to to week. Sample questions::

  • How does what you read and watched for today connect to your prior knowledge learning? How does it connect to the reading from Monday?
  • Review the syllabus and assignments posted in the Assignments folder, what assignments do you feel align with your strengths as a student? Which might be more challenging? Why? What are strategies you could use to help you to be successful?
  • What are 3 key points from these readings and the video that you think are important for college students to know?

Each class prep assignment had these kinds of reflective questions for students to activate and connect to prior learning, to monitor and evaluate their learning, and to help them identify their strengths and areas for improvement.

Lessons Learned

Using a learning portfolio in my course taught me many things:

  • I have learned that students communicate their thoughts, reflections and experiences in many different ways. Some responses are brief and concise, some are more “stream of consciousness”, and some provide extremely thoughtful and thorough, more polished responses. I learned to focus more on the purpose of the activity (to think about themselves and their learning), rather than the “quality” of their reflections. I felt that my my bias of what I believe a quality reflection “looks like” might impact students’ learning and growth.
  • I experienced the value of being able to have a “dialogue” with students through the portfolio though my feedback. Sometimes the feedback was a question, my perspectives, a connection to course content, etc. I saw the learning portfolio as a dialogue between me and the students more than a gradable assignment (though assigning points helps with motivation and completion). Student responses to these questions helped me to connect with students more deeply and provide feedback to support their learning and also add different perspectives than we may have been able to cover in class. I feel that I was able to get to know students a lot better through this model, that I was able to engage differently with each student (which I don’t always get to do in a course) .
  • The learning portfolio was also a place where students recorded responses to in-class discussion prompts. Sometimes I would have students respond to discussion prompts before the discussion in class to allow students to gather their thoughts, and sometimes it was after discussion to allow for processing time. I learned that this was a great way to be able to receive responses from all students as I often can’t get around to hear from students when discussing in class and students don’t always feel comfortable speaking up but it is often not because they don’t have valuable contributions. The learning portfolio structure allowed me to “hear from” each student.
  • I learned that it takes a little work to get “buy in” from students, which is why I spend about 2 weeks at the start of the semester talking about learning and metacognition. That way, students have a foundation to understand the “why” behind the learning portfolio (and other aspects of the course). However, I believe the time is well spent and that the content and skills they gain from both the class content and the learning portfolio are as important (maybe for some students even more important) than the course content itself.

Conclusion

Adding the learning portfolio to my class has been one of the more impactful strategies I have tried. It is a lot of upfront work and a decent amount of work during the semester if I respond to all students, but I saw a significant improvement in student engagement and student learning. I also felt that I connected more with students and got to know them better. I am looking forward to trying this approach with my first-year students this fall (perhaps another blog post will be in order to share how it goes)!


Meta What? Scaffolding learning for the still developing prefrontal cortex

by Kristy Forrest, M.Ed., Academic Advisor and Success Coach,
Office of Academic Support & Advising, Merrimack College

(Post #5 Integrating Metacognition into Practice Across Campus, Guest Editor Series Edited by Dr. Sarah Benes)

Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of thought itself. In practice, it involves student planning, monitoring, evaluating and regulating thoughts in relation to learning and problem-solving. More broadly, metacognition in college refers to higher-order thinking, “thinking about thinking,” and impacts student reflection and educational motivation.

drawing of human head silhouette with a light bulb lighting inside to represent thinking     

My team and I, representing the Office of Academic Support & Advising at Merrimack College, serve traditional college-aged students at a private four-year catholic institution. As Advisors and Success Coaches, part of our role is to provide developmental skill building workshops, programming, and courses. Together, we strive to support all student development including metacognitive growth. We teach our students the concept of metacognition, how to apply it, and its value in achieving academic success.

Metacognition in Teaching

Our approach is interdisciplinary. Combining concepts from advising theory, pedagogy, and developmental and learning psychology, we designed a one-credit academic development course for our students on academic probation. The idea is to learn new academic skills that are transferable in all coursework. As instructors, we help students understand metacognition as an intervention to trigger deeper understanding, comprehension, and most importantly, how applying metacognitive practices can eliminate prior gaps in their learning.

Students learn that applying metacognitive study practices not only develops deeper curiosity as learners but also how the cycle of previewing, attending, and reviewing increases the quality of their work. Additionally, they see that reflective thinking, self-regulation and self-discipline results in higher quality academic performance. Once they begin to achieve success they are more empowered and motivated to engage in work that is difficult. Moving beyond study skills to enhanced scholarly work has become our hook. We gain student buy-in much faster than when we focused only on study skills.

Nuts & Bolts of Our Course


For students who take our 1 credit course, over 90% enrolled increase their GPA an average of 1 to 1.7 points, and ultimately get and stay off academic probation. As mentioned above, we do teach the basic mechanics, habits and skills needed to be effective college students but buy-in can be tough with getting college students to see value in foundational study skills. Although we know how critical these skills are, they say that workshops about these topics often make them feel belittled. Until struggling students experience the benefits of these practices, there is quite a bit of resistance. They are, however, intrigued when we use terminology like, “applying metacognitive practices for academic success and development of higher order thinking”, and “increased competencies”.

In our one-credit course my team and I combine philosophical and practical theoretical concepts such as Chickering’s “Seven Vectors of Student Identity”; Bandura’s Self-Efficacy: Rotter’s Locus of Control: Dweck’s Growth Mindset; Duckworth’s Grit Model; and, of course, Flavell and McGuire’s Models on Metacognition. Students are required to engage in this scholarship and reflect on how each applies to them.      

We begin with the concept of student identity and ask them what this means for them. We learned that so many of our students do not identify as scholarly students and so their self-concept needs reframing. This is where we initiate reflective thinking. When we ask students to take the time to define and explore what it means to be a student, and compare it with newly learned metacognitive strategies, we begin to see transformation in their approach to their learning. With greater awareness of how knowledge is acquired, that the expectation in college is to move beyond memorization to instead analyzing and evaluating, and that learning how to think about thinking, our students better understand where the goal post is. They now value becoming self-disciplined, self-regulated learners.

With this messaging, we also help them to connect how their thoughts and emotions impact their behaviors and how they are in control of their academic consequences. After establishing this new insight we discuss locus of control, growth mindset, grit, and metacognitive study practices. Through these frameworks we also work to dispel their imposter syndrome and slowly we see them disarm.

Metacognition in Advising & Coaching

Beyond our course, through general advising and coaching, we typically find academic struggles are not a reflection of student capacity, but rather a problem in habits and skills, or, lack of metacognition in their practice. In one-to-one student coaching meetings we provide individualized attention using metacognitive strategies in supporting our students to connect the dots in their coursework. Ideally, professors are doing this already. However, there are times when we see the assignments go unquestioned by students simply trying to check the done box and not understanding the why and how in the work. Basically, students sometimes fail to integrate incremental assignments with the larger concepts.

We work to develop academic skills including metacognitive strategies, so that students better comprehend their material and build competencies in their discipline. As college educators serving adolescents, we need to consider that developmentally, without a fully developed prefrontal cortex, adolescents may not have the full capacity or neuro-connectivity to put these pieces together on their own. Metacognition supports the development of this exact connectivity. 

The Missing Meta Link in Student Learning

Students frequently report after learning about metacognition they now have an explanation to why they were struggling. They share that they never knew how impactful the little things like organizing, planning, scheduling, previewing, attending, and reviewing are. After recognizing that they previously did not exercise metacognitive skills, and they begin using them, students are able to recognize enhancement in their academic performance. A bonus is when their defenses come down and they open up.

Metacognition is one way that allows students to connect their choices and actions to their academic results. Referring back to developmental psychology, connecting thoughts, feelings and behavior is still really hard for a person with an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. As advisors, coaches, and instructors, shedding light on this for students is where we can make a difference. Additionally, we plant seeds for further integrated learning as our adolescents develop into emerging adulthood.

Big Returns of Metacognition

The returns of learning this concept are bountiful. My favorite thing about teaching students the concept of metacognition is how it can open the floodgates to their development because it applies to every area of learning across all academic programs, disciplines, professions, or careers in every industry. Knowing about metacognition is not just a college tool. It’s a life tool.


Wisdom Gained from a Tree Assignment

by Dr. Anne Gatling, Associate Professor, Chair Education Department, Merrimack College

(Post #4 Integrating Metacognition into Practice Across Campus, Guest Editor Series Edited by Dr. Sarah Benes)

On the first day of class, I greet my new students with “get to know you” games before walking them through the outline of the semester. I am a science educator and my students are either juniors or graduate students preparing to teach early childhood and elementary education majors.

The last assignment I share with my students is a tree study. Out of all of my assignments, the tree study assignment captures their attention in very different ways. Students often say: “Observe a ‘what’, for the whole semester?” They ponder this for a while. I reply, “Yes, observe a tree, any tree, at least once a month for the whole semester.”

You may be wondering what the connection is to metacognition with this assignment. I view the tree study as a “stepping stone” toward building metacognitive skills. Students develop self-awareness and mindfulness, which can both contribute to metacognition. It can be helpful to have multiple “entry points” for students when it comes to developing metacognition and metacognitive skills. While this may be a more “indirect” path, it can be beneficial to address self-awareness and mindfulness on their own and recognize the potential benefits for metacognition as well.

Tree Study Overview

Each month, for this assignment all they need to do is make a prediction of their tree and an additional new task along the way, such as sketch your tree, observe little signs of critters, and/or work to identify it. Little did I know that this assignment would become much more than a simple observation. Yes, the students became aware of their surroundings through the observation of the trees, more in tune with the process of observing how things change over time, but more importantly I see my students becoming more and more aware of themselves and their environment.

Here is an example of one students’ tree sketch.

a student's sketch of a large tree along with a note regarding the beauty of the day (May 1) when it was sketched.

This assignment is much different than my other assignments in that I don’t require much more than them taking a picture of their adopted tree once a month and making a few general observations and predictions. I try to meet the students where they are. Some dive in and some just skip around with minimal observations. It is ok. There are far too many things that are high stakes, I just let this one be. I honestly have come to a point where I don’t even want to give this assignment a grade.

What have I learned?

However, I didn’t always have this perspective about the assignment. Initially, this assignment was to help students experience a long-term biology observation, closely investigating changes in a tree, identification, tree rubbings, height etc. But over the years I have come to discover that this assignment means so much more to the students, especially now with quarantines etc.

While I initially didn’t think of this assignment in this way, I have come to realize that these students were also building an awareness of how much of their lives aren’t in the moment and are just beginning to build skills to find their place in the world. This has the potential to help them with their emotional regulation and mindfulness.

More recently I have come to realize that these students were also building an awareness of how much they weren’t in the moment and are beginning to build skills to find their place in the world. This has the potential to help them with their emotional regulation and mindfulness.  

While I enjoy seeing their tree pictures, sketches and observations throughout the semester, I have come to love their final reflections. Students each find their own way with the assignment, learning patience in waiting for a new bud, or reaching to touch a tree for the first time. Many students mention becoming more aware of, and appreciating, nature and their surroundings and becoming more aware of small changes. As I consider metacognition and its role in this assignment, I see it as a type of proto-metacognition activity.  

Student Outcomes

This process of long-term observation has many students learning the importance of patience. Either their tree sprouted much later than others or their predictions missed the mark. Many students become more aware of and gain an appreciation for the subtle changes as well. “I would never have paid any attention to the trees or thought about doing this if it were not for this assignment. I was able to observe how quickly the tree changes and how crazy it is how the trees just do that on their own.”

One student named her tree and a few students even got their friends involved in making observations. Some were able to spy critters they never knew visited their trees via tracks, and even direct observation. Many students mention looking forward to continuing to observe their tree to see how it continues to grow and change and think of a variety of ways to bring a similar type of study to their future students.

In the beginning, I set more expectations, and not every student saw such value in the assignment. Yet, over time I have learned where to give and where to let go and students seem more ready to see where this experience takes them.   This final tree study reflection gives students an opportunity to consider how this tree study impacted them and their learning.

Some students have even found a deeper connection to this assignment. One student, a graduate student placed in a challenging classroom, said, “You go about your day-to-day life and never notice the intricate details that nature undergoes during the springtime. Overall, I think that this assignment forced me to take a second and look at the things that surround me every day. I had never really noticed the tree across the street. . . I like that I got to look closer at the things around me and just take a second. I love trees when I am hiking and sometimes feel like I can only get it then, but this assignment showed me that it is right out my front door always.”

Students, especially now since Covid, seem to be making more changes in how they are looking, slowing down in their process of observation. Maybe by developing more self-awareness and a deeper awareness of their surroundings this assignment can contribute to metacognition perhaps in a more indirect way, offering my students different entry points to the field.

I just assigned the fall tree study this week. I will check in each week and yesterday took them to visit the school garden. There I welcomed them to taste some of its bounty and relax in the peaceful lawn under the trees. Just take time.

In closing, I feel one undergraduate truly embraced this experience in her final project. She placed this poem just above her final tree illustration slide.

Here I sit beneath a tree,
Heartbeat strong,
My soul hums free.
Angie Weiland Crosby

A special thank you to Marcia Edson and Jeff Mehigan for their design of the initial tree study.


Building Emotional Regulation and Metacognition through Academic Entrepreneurship

by Traci McCubbin, M.A., Director of the Promise Program, Merrimack College

(Post #3 Integrating Metacognition into Practice Across Campus, Guest Editor Series Edited by Dr. Sarah Benes)

I teach a required academic study skills course for undergraduate students that have been placed on academic probation. Students share a variety of reasons that have led to their academic predicament, including but not limited to: underdeveloped academic and/or study skills, social and emotional difficulties, time management flaws, and economic challenges.

After digging a bit deeper with students, I found a common trend in addition to the reasons they shared: they lacked positive coping strategies for regulating their emotions. These emotions could be related to difficulties experienced both inside and outside of the classroom. For example, I had students report that they had not been able to cope with the crushing emotions of a close friendship ending. They had either stopped attending class or could not focus in class for weeks.

cartoon of guy sitting in chair and overwhelmed by negative thoughts

As you may guess, their poor academic performance was hindering their academic confidence, and their mindset was more fixed than growth. This blog post shares my creation of self-regulation and metacognition development activities that parallel steps that might be taken when professionals create a business plan. Hence the course title, Academic Entrepreneurship.

Motivating Question: How could I even begin to teach academic strategies or have students reflect on their metacognition, if I couldn’t address their emotional state?

Drawing on Literature and Personal Experience

To begin to answer this question, I turned to the research and published work of Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Emotions, Learning & the Brain and Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Immordino-Yang’s (2016) research reveals that emotions must be present for learning to occur and that strong social emotions, both positive and negative, have the power to motivate our decisions and actions including educational decisions and actions (Imordino-Yang, 2016, pp. 107,171). Dweck’s (2006) studies consistently show the positive power of a growth mindset and the disruptive power of a fixed mindset. Growth mindset is the idea that intelligence and abilities can be developed overtime with hard work and persistence, while fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence is predetermined or set (Dweck, 2006).

Through my own reflection on my academic journey, I began to understand how my emotions both positively and negatively impacted my learning. During my middle school days, I struggled with math. My mindset was fixed, and I believed that I was not capable of being successful in this subject area. It was as if every time a new concept was taught, I could feel a metal fortress of walls enclose around my brain to prevent any helpful information from penetrating the walls. Despite this struggle, I did finally master fractions and some of the intro to algebra concepts.

As one might expect of a student with a fixed mindset, my frustrations with math and my feelings of defeat followed me from middle school to high school. My high school math teacher started our class off with a review of fractions; immediately, I felt my heart race, my palms get sweaty, and the metal walls beginning to enclose. It was in this moment of panic that I decided to take a few deep breaths, which allowed me to gain clarity. I reminded myself that I already knew how to handle fractions and that I was capable of learning. That moment was life changing, I had adopted a growth mindset. I began to apply this strategy to my fixed mindset areas including but not limited to: running, science, and drumming. Overtime, I began to take more advance math courses and my overall high school GPA began to climb. I have demonstrated both a growth and fixed mindset in different areas of my academic, professional, and personal life. I believe the same must be true for most people as well as for my students.

My personal experiences, combined with the literature, led me to incorporate key components into my study skills course: emotional regulation practices, regular activities to incorporate mindfulness and mindset, and an overarching course theme of entrepreneurship.

Academic Entrepreneurship Class Context

I decided to provide my students with the opportunity to practice coping skills for regulating their emotions, better understand their mindset, and explore the power of growth mindset. Throughout the semester, we opened the start of each class with a 5-minute-or-less mindfulness meditation or a meditative activity such as mindfulness coloring or progressive relaxation. Students were then given time to reflect on the activity and share how they could apply this strategy in their personal lives and/or in the classroom when they felt overwhelmed or highly energized. Mindset was introduced through a series of video clips and case studies. Students were given multiple opportunities throughout the semester to reflect on their mindset and identify opportunities to challenge their mindset.

Concurrent with the self-regulation activities, students were asked to view their academic approach through the lens of an entrepreneur to enhance their metacognitive perspective. The idea is that by building their personal academic business plan, students are empowered to take ownership of their academic experience through a series of metacognitive reflections, exploration of new study skill strategies, and opportunities to practice new and strengthen pre-existing academic skillsets. Students were asked to focus on four areas of a business plan:

  • Company Descriptions: Students create their description by engaging in activities and reflections designed to help them identify their interests, personal values, previous academic experiences, activities that bring them joy, and areas of struggle.
  • Projections: Instead of setting financial projections, students are introduced to SMART Goals and set 4-5 goals with benchmarks for tracking their progress. Students are encouraged to set 2 goals related to their academic progress, one for health and wellness, and one for professional discovery.
  • SWOT Analysis: Students work through motivational interviewing to help each other identify their strengths and successes, areas of weakness, opportunities, and threats. They are also challenged to address their weaknesses and threats by applying their strengths and resources.
  • Marketing Plan: Through a series of activities and reflections, students create a plan to sell their Academic Success Business by identifying skills that they strengthen over the semester, resources they accessed, strategies they incorporated, and how these steps translate to leadership.

Schematic with three components: 1) Fixed Mindset; Emotional Disregulation, 2) Practicing emotional regulation skills; identifying mindset; working towards growth mindset, 3) Postive Student Development Outcomes

Figure 1. Academic Entrepreneurship Course Process

Concluding Question: Was I able to help my students practice and implement coping skills for managing their emotions, take ownership of their academic experience, develop a growth mindset, and think critically about their own thinking and learning?

Yes, somewhat, and no….the answer is a bit more complicated and dependent on the student.

Students did proactively engage in the mindfulness meditations and activities of their own accord. They always had the option to remain respectfully quiet and not participate in the meditations or activities. When prompted by an anonymous poll in class about their recent meditative experience, the majority of students requested that we allow for longer practices and activities. They also proactively engaged in dialogues on how they could use these techniques during study breaks, stressful parts of a test, or when dealing with their roommates.

Students landed in very different places when it came to taking ownership of their academic experience, development of a growth mindset, and metacognitive thinking. By the end of the semester a few students had fully taken ownership of their academic experience, were thinking critically and questioning their learning approach and actions, were working towards developing a growth mindset, and could identify when a fixed mindset was starting to develop.

The majority of the students made progress in one area and less progress in the other areas, or only made progress in one area. A few did not make progress outside of practicing their emotional regulation activities.

Though results were mixed, I still believe it is important to teach emotional regulation techniques, provide space for practice, and give students the time to explore and understand their mindset and metacognitive perspective. If students are more aware of their emotional state and able to exercise regulation strategies, they will be better equipped for reflecting on their mindset and metacognitive perspective. This understanding will help them implement a potential shift in perspective and targeted strategies for success. Development takes time and cannot always occur in the framework of a semester. I believe the seeds have been planted and can be nurtured by the student when they are ready to tend to their garden.

References

Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: the New Psychology of Success. Random House.

Immordino-Yang, M.H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. W.W.Norton & Company.

Resources

TEDx Manhattan Beach. (2011). Mary Helen Immordino-Yang – Embodied Brains, Social Minds. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RViuTHBIOq8

Trevor Ragan. (2016). Growth Mindset Introduction: What it is, How it Works, and Why it Matters. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75GFzikmRY0

Trevor Ragan. (2014). Carol Dweck – A Study on Praise and Mindsets. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY#action=share


Helping students become self-directed writers

Dr. Christina Hardway, Professor, Department of Psychology, Merrimack College

(Post #2: Integrating Metacognition into Practice Across Campus, Guest Editor Series Edited by Dr. Sarah Benes)

Helping students to become self-directed learners is, arguably, one of the most important outcomes of education. Self-directed learning is proposed as a circular (and iterative) process. It involves making a plan, monitoring one’s progress, and then making changes or adapting as needed. These behaviors occur within the context of one’s beliefs about learning and abilities to succeed (see figure, adapted from Ambrose, et al., 2010).

schematic showing elements of self-directed learning as adapted from Ambrose et al 2010: Assessing the assignment, Evaluating personal resources, Planning accordingly, Applying plan and monitoring progress, Reflecting and adjusting if needed

Helping students to build better metacognitive skills during their regular coursework is important (see Education Endowment Foundation, 2020). This is, perhaps, because metacognitive knowledge (e.g. cognition about cognition), is a relatively abstract concept. Learning theorists like Jean Piaget suggest that learning concrete concepts occurs before learning abstract principles. For this reason, I believe that it is important to provide students with explicit tasks embedded in their courses so that they can practice these skills in order to build this more abstract and flexible set of metacognitive competencies.

This blog post shares activities and suggestions to help students build more metacognitive skills and become better self-directed learners as they complete a challenging, semester-long writing assignment.      

Beliefs and Assumptions

I have taught a writing intensive research methodology course for many years, and the work in this course lends itself to an embedded approach to teaching metacognitive skills. It also presents an opportunity to help students examine their implicit attitudes toward learning and writing. Students come to the classroom with ideas about themselves as writers and may labor under notions like, “I am not a good writer” or “I have to wait until the last minute to start, because that is when I do my best work.” It is within this context that teaching students explicit and concrete ways to self-regulate their learning of the writing process is helpful. Providing activities throughout the semester helps students adjust these beliefs and build better writing practices, which can help them to not only convey their ideas, but also learn from that writing process.

Additionally, the kind of writing required in research courses is often novel for undergraduate students. Many students enrolled in the course are in their second or third semester of college and have never written a long research proposal.      Their assumptions about how to approach this task are, therefore, not always aligned with the requirements. Many students also experience anxiety when faced with an assignment like writing an extensive research paper for the first time. As a result, the assignment of writing a long research proposal, as they are asked to do in this course, provides an opportunity to practice the emotional regulation skills required to successfully manage their intellectual endeavors.

Activities to guide the process of self-directed learning

For each phase of this self-directed learning cycle, I include prompts to guide students to explicitly consider their (often) implicit assumptions about the way they work. Each of these activities gives students the opportunity to reflect on their understanding of the writing process and build better metacognitive skills. Sometimes, these activities are presented in a free-writing exercise, and I commonly divide students into smaller groups to discuss their responses and then report back to the group. This sharing allows students to see that their peers often experience the same struggles during the writing process, and they can offer one another advice or support.

Assessing the assignment. With the permission of previous students, I provide examples of completed work to new students, together with my own annotations, highlighting places where and how requirements were met. This gives them a concrete understanding of what to accomplish. Additionally, I provide a detailed rubric that I review with students multiple times so they can continually compare their progress with the final expectations of the assignment.

Evaluating personal resources. I prompt students to evaluate their personal resources as writers, early in the course. To accomplish this,     I ask them to reflect on their approach to writing by responding to questions like: “Please tell me a bit about your writing process and a few ways you would like to improve as a writer” (adapted from Dunn, 2011). This reflection invites them to step back from the immediate tasks and see their work as connected to their development as scholars, writers, and learners.

Planning. To help students make appropriate plans for completing a long multi-step assignment, I ask them to develop a concrete work-plan, as well as to discuss these plans with others. Two kinds of conversations can facilitate this process. One set of prompts gives students a chance to make specific plans to complete their work, including questions like, “Identify times you can complete this work” and “How much work will you complete at each time?” The other set of prompts are designed to scaffold their intellectual development. Through small-group conversations, students describe their research ideas to other students, with instructions like this: “Please describe your research interest. This is an opportunity to discuss your research ideas with someone else. Talking through your ideas is a good way to not only receive feedback, but also, it gives you a sense about which things are clear to you and which concepts need more clarification.”  

Applying & Monitoring. I also ask students to write drafts of sections of this larger paper and to visit a writing fellow in our College Writing Center to discuss them. To help students monitor their progress, I have asked them to complete reflective activities after tutorial sessions, including questions like, “Please describe what you learned about the writing process in your meeting.” and “Please describe AT LEAST three specific revisions for your paper, based on your meeting with the Writing Fellow.”

Reflecting & Adjusting. Several reflective opportunities embedded in the course help students to adjust their approach to writing.

  1. Peer review reflections: At the more immediate level, I ask students to engage in an intensive peer-review process, whereby they read each others’ papers to provide specific feedback. This process of helping others to improve their writing often provokes them to reflect more broadly on the writing process. I ask students to use the paper’s grading rubric, as well as a series of questions that help them to think about ways to evaluate whether the paper under review meets the criteria. For example, I ask them to notice if they need to re-read a passage to understand the author’s point, as this might indicate revision is warranted. After peer-review, students engage in conversations about what they have learned from the process, and I also ask them to identify at least three specific changes to their papers they should focus on next. By providing this feedback, students must step back and think about what makes writing successful, and our subsequent discussions facilitate the development of metacognitive knowledge.
  2. Personal growth reflections: A second set of reflective activities were suggested by our Writing Center and are designed to help students consider the broader ways in which they have changed as writers. These include questions like, “Please consider the different phases of this assignment and discuss what you have learned about writing. ” and “What are the ways you have improved as a writer? What are some ways that you would like to improve in the future?” This combination of fine-grained, detail-oriented and bigger picture questions is intended to help students develop fundamental metacognitive skills and also a more nuanced understanding of metacognition for their identity as learners and writers.

The self-directed learning cycle is a circular process whereby students bring the skills they learn in one course to their next endeavors. Through this process of sharing and reflecting, they build their metacognitive skills and become more comfortable with their inchoate ideas and compositions. Hopefully, students are then able to transfer these skills into future courses and into their lives outside of academics as well.

References

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. Jossey-Bass.

Dunn, D.S. (2011). A Short Guide to Writing about Psychology (3e). Boston: Pearson Longman.

Education Endowment Foundation (2020). Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: Guidance Report. Retrieved on July 7, 2021 from https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Metacognition/EEF_Metacognition_and_self-regulated_learning.pdf


Finding Your People

by Dr. Leah Poloskey, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Exercise and Rehabilitation Science, Merrimack College, and 

by Dr. Sarah Benes, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Nutrition and Public Health, Merrimack College

(Post #1: Integrating Metacognition into Practice Across Campus, Guest Editor Series Edited by Dr. Sarah Benes)

How it all began . . .

Reflecting on the journey to having a Guest Editor spot with a mini-series of blog posts about metacognition with our colleagues from across campus was a great opportunity to reconnect to the power of community in this work. And it all began with a problem . . .

We had been discussing how challenging it was to engage students in our Health Science classes (Leah teaches in the Exercise and Rehabilitation Department and Sarah teaches in the Nutrition and Public Health Department). We decided to work together to investigate more deeply (rather than just dwelling on the challenge). We applied to host a Teaching Circle, which is an informal structure at Merrimack College that allows faculty and staff to come together around common interests. Teaching Circle facilitators are awarded small stipends for their time and effort in developing and running these opportunities. We believed that the Teaching Circle structure would provide a great opportunity for us to work within existing campus initiatives to enhance collaboration and engagement with faculty and staff across campus.schematic of three people facing each other with lightbulb being lit over their heads

Our first Teaching Circle was about student engagement. We ended up exploring mindset and the ways that mindset can impact engagement. We conducted a research study where we developed a tool that essentially is a measure of metacognitive states (Mandeville, et al., 2018). With this tool we learned how to assess a student’s self appraisal of their learning, which is a great opportunity to review a student’s intellectual development, mindset and metacognition. Now we had a way to assess these constructs, but what next?

We decided to apply for another Teaching Circle with a focus specifically on Metacognition. Our idea was approved and we were able to engage an even larger group of faculty, staff, and administrators from our academic support staff, to the psychology and business departments and more! Everyone in the group was interested in learning more about ways to support metacognition in our students in our various spaces. And this was the beginning of this blog post series!

What We Learned

Every meeting we had brought together a different group of people depending on schedules and availability. We had core folks who came each time and then a variety of others who came when they were able. Thinking about it now, we remember every meeting being exciting, dynamic, and invigorating.

We didn’t have set agendas and we didn’t have much reading or preparation (unless people asked for items to read). We really just came together to talk and share about our successes and challenges related to supporting students developing their metacognitive skills and to brainstorm ideas to try in our spaces. However, this opportunity for informal community gathering and building was a needed breath of fresh air. We always left energized for the work ahead (and we think the other participants did too!).

In fact, as a result of the Metacognition Teaching Circle, we embarked on a whole new project in which we used the MINDS survey (Mandeville, et al., 2018) at the beginning of the semester and then created “low touch” interventions to support metacognition and growth mindset depending on how students scored on the scale. From this we learned that many students are not familiar with concepts of metacognition and mindfulness, that many actually appreciated the tips and strategies we sent them (and some even used them!), and that students felt that more learning on these topics would be beneficial.

This then lead us to another study, this time examining faculty perceptions of metacognition which we were excited about because our experience suggested that it is likely that folks in certain settings or with certain backgrounds would be more familiar with metacognition and that faculty may not have the understanding or skills to teach metacognition in their courses. For faculty, it is so important to understand the idea of metacognition as it enables students to become flexible and self-directed learners. The teaching and the support of metacognition in the classroom is impactful. It allows students to become aware of their own thinking and to become proficient in choosing appropriate thinking strategies for different learning tasks. Unfortunately, this line of inquiry did not last long due to COVID 19 but we hope to pick this back up this year as we feel it is an important area that could be impactful for faculty and students.

While the research ideas and changes to practice are exciting and were impactful benefits of our Teaching Circles, one of our biggest takeaways was the reminder of the importance of finding others who are also doing the work. Sometimes on our campus, and we suspect it is the case at other institutions as well, we get siloed and often our meetings are with the same folks about the same topics. Being able to facilitate and participate in a cross-campus initiative about a passion topic was an amazing opportunity to meet new people, make new connections, gain different perspectives and create new ideas and strategies to try. We found many people doing great work with students on our campus across so many different departments and schools, and most importantly, found “our people” – people who you can go to when you are stuck, people who you can bounce ideas off of and collaborate with . . . we found our “metacognition people” (some of them at least).

While this was not a “new” idea or “cutting edge”, coming off a year in which we have been separated (in so many ways), we were reminded of the power of connections with others to maintain and sustain ourselves as academics and as humans. We wanted to share that in the guest series by not only showcasing some of the work that our colleagues are doing but also to remind readers to try and find your people . . . whether they are on your campus or off, whether you meet in person or virtual – or only via Tweets on Twitter . . . find the people who can help you maintain, sustain and grow your interest, skills, passion and joy!

We hope you enjoy reading the work of our colleagues and that it helps you on your journey.

References

​​Mandeville, D., Perks. L., Benes, S. & Poloskey, L. (2018). The Mindset and Intellectual Development Scale (MINDS): Metacognitive Assessment for Undergraduate Students. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(3).