Exploring the potential impact of reciprocal peer tutoring on higher education students’ metacognitive knowledge and regulation

It is widely recognized that metacognition is an important mediator for successful and high-level learning, especially in higher education. Nevertheless, a majority of higher education students possess insufficient metacognitive knowledge and regulation skills to self-regulate their learning adequately. This study explores the potential of reciprocal peer tutoring to promote both university students’ metacognitive knowledge and their metacognitive regulation skills. The study was conducted in a naturalistic higher education setting, involving 67 students tutoring each other during a complete semester. A multi-method pretest–posttest design was used combining a self-report questionnaire, assessing students’ metacognitive knowledge and their perceived metacognitive skilfulness, with the analysis of think-aloud protocols, revealing students’ actual use of metacognitive strategies. Results indicate no significant pretest to posttest differences in students’ metacognitive knowledge, nor in their perception of metacognitive skill use. In contrast, significant changes are observed in students’ actual metacognitive regulation. At posttest, students demonstrate significantly more frequent and more varied use of metacognitive regulation, especially during the orientation, monitoring, and evaluation phases. Furthermore, our findings point to an increase in more profound and higher-quality strategy use at posttest.     

Assessing high-school students’ ability to direct their learning

Theory on student learning provides that students are able to direct their learning when they have metacognitive knowledge about their own learning processes. In this article, a preliminary attempt to assess untrained high-school students’ metacognitive knowledge of learning processes as an ability through multiple-choice questions is reported. In three studies, item selection was established for ninth graders at the end of their school year. Also, in the final study the results showed that the ninth-grade students’ self-reported use of learning and studying strategies, study techniques, school learning and tiresome academic subjects related significantly to their metacognitive knowledge regarding learning processes. In the discussion, the practical consequences for school assessment are explicated and future research questions are raised.     

激活被动语言知识 优化英语输出质量

探讨了在语言学习过程中被动知识与主动知识之间的关系,提出了成功地将被动知识转化为主动知识的必要性,以及如何运用各种途径激活被动知识,从而提高英语输出的质量。文中同时提及如何通过自主学习和学习策略的培养,包括认知策略和元认知策略的培养,内化被动知识,进一步提高语言掌握和运用能力。     

Relationships between teachers’ metacognitive knowledge and students’ metacognitive knowledge and reading achievement

The study examined the relationships between teachers’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies and their students’ metacognitive knowledge and reading comprehension. The study was carried out among language art teachers (N?=?34) and their students (N?=?534) in the last year of primary school (ninth grade) in Estonia. Multilevel modeling was used to test the hypotheses of relationships between students’ metacognitive knowledge and reading comprehension, while controlling for students’ previous reading comprehension (in eighth grade) as well as the relations between teachers’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies and students’ metacognitive knowledge and comprehension. The results showed that students’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies related to their reading comprehension, concurring with previous findings. The main finding was that teachers’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies significantly related to their students’ metacognitive knowledge, but not to reading comprehension. These results indicate that students’ reading comprehension may be supported by improving their metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of teachers’ metacognitive knowledge in students’ metacognitive knowledge.     

Exploring the Relationship Between High School Students’ Physics-Related Personal Epistemologies and Self-regulated Learning in Turkey

This article reports on an empirical exploration of the relations and strengths among Turkish grades 9–11 students’ (n = 209) personal epistemologies (justification of knowledge, certainty of knowledge, source of knowledge, development of knowledge), self-regulated learning (extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, metacognitive self-regulation), and achievement in physics (course grades). Established instruments were used to collect data on these students’ beliefs about knowledge and components of self-regulated learning (SRL) such as goal orientations (extrinsic and intrinsic motivation) and learning strategies, critical thinking, and metacognitive regulation. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that students’ personal epistemologies directly influenced their motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientations), rehearsal and organization strategies, and metacognitive self-regulation to learn physics. Furthermore, students’ personal epistemologies indirectly (mediated through motivation beliefs) influenced rehearsal, elaboration and organization strategies, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation to learn physics. Students’ ideas about knowledge and knowing about the source and development of knowledge significantly contributed to students’ self-regulatory skills and physics course grade. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

An examination of undergraduates’ metacognitive strategies in pre-class asynchronous activity in a flipped classroom

The aim of the study is to examine undergraduate students’ awareness of metacognition, the metacognitive strategies they use in their learning and their learning performance in pre-class asynchronous activity in a flipped classroom. The sample consisted of 47 undergraduate students. Eleven students were not included in this study since they did not participate in all quizzes and most of the metacognitive strategy activities. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and Metacognitive Strategies Evaluation Activities were used as data collection tools. The results showed that Computer Education and Instructional Technology students’ metacognitive awareness was at a high level and their metacognitive strategy levels and learning performances differed weekly. Post hoc results indicated no difference between metacognitive strategy and learning performance in the first three weeks. However, the results of the first 3 weeks differed from those of the 4th and 5th weeks. In addition, our regression analysis result indicated that using metacognitive strategies predicted 80% of students’ learning performance. This rate shows the importance of using metacognitive strategies for the learning process in pre-class asynchronous activity in the flipped classroom.     

Differences in Metacognitive Regulation in Introductory Biology Students: When Prompts Are Not Enough

Strong metacognition skills are associated with learning outcomes and student performance. Metacognition includes metacognitive knowledge—our awareness of our thinking—and metacognitive regulation—how we control our thinking to facilitate learning. In this study, we targeted metacognitive regulation by guiding students through self-evaluation assignments following the first and second exams in a large introductory biology course (n = 245). We coded these assignments for evidence of three key metacognitive-regulation skills: monitoring, evaluating, and planning. We found that nearly all students were willing to take a different approach to studying but showed varying abilities to monitor, evaluate, and plan their learning strategies. Although many students were able to outline a study plan for the second exam that could effectively address issues they identified in preparing for the first exam, only half reported that they followed their plans. Our data suggest that prompting students to use metacognitive-regulation skills is effective for some students, but others need help with metacognitive knowledge to execute the learning strategies they select. Using these results, we propose a continuum of metacognitive regulation in introductory biology students. By refining this model through further study, we aim to more effectively target metacognitive development in undergraduate biology students.     

高职学生网络自主学习动机激活的策略探索

通过对高职学生网络自主学习的动机及其元认知策略使用水平的调查发现,学习动机不同的学生在元认知策略的使用上也有很大不同。因此帮助学生确立合适的学习目标,提高学习兴趣和自我效能感,能有效提升学生自主学习动机,增强学生元认知策略使用意识并提高他们的外语学习水平。     

高职高专英语教学中元认知策略培训的实证研究

针对高职学生进行为期一个学期的元认知策略的培训,以培养学生的元认知意识,指导学生制定学习目标和学习计划,提高学生的元认知监控能力和自我评估能力为主要内容进行实证研究。研究结果表明,元认知策略培训能够提高学生的元认知能力和英语学习成绩。     

高职生英语学习障碍与元认知策略培养

高职生在英语学习过程中,大多存在学习障碍问题。究其原因,除了基础差、个人心理方面因素外,主要是由于缺乏元认知策略所致。缺少策略意识,不懂得有效运用相关学习策略计划、指导、评价和调整学习过程,是当前高职生英语学习中的通病。因此教师有必要培养学生元认知策略意识,帮助学生运用元认知策略计划、评价、调整和改进学习。     

引入元认知策略构建自主学习的外语教学模式研究

当前外语教学的重要目标之一是培养学生的自主学习能力,认知心理学中的元认知策略理论是培养学生创造性思维,构建自主学习的一个重要教学策略。本文着重介绍了元认知策略和自主学习的内容、特点及关系,探讨如何运用元认知策略来构建自主学习的外语教学模式。     

he Challenges of Teaching Good Information Processing to Learning Disabled Students

A MODEL of good information processing is sketched, describing how metacognitive knowledge influences strategy selection and use. Three factors pose particular problems for learning disabled students as they attempt to acquire metacognitive knowledge and to use study strategies productively: neurological impairments; deficiencies in general world knowledge; and negative beliefs, attitudes, and styles that limit self‐efficacy. Creating an educational atmosphere that explicitly builds conceptual (domain‐specific) knowledge and teaches positive beliefs about learning potential is essential in promoting metacognitively‐oriented instruction.     

Strategy acquisition by children with general learning difficulties through metacognitive training

Children with general learning difficulties commonly show lower school success and have a slower rate of learning. They show limited and inefficient strategy use in all kinds of tasks. Efficient strategy use requires a certain degree of metacognitive knowledge and executive control. A sample of 16 children (ages 8 to 12) with learning difficulties participated in a 3-month metacognitive training intervention that alternated between curriculum-related and curriculum-unrelated tasks. The children were indirectly taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies by means of guided prompting. The application of the strategies and the children's metacognitive knowledge were evaluated through observation of their behavior and verbalizations. Children showed progress in strategy use and metacognitive knowledge in both types of tasks, but it was only in the more concrete strategies that a positive correlation was found between application and quality of reflection. It is hypothesized that children perceived these concrete strategies to be of most practical value and they were therefore able to reflect most accurately on their use.     

Cueing Metacognition to Improve Researching and Essay Writing in a Final Year High School Biology Class

This paper reports on degrees of awareness and use of specific metacognitive strategies by 16 students in a final-year high school biology class in New Zealand. The aims of the intervention were to broaden students' thinking about bioethical issues associated with cancer and to enhance students' use of metacognition. Cues and prompts were used in this unit of work to help students use metacognitive strategies since students did not generally use metacognitive strategies spontaneously. Scaffolding was mediated through the teacher modelling, questioning, cueing or prompting students to evaluate their learning. The research reported here illustrates how teachers can cue students to be more self-directed in their learning. Three case studies illustrate how learning strategies were used differentially. Most students were aware of strategies that could help them to learn more effectively. It was found that those students who were not only aware of but also used strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate their work, produced essays of higher quality.     

The ability to estimate knowledge and performance in college: A metacognitive analysis

While in college students learn a great deal of new knowledge, and over time successful students learn to update their knowledge as new concepts, facts, and procedures are acquired. The metacognitive ability to accurately estimate one's knowledge was hypothesized to be related to academic achievement in college. The two studies reported in this paper examined the relationship between a measure of metacognitive word knowledge (the KMA) and performance in college. Using undergraduate gpa in a number of academic domains as criterion measures, this research provides support for the validity of the KMA as a predictor of success in college. Suggestions for further research relating performance on the KMA to learning in complex domains are offered.     

英语专业双学位学生写作元认知策略的介入性研究

元认知策略是是学习者通过计划、监控及评估等方法对认知过程进行自我管理的策略,有效使用元认知策略是自主学习能力的核心。对学生进行元认知策略的介入性培训,有助于提高自主学习能力。目前,国内的研究仅针对英语专业或非英语专业的学生,还未有对英语专业双学位学生的介入性研究。本文对57名英语专业双学位学生进行一学期的写作元认知策略培训,定量分析显示,学生的写作成绩得到提高,同时运用写作元认知策略的频率也增加了;定性分析显示,元认知策略训练有助于提高写作方面自主学习意识。     

The relationship between personal epistemology and self-regulation among Turkish elementary school students

The purpose of the study was to determine the level of the relationship among Turkish elementary school students' personal epistemologies, motivation, learning strategies, and achievements in science. A total of 322 fifth-grade students participated in the study. Results from the structural equation modeling showed that students' personal epistemologies influence both their motivation and metacognitive strategies in science learning. Viewing scientific knowledge as constructed by the learner contributes to the students having high motivations, high science achievement, and the ability to engage metacognitively in learning tasks.     

Changing the Learning Environment to Enhance Students' Metacognition in Hong Kong Primary School Classrooms

This study reports on the impact of a 2-month classroom intervention that sought to alter the learning environment of two Hong Kong Primary Year 3 general studies classrooms. Mixed methodology, employing quantitative and qualitative data-gathering strategies, was used to investigate changes to the learning environments, including changes to the teachers' language and ultimately the students' metacognition. The quantitative facet of the research involved the development of a 15-item learning environments instrument, the General Studies Metacognitive Orientation Scale (GSMOS), that evaluated elements of the metacognitive orientation of the classrooms' learning environments. While the data from the administration of the GSMOS suggested no statistical differences between the pre- and post-intervention environments of the classrooms, student interviews and classroom observations provided supportive data for some changes, which resulted in students developing metacognitive knowledge of teacher-selected thinking and learning strategies, as well as some awareness and limited control of their use of such strategies in their classrooms.     

Collective Effects of Individual,Behavioral, and Contextual Factors on High School Students’ Future STEM Career Plans

This study explored the structural relationships among secondary school students’ conceptions, self-regulation, and strategies of learning science in mainland China. Three questionnaires, namely conceptions of learning science (COLS), self-regulation of learning science (SROLS), and strategies of learning science (SLS) were developed for investigating 333 Chinese high school learners’ conceptions, metacognitive self-regulation, and strategies in science. The confirmatory factor analysis results verified the validity of the three surveys. Moreover, the path analyses revealed a series of interesting findings. Learners with lower-level COLS, namely “memorizing,” “testing,” and “practicing and calculating,” tended to use surface learning strategies such as “minimizing scope of the study” and “rote learning.” However, learners’ higher-level COLS, namely “increase of knowledge,” “applying,” “understanding,” and “seeing in a new way,” had complicated connections with their SROLS and SLS. On the one hand, learners’ higher-level COLS had negative relations to “minimizing scope of the study” and “rote learning.” On the other hand, their higher-level COLS were powerful predicators for their metacognitive self-regulation and further affected their use of “deep strategy” and “rote learning.” Though Chinese secondary students with higher-level COLS usually have a negative view of “rote learning,” the functioning of their metacognitive self-regulation may change their initial attitudes towards the surface strategy. Learners with higher-level COLS still used “rote learning” as a prior step for achieving deep learning. Therefore, we concluded that the SROLS played an important mediating role between the COLS and SLS and may change learners’ original intention to utilize learning strategies.