Metacognition in Higher Ed Ch 3

Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning
Kaplan Et Al

"Improving Critical Thinking Skills in Introductory Biology Through Quality Practice and Metacognition"
Chapter 3 -- Lemons et al
Theme: Critical Thinking in Biology
Strategy Pursued: problem solving practice, essay questions with samples -- including use of a rubric
Critical thinking as a habit of mind -- study strategies that enhance learning, retention, domain transfer.
paired metacognition and reflection in order to enhance overall critical thinking.

The Intervention
• determine overall goals
• design activities
  • considered Bloom's taxonomy
  • aligned assessments to taxonomy
  • created separate module called 'critical thinking in biology' to run in parallel with reflective content
    • module contained questions -- similar to exam
    • rubrics with domain knowledge and crit thinking components
    • guiding questions to encourage self-reflection
  • articulated learning goals to students, articulated what constitutes a complete answer
  • pre-lab problem solving
  • repeated emphasis to students that they expect both content knowledge AND critical-thinking skills
• problem-solving
• essay-judging
• essay-writing
• thoughtful design, shared with the students -- why these questions are being asked, in this way. It's not arbitrary!

The Results

This seems particularly useful because they worked from multiple angles, both training thinking skills explicitly AND requiring those thinking skills in the execution of content-area/domain work Interesting comments about how students think questions are intentionally tricky or the motivation is opaque. Intentional trickery can be present in multi-choice questions, riddles, insight problems. Helpful to be metacognitive about whether you are suspecting trickery and a dual-path, "if a trick, then..." and "if sincere, then..."? Some sloppy teaching, some opaque though thoughtful teaching. Opportunity for instructors to be more open about their process?? It is striking how overt the instructors chose to be with their expectations and intentions. Often not the case!