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My Topic/Purpose

This mini-course will consist of the integration of metacognition into a lesson.

Learning Outcomes

Learners will be able to:

  * Explain the purpose and logic of metacognition
  * Describe techniques for incorporating metacognition
  * Review examples of the use of metacognition

Needs Assessment

Intent:

Metacognition is a process often referred to as “thinking about thinking”. In other words, it is the awareness of a person’s thoughts and thought processes. This awareness helps a person to consciously direct learning by making the person aware of what they do and don’t know and how they can connect the two. This mini-course is meant to inform educators about metacognition and help guide them to incorporating it into their own classroom.

Gathering Information:

As a college teacher who teaches a subject that requires students to know a lot of facts and then utilize those facts in processing new information, I will be using information gathered from students, other teachers, and research-based articles. From this data gathering, I will determine the current state of metacognition in the classroom and evidence-based strategies to incorporate metacognition in the classroom.

Summary:

The information gathered has indicated a lack of metacognition in today’s classroom, especially in lecture-based classes. The benefit of metacognition is to engage the students in the material thereby deepening their understanding of the concepts and ideas covered, otherwise known as the learning outcomes. There are numerous strategies used to incorporate metacognition, notably: promoting awareness of content, reflection on the content and the student’s understanding, providing challenging problems that require critical thinking, and incorporating self-regulation of learning. Much of this is fostered with teacher feedback.

Revised Intent:

After completing my research, my intended learning outcomes have not changed. However, I found some information about challenges and barriers that can prevent teachers from incorporating metacognitive activities. Actually, a few of these were the reason I decided to explore this topic, specifically time constraints and the standards set by the program’s accrediting body and the certification body that all of our students must go through to become registered in sonography. Therefore, I will be incorporating these and learner self-assessment into the mini-course.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

- The learner will be current teachers who have prepared lesson plans that have been used at least once in the field.

- The reasoning behind this is the learner is to reflect upon the benefits of adding metacognitive activities after a test group was performed compared to before the activities.

Performance Objectives

Course-level objectives

Lesson 1 – Describe metacognition and why is important

Lesson 2 – Explain the role of metacognition in today’s educational system. Describe the limitations in today’s educational system and why they exist.

Lesson 3 – Determine if metacognition is present in your classroom? (How to tell if it is present)

Lesson 4 – Explore ways to include metacognition in your classroom. Explain barriers to including metacognitive activities. Identify barriers present in your classroom.

Lesson 5 – Develop metacognitive activities in your classroom. Learner will create metacognitive activities in their own lesson plans as part of the mini-course

Task Analysis

The purpose of this course is to:

- Inform learners of metacognitive activities

- Guide learners through the process of creating metacognitive activities

- Reflect on the benefits seen first-hand of adding metacognitive activities

Design Rationale

Since the purpose of this course is to learn about metacognition, there is a lot of self-reflection. Additionally, the material is learned through exploration rather than lecture. The flow of the course is to start with exploring material through reading and discussion, continue with the evaluation and incorporation of a real-world example (their own lesson plans), and ends with self-reflection. There are well-defined criteria and expectations that include rubrics. Finally, there is collaboration with other students to facilitate greater understanding. I decided to use the website Edmodo.com to encourage a more interactive and organized experience. Discussions will be better organized and there is a place for journals to be turned in.

Curriculum Map

Course Outline

Overall course objective: learners will understand the benefit of metacognitive thinking and develop metacognitive thinking activities into their lesson plans

Unit 1: Learners will be able to explain the purpose and logic of metacognitive thinking, and identify

Lesson 1: learners will actively read articles about metacognition

Ideas to look for in the readings:

Lesson 2: learners will summarize articles and identify characteristics of metacognitive thinking activities

List characteristics of metacognitive thinking activities

Unit 2: Learners will be able to identify metacognitive thinking activities within lesson plans.

Lesson 3: learner will review his/her own lesson plans, identify metacognitive thinking activities, and explain how the activities helped strengthen student understanding of the lesson. If none are present or if the activities are under-developed, proceed to Lesson 4

Review 2 of your own lesson plans

Unit 3: Learners will incorporate metacognitive thinking activities into their lesson plans.

Lesson 4: learner will identify areas of own lesson plans that will benefit from metacognitive thinking activities, or further develop metacognitive activities already present.

Things to ask yourself: What understanding are students lacking after completing your original lesson plan?

Lesson 5: learner will develop metacognitive activities for their own lesson plans that incorporate characteristics identified in Lesson 2

Review the characteristics present in metacognitive thinking activities completed in Lesson 2
Complete a rough draft of activities for your own lesson
Reflect and revise activities

Lesson 6: learner will test activities with a small group of students or discuss activities with a peer.

Lesson 7: learner will reflect upon discussion or results of test group and make appropriate adjustments to activities before fully incorporating into lesson plans

Summarize the results of your test group or discussion
Questions to ask yourself: what did the new activities add to the lesson that was previously missing?

References

Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Waddington, D. I., Wade, C. A., Persson, T. (2015). Strategies for teaching students to think critically: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 85(2), 275-314.

Akyol, A., Garrison, R. D. (2011). Assessing metacognition in an online community of inquiry. Internet and Higher Education, 14, 183-190.

Andrade. H., Valcheva, A. (2009). Promoting learning and achievement through self-assessment. Theory Into Practice, 48(1), 12-19.

Broadbear, J. T. (2012). Essential elements of lessons designed to promote critical thinking. The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(3), 1-14.

Callender, A. A., Franco-Watkins, A. M., Roberts, A. S. (2016). Improving metacognition in the classroom through instruction, training, and feedback. Metacognition Learning, 11(2), 215-235.

Darling-Hammond, L., Barron, B., Pearson, P. D., Schoenfeld, A. H., Stage, E. K., Zimmerman, T. D., Cervetti, G. N., Tilson, J. L. (2008). Powerful learning: What we know about teaching for understanding. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacogition and cognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906-911.

Gueldenzoph Snyder, L., Snyder, M. (2008). Teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 50(2), 90-99.

Hartman, H. (2001). Developing students’ metacognitive knowledge and skills. In Theory, Research, and Practice (33-68). Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Hung, D., Lee, S. S., Lim, K. Y. T. (2012). Authenticity in learning for the twenty-first century: bridging the formal and the informal. Education Technology Research and Development, 60, 1071-1091.

Larkin, S. (2009). Socially mediated metacognition and learning to write. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 4(3), 149-159.

Larson, M. B., Lockee, B. B. (2014). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design. New York, NY: Routledge.

Monaco, M. J., Martin, M. (2007). The millennial student: A new generation of learners. Athletic Training Education Journal, 2, 42-46.

Pintrich, P. R. (2002). The role of metacognitive knowledge in learning, teaching, and assessing. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 219-225.

Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231.

Radcliffe, R., Caverly, D., Peterson, C., Emmons, M. (2004). Improving textbook reading in a middle school science classroom. Reading Improvement, 41(3), 145-156.

Schraw, G. (1998). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26, 113-125.

Schraw, G., Crippen, K.J., Hartley, K. (2006). Promoting self-regulation in science education: Metacognition as part of a broader perspective on learning. Research in Science Education, 36, 111-139.

Zohar, A. (1999). Teachers’ metacognitive knowledge and the instruction of higher order thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15, 413-429.