Students do not know what they do not know.

• Anecdotal– Have you ever heard….

• I reviewed the notes and read the chapters. I don’t know why I did so poorly on the exam.

• I thought I knew the material.

• EmpiricalSelf assessment of ability to find flaws in an experimental design

≠ Ability to find flaws

METACOGNITION• “Knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena”

(Flavell, 1979).• “Ability to monitor, evaluate, and make plans for one’s

learning” (Everson and Tobias)

• Knowledge– Strategies, conditions, effectiveness, self

• Monitoring– Control and regulate learning, checking and planning

• Meaningful learners have better metacognition skills than rote learners.

OrganismalBiology

Cell and Molecular

BiologyVS.

Year 1: What metacognition knowledge and skills do students apply to studying organismal biology compared to cell and molecular biology?

Cell and Molecular

Biology

VS.Year 2: Does learning about the biology of learning improve student metacognition and thereby learning in cell and molecular biology?

WHAT IS?

WHAT WORKS?

sharing course backward design with students

learning about self-regulated learning

Exam

PredictionsSurvey/Questionnaire

PostdictionReflection

Evidence of learning

Self-assessment of metacognition

Self assessment of learning

Study strategy selection

Additional self assessment of learning

Reflection on study strategy selection and metacognition

•What grade do you expect to get on the exam?•What did you do to learn the material for this exam?•Explain why you selected each strategy. •How confident are you that the strategy worked? (0-100)•The exam covers Concept X. How did you know when you learned concept X?

•What grade do you expect to get on the exam? •Is this different than what you predicted before taking the exam?•Did you select the appropriate strategies or approaches to to learn the material? Explain why or why not.

Published, valid, reliable metacognition

survey (Pre)

Published, valid, reliable metacognition

survey (Post)

3X

INSTRUMENT OUTCOME

Self-assessment of metacognition

Self-assessment of metacognition