Category: How to Measure Metacognition

Assessing Reflective Writing with the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge

Reflection is a staple of contemporary writing pedagogy and writing assessment. Although the power of reflective writing has long been understood in writing studies, the field has not made progress on articulating how to assess the reflective work. Developed at the crossroads of research in reflection and metacognition, the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge (IMK) is designed to help writing researchers, teachers, and students articulate what is being rewarded in the assessment of reflection and to articulate the role of metacognitive knowledge in critical reflective writing.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dc6w4hg

Ratto Parks, Amy. (2023). What Do We Reward in Reflection? Assessing Reflective Writing with the Index for Metacognitive Knowledge. Journal of Writing Assessment, 16(1). DOI:  10.5070/W4jwa.1570


The relationship between goals, metacognition, and academic success

In this article Savia Countinho investigates the relationship between mastery goals, performance goals, metacognition (using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory), and academic success.

Countinho, S. (2007). The relationship between goals, metacognition, and academic success. Educate. 7(1), p. 39-47


Metacognitive Development in Professional Educators

Stewart, Cooper and Moulding investigate adult metacognition development, specifically comparing pre-service teachers and practicing teachers. They used the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and found that metacognition improves significantly with age and with years of teaching experience, but not with gender or level of teaching (Pre-K though post-secondary ed levels).

Stewart, P. W., Cooper. S. S., & Moulding, L. R. (2007). Metacognitive development in professional educators. The Researcher, 21(1), 32-40.


The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire

The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1993). This measure has been cited in over 1600 articles and is a very well established measure of not only metacognition, but motivation. The MSLQ is split into two main scales. The Motivation Scale is comprised of the Intrinsic Goal Orientation, Extrinsic Goal Orientation, Task Value, Control of Learning Beliefs, Self-Efficacy for Learning and Performance, and Test Anxiety sub-scales. the Learning Strategies Scale is comprised of the Rehearsal, Elaboration, Organization, Critical Thinking, Metacognitive Self-Regulation, Time and Study Environment, Effort Regulation, Peer Learning, and Help Seeking sub-scales. For more information on the MSLQ please refer to the reference and hyperlink below.

Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A., García, T., & McKeachie, W. J. (1993). Reliability and predictive validity of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53(3), 801-813.


The Need for Cognition Scale

A classic personality measure of metacognition was developed by John Cacioppo and Richard Petty (1982) entitled, The Need for Cognition Scale (NCS). This is a widely used 18-item Likert scale that assesses “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking” (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116). The NCS has been cited in over 3000 articles and has well established psychometric properties. For more information please read the original article by Cacioppo and Petty (1982).

Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(1), 116.

 


The Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire

Berry and colleagues (1989) developed the Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ). This metacognitive measure is a cross between a self-report and actual measure of metacognition. It requires respondents to rate their confidence of remembering grocery lists, phone numbers, pictures, locations, words, and digit span. Essentially, in the MSEQ, respondents are given up to 10 pictures (or grocery items), then they are asked how confident they are in remembering 2 items, then 4 items, then 6 items, then 8 items, then all 10 items. It has been found to be both reliable and valid in many populations. For more information check out the original article by Berry et al. (1989).

Berry, J. M., West, R. L., & Dennehey, D. M. (1989). Reliability and validity of the Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. Developmental Psychology, 25(5), 701.


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.


Webinar Slides: From ‘Student’ to ‘Informed Consumer’ of Learning

by Ed Nuhfer and Karl Wirth

http://www.calstate.edu/itl/documents/ITLFeb72014EN_KW_final.pdf

This very informative and useful set of webinar slides (supported by the CSU Institute for Teaching and Learning) starts with a discussion of metadisciplines, pointing out that “A realization that arises from becoming educated: every metadiscipline offers a valuable way of knowing.” Following that, the presenters discuss three types of learning (knowing, skills and reasoning), and assert that “Ideally, a curricula should help students become mindful of how to distinguish the three and how to learn all three effectively.” They present data showing that most courses in reality emphasize knowledge, followed by skills, and have very little emphasis on developing reasoning. They then propose that metacognition is a means by which to help develop reasoning, and share some specific metacognitive tools and some data that indicate the usefulness of incorporating these tools into our courses.


A Brief History of Learning Inventories

Noel Entwistle and Velda McCune (2004) catalog the evolution of learning inventories over the last fifty years. The article is particularly useful in highlighting the ways similar ideas are discussed using differing terminology. Because of the article’s scope, readers can become quickly familiar with broad trends.

Entwistle, N., & McCune, V. (2004). The conceptual bases of study strategy inventories. Educational Psychology Review, 16(4), 325-345.