Dr. Sandra McGuire https://faculty.lsu.edu/smcgui1/ is an expert in supporting faculty in helping students learn how to learn in their class. She argues that most students come to college underprepared. Specifically, she advocates for metacognitive equity, or closing the gap between students who use metacognition (effective thinking and learning strategies) and those who do not. (https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/0516466a-bf01-4aff-a0ba-9c326f59d464/content). She argues that this the gap in metacognitive strategies contributes most to the persistent achievement gap and that all students must be taught how to learn. A 2017 Hechinger Report https://hechingerreport.org/colleges-enroll-students-arent-prepared-higher-education/, shares “data from 911 two- and four-year colleges revealed that 96 percent of schools enrolled students who required remediation in the 2014-15 academic year, the most comprehensive recent numbers. At least 209 schools placed more than half of incoming students in at least one remedial course”.
Dr. McGuire counseled several students to have a back-up plan for medical school after failing an organic chemistry test in her course. She went through faculty professional development which encouraged her to incorporate metacognitive learning strategies into her teaching practice. The improvement she saw in students helped her come to the belief that most students do not know how to learn. She argues that in many cases, metacognitive learning was not a prerequisite for good grades in their previous educational experiences. “Many received As and Bs without the need to learn the subject matter in a great deal of depth”. An example she shares to illustrate this point is supporting a student who stated he had “valedictorian syndrome””, which he explained by stating, “Well, I was valedictorian of my high school class but I’m flunking everything at [college].”
If you think of these same students as scientists, she argues, “They’ve collected, interpreted and made predictions regarding data they have collected for all of their lives! If they skipped classes or barely opened their textbooks in previous educational experiences, yet successfully graduated in a top percentage of their class and ended up in college, we can understand that based on their personal “lab” experience, the same behaviors should result in the same success in college.”
This led her to the conclusion: It is often not a student’s lack of innate ability or talent, but rather a lack of effective learning strategies, that can make the difference in academic success. (Growth mindset)
What are the benefits of using metacognitive strategies in your classroom?
When instructors assist students to develop strong metacognitive abilities, students develop a deeper awareness of the learning process and gain control over their own learning. This leads to:
enhanced personal capacity for self-regulation
increased ability to manage one’s own motivation
students becoming more independent learners.
Examples of metacognitive strategies you can incorporate into your course:
From Cornell University:
Use a pre-class survey, homework assignment, polling questions in class, or a short reflective writing piece as a way for students to explore their existing knowledge about a topic.
Ask students to prepare for class by reviewing the week’s syllabus topic and reading. Use the Canvas online quiz tool, in-class polling, or index cards to learn how students understand the goals for the class meeting, how they think they should prepare, and what they learned from the reading.
Some potential questions:
What is one question you still have about the reading?
What is one thing you are curious about?
How can you best prepare for class?
What can you do in class to help yourself learn?
Additional strategies include:
Verbalize the thought processes used to consider, analyze and solve problems. This may be as simple as ‘thinking aloud’.
Encourage students to ask themselves the following while studying or completing homework assignments:
What should I do first?
Is something confusing me?
Could I explain this to someone else?
Do I need help to understand this?
Where did I go wrong?
Does this relate to other situations or prior knowledge?
How can I do it better?
In Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation (p. 85) (Available at IU libraries https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/18412847) Dr. McGuire provides details on how you can incorporate the following practices in your course:
Previewing
Preparing for active reading
Paraphrasing
Reading actively
Using the textbook even if it is not required
Going to class and taking notes by hand
Doing homework without using solved examples as a guide
Teaching material to a real or imagined audience
Working in pairs or groups
Creating practice exams
