A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO IMPROVING STUDENTS’ USE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES

Abstract

ABSTRACT In higher education, there has been a push to strengthen students’ critical thinking skills. Metacognition is a central component of critical thinking and research has indicated that students who use metacognitive strategies tend to become better critical thinkers and academically successful students. Though the merits of metacognition are known, relatively less research has been conducted on the effectiveness of pedagogical practices intended to improve students’ metacognitive skills and abilities. The overarching agenda guiding this study is to contribute to research that improves students’ critical thinking; the specific focus is on the effectiveness of metacognitive pedagogy on students’ self-reported use of metacognitive strategies. In a quasi-experimental two-group research design, 392 undergraduate students received metacognitive pedagogy and worked with metacognitive strategies while completing a 16-week undergraduate course in sexuality studies. Students in Group A received metacognitive pedagogy and learning for a total of ten weeks, whereas students in Group B received metacognitive pedagogy and learning for a total of five weeks. Throughout both semesters, data about students’ self-reported use of metacognitive strategies were collected using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI; Schraw & Dennison, 1994) on four occasions, two before and two after the pedagogy was introduced. To examine the effects of metacognitive pedagogy on students’ self-reported use of metacognitive strategies, I analyzed changes in students’ regulation and knowledge scores from the MAI using latent growth curve modeling. The results revealed a statistically significant change in students’ metacognitive strategies pertaining to regulation of cognition, whereas with knowledge of cognition, the pattern of change did not support the hypothesized growth. In addition, the amount of exposure to metacognitive pedagogy did not have an effect on students’ use of metacognitive strategies. The findings suggest that metacognitive pedagogy can have a positive effect on students’ regulation of cognition but little if any effect on students’ knowledge of cognition. Furthermore, more exposure does not appear to result in higher gains, though the study was constrained within a single semester and unable to measure durability or delayed changes in either regulation or cognition.