STUDY GUIDES, KNOWLEDGE SURVEYS AND REFLECTION:

ENCOURAGE METACOGNITION TO HELP LEARNERS TAKE CHARGE

OF THEIR LEARNINGIda M. Jones, Professor of Business Law

Craig School of Business, California State University, Fresno

Knowledge Surveys

■ Ask students what they know about a list of concepts (p. 7 (middle))

KNOWLEDGE SURVEY FOR CHAPTER 1

Have you read the entire chapter? Yes No

Use the following numbers to complete the rest of the Knowledge Survey. When you

take the survey on Blackboard, use the following numbers to rank your understanding

and knowledge.

1 I don’t know it.

2 I have heard or read about it.

3 I can explain it to someone else.

Number Survey Item

1.1 Explain why law is important to business people.

1.2 Compare substantive and procedural law.

1.3 Describe the functions of a legal system.

1.4 Describe the theories of jurisprudence.

THE KNOWLEDGE SURVEYS WERE USED IN

JUNCTION WITH EPORTFOLIOS

What is an Eportfolio? (p. 1)

“An ePortfolio (electronic portfolio) is an electronic collection of

evidence that shows your learning journey over time. Portfolios

can relate to specific academic fields or your lifelong learning.

Evidence may include writing samples, photos, videos,

research projects, observations by mentors and peers, and/or

reflective thinking. The key aspect of an eportfolio is your

reflection on the evidence, such as why it was chosen and

what you learned from the process of developing your

eportfolio.”

Helen Barrett--Balancing the Two Faces of the ePortfolio

Purpose of Eportfolios

■ Promote Critical thinking

■ Engage students in self-reflection

■ Encourage experimentation of study habits to find

out what worked and what did not

…help students become self-directed learners

What was the goal for using reflection in this course? (p. 2-3)

■ “. . .as a cognitive activity, after a learning experience to encourage review and re-consideration of how one learns with the goals of self-correction and self-analysis to determine which study method was most effective.” (p. 2)

■ Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning: in order to understand, as humans we must conduct self-interpretations of our experiences, instead of acting solely based on the recommendations of others. In order to engage in transformative learning we must move away from making decisions based on our preconceived notions and select a wider frame of reference through which to understand our experiences.

--Mezirow, J., Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 74 Summer 1997 5.

Total, Strongly Agree, 1,

10%

Total, Agree, 6, 60%

Total, Neither Agree nor

Disagree, 1, 10%

Total, Disagree, 1, 10%

Total, Strongly

Disagree, 1, 10%

Self-Reflection

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

My eportfolio has helped me think more about my own learning (70% agree or strongly agree) (2010 Survey)

KNOWLEDGE SURVEYS+ EPORTFOLIOS

More self-reflection and more

preparation

Reflection questions for the Eportfolio

Did you accurately predict how well you knew the

material? Did you do as well as you thought on

the quizzes and other assignments? Explain.

If you did, what did you do that helped you to do

well? If you didn’t, what will you differently next

time?

Student A (p. 12)

This week we had our first exam covering chapters 1-5. I think I did

a good job accurately predicting how well I knew the material. I got

a 26/30 on the exam which is a pretty good score. I think I may

have under-predicted, , , Many of the topics I felt that I knew but I

did not have perfectly understood where I could give a presentation

on it to someone else. . . .I think that reading the chapters and

rereading the sections that were more difficult gave me a better

understanding than I initially thought. The things that helped me to

do well were reading the chapter and really studying the tables

given which summarize important ideas in each chapter along with

rereading sections I struggled with on previous quizzes. To help me

improve my studying I think making outlines of the important or

difficult sections in each chapter helped me.

Student B ( p. 12)

Based on the examination that was tasked to me this week, I would say that it was pretty challenging for me. . .. Although it was an open book exam, which I could refer to the textbook, I would strongly say it was not easy if you do not have a good deal amount of knowledge on the subject and chapters. . .I reviewed through what I have learnt over the past week before taking it and I still found the exam challenging as there was a large number of tricky questions, which I did not understand. I didn’t score that high for my test but I think did farewell well with a decent score. . . I would say that one thing that I have learnt from this week is to be prepared for the exams and to study one-step ahead rather than relying on only the textbook, a much more deep learning is required by taking a step further and reading articles that are more related to the law so that it is more possible to gauge different type of situations that law can be related to…

Student C (p. 13)

This week, we had our first test in this class. Instead of having knowledge

surveys and quizzes on two chapters, we had one long knowledge survey

and a test that covered all of the material that we have gone over so far.

The knowledge survey was around 60 questions, and although I did read

about just about everything on the survey, I do not think that I completely

understood everything as well as I would have needed to to get a better

grade on the test. I predicted that the test would be very difficult

considering all of the information and new things that we have learned so

far, and I was right with my prediction. I would have liked to do better on

the test and will improve in the future, but I do understand why my grade

on this first exam was where it was. The knowledge survey is a good

study guide for the quizzes and exams, and next time I will just have to

make sure that I better understand the information before taking the

exam.

Exam 1Stats & Comparisons

Spring 2016 Spring 2015 Spring 2014

Average 65.8% 68.9% 54%

Median 66.67% 66.67% 56.5%

Range 11-27/30 14-28/30 8-24/30

Grades

A 3% 6% 0%

B 21.8% 17% 4.1%

C 11.8.% 26% 12.5%

D 38.4% 37% 16.7%

F 25% 14% 66.7%

Exam 2

Spring 2016 Spring 2015 Spring 2014

Average 20.2/30 or 68% 72% 66%

Median 21/30 or 70% 73% 70%

Range 13-27/30 15-29/30 13-23/30

Grade Distribution

A 5.2% 12.4% 0

B 13.8% 15.6% 0

C 32.8% 34.4% 55.5%

D 29.2% 18.8% 18.6.%

F 19.0% 18.8% 25.9%

Exam 3

Spring 2016 Spring 2015 Spring 2014

Average 21.5/30 or 72% 72% 66%

Median 22/30 or 73% 73% 70%

Range 15-29/30 15-29/30 13-23/30

Grade Distribution

A 5.6% 12.4% 0

B 22% 15.6% 0

C 33.3% 34.4% 55.5%

D 31.6% 18.8% 18.6.%

F 7.5% 18.8% 25.9%

Unless otherwise stated, images have been purchased through a license from dreamstime.com