Tips for engaged discussions all semester.
September 2024
Metacognitive Reflections: Improving Students' Learning
Metacognition definition: "Broadly construed, it is any cognitive process or structure about another cognitive process or structure (e.g., data about memory held in memory)" (Kralik et. al, 2018, p. 731). Metacognitive reflections can significantly improve:
- What students retain from your class period
- How effectively students control their learning process in your class
- How much students engage during class
I have taught at-risk student writers for 23 years, and few of these students have much awareness of how they learn, which, I have found, significantly impacts their learning in my class (especially in the last 5 years). So several years ago, I began incorporating metacognitive reflection into my pedagogy almost every day. I end my teaching about 5-8 minutes before the end of class and give my students this prompt, which they write in the LMS (at OWU, Blackboard):
- (simple rating) Rate your level of learning engagement today from 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
- (bullet list) What are the top 3 things you learned in today's class?
- (50 word response) How did you learn these things? Why were you engaged in your learning at these moments?
- (bullet list) What will you do in the next class period to improve your level of learning (if low) or maintain your level of learning (if high)?
Since the points for this activity are complete/incomplete, I have found that after the first week of doing these, students are more engaged in class because they know they will have to rate themselves and explain what led to their learning. They also do a great job reflecting on how to improve, including telling themselves to get to bed earlier (I always teach at 8:00 am). And most of my students did, in fact, do a better job of getting to bed earlier.
Just a Few Articles on Metacognition
- Beach, P. T., Anderson, R. C., Jacovidis, J. N., & Chadwick, K. L. (2020). Making the abstract explicit: the role of metacognition in teaching and learning. Inflexion, Policity Paper: Metacognition in Education, 8-27.
- Kralik, J. D., Lee, J. H., Rosenbloom, P. S., Jackson Jr, P. C., Epstein, S. L., Romero, O. J., ... & McGreggor, K. (2018). Metacognition for a common model of cognition. Procedia computer science, 145, 730-739.
- Rivas, S. F., Saiz, C., & Ossa, C. (2022). Metacognitive strategies and development of critical thinking in higher education. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 913219.
August 2024
Do You Want to Improve Your Students' Engagement in Class Discussions? Talk about talking.
At the Constructive Dialogue Institute Aug. 14 training, we learned some tools for preparing students for discussing difficult topics, and these same tools prepare students for any discussion. Here are two of the tools we learned:
- Prior to the first discussion day, set ground rules (or "norms") for how students should engage in discussion. It works best if you draft a set of rules and ask students for input: what is missing? What could be improved or clarified? This conversation engages students in talking about how they will talk in class.
- When discussion breaks down, acknowledge the breakdown immediately. Signs you can look for:
- Notice if one or more students are prioritizing winning over dialogue
- Recognize when a few students talk too much or are too silent
- Recognize when a comment moves past the "sharing my perspective" into the "this is the correct position."
- As soon as you recognize that discussion is breaking down, pause the class and talk about talking. Return to the guidelines and have the class process (first individually and then in groups) what exactly happened and what rule was broken.
