NSF Award
1433645
This is a three-phase design-based research project for strengthening undergraduate engineering students' metacognitive skills. It begins with prototype development and testing of 6 to 8 intervention modules, then transitions to refinement and improved development of these based on a variety of assessments, and ends with the preparation of materials for instructor professional development. Metacognition is often referred to as "thinking about thinking" because it relies on individual reflection and self-awareness. Learning science has found metacognition skill to be important precursor to becoming an effective independent learner and problem-solver. It is the foundation of becoming a lifelong learner. In order to deliberately cultivate metacognitive skills, this project has provided a structured definition that will facilitate this study of the impact of integrating metacognition into specific formal learning activities in engineering. <br/><br/>The first phase focuses on the development and pilot implementation of a coordinated set of intervention modules intended to strengthen the metacognitive skills of students in a sophomore engineering course at a small undergraduate engineering school. Included in the first phase is the assessment of impact on each student's metacognitive development. Each intervention module consists of a training video on metacognitive knowledge and awareness, a contextualized classroom content module, and a modified standard assignment to provide students with opportunities to practice metacognitive regulation. The assessment effort is focused on developing indicators (rubrics and metrics) that engineering instructors can use to measure student progress in developing metacognitive skill. <br/><br/>In the second phase, the research outcomes from Phase 1 are used to revise the set of interventions for the testbed sophomore course and, additionally, prepare similar interventions for a second engineering education classroom context - a freshman course at a large comprehensive state land-grant university. The goal of the revisions is to improve the interventions and to focus on the transferability of both the interventions and the indicators to other lower division courses. The research aspect of Phase 2 refines the Phase 1 research questions and adds a focus on understanding what elements of an intervention and context are most important to consider when considering transferability to other courses and instructors. Finally, Phase 3 will focus on training faculty instructors, in order to boost the initial dissemination of intervention materials. The project will develop recommendations for instructors on how to further translate the set of interventions for use in their own classroom contexts. The PI team plans to develop and conduct training for instructors at both institutions. Open access to salient findings, tools, and guides will be provided through an online repository that is also linked through CLEERHub.org, a collaborative engineering education research site.
