Education Commons^™

The Impacts Of Peer To Peer Collaboration On Science Self-Efficacy Among 8th-Grade Students, Erin Wilmes (Kaus), Elizabeth Bohnert

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research project focused on determining the effects peer-to-peer collaboration has on 8th-grade students in a middle school science classroom. The intervention took place over six weeks in two classrooms, whose learning models changed between hybrid and distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021. For this study, researchers collected data through a pre and post-intervention science self-efficacy questionnaire and digital journal, and twice-weekly exit tickets. The results showed that the peer-to-peer model of collaboration implemented in this study increases student self-efficacy significantly, with girls having the most significant increase in self-efficacy. Researchers concluded that this model is …

Rethinking Thinking About Thinking: Against A Pedagogical Imperative To Cultivate Metacognitive Skills, Lauren R. Alpert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In summaries of “best practices” for pedagogy, one typically encounters enthusiastic advocacy for metacognition. Some researchers assert that the body of evidence supplied by decades of education studies indicates a clear pedagogical imperative: that if one wants their students to learn well, one must implement teaching practices that cultivate students’ metacognitive skills.

In this dissertation, I counter that education research does not impose such a mandate upon instructors. We lack sufficient and reliable evidence from studies that use the appropriate research design to validate the efficacy of metacognitive skill-building interventions (not just evaluate their relationship to learning outcomes). I argue …

The Effects Of Question Difficulty Order On Metacognitive Judgments During An Online Test, Wei-Chieh Fang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of question difficulty order on people’s judgments of test performance and test experiences. Building on the finding that ordering questions from easy to hard often leads to overconfidence (i.e., a retrospective bias), the study aimed to examine the generality and robustness of this effect by having participants from a diverse population take an online test and then make a post-test judgement of their performance. In addition to using the same ascending and descending order of difficulty as prior research, the study also explored how the U-shaped order (e.g., easy-hard-easy) and report option …

Middle School Students' Reported Self-Regulation Strategies In Completing Online Mathematics Homework, Pepper Erlinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study is to benefit our understanding of the potential of online homework as it relates to developing and supporting students’ self-regulated learning (SRL). This descriptive case study explores the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies reported by students in the context of completing online mathematics homework (OHW). Eighth-grade students (10 total) from a traditional middle school were interviewed using a validated data collection instrument, the Self-Regulated Learning Interview Schedule or SRLIS (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986, 1988). Students’ open-ended responses were interpreted using a framework of self-regulation theory and coded using 14 self-regulation strategies …

Metacognition In A Mathematics Classroom, Paige Murta

Honors Projects

The purpose of this action research study is to explore the connections between students’ ability to engage in metacognitive methods, their understanding of mathematical content, and their mathematical performance. By having a group of students engage in a lesson about metacognition and a mathematical modeling problem then comparing their test scores to that of a control group a correlation can be found to analyze the effects of metacognition methods in a mathematics classroom.

Formation Of A Professional Learning Community To Promote Metacognitive Teaching: An Action Research Study, Margaret Gregg Long

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods action research study examined how implementing a Professional Learning Community (PLC) supports the development of metacognitive teaching. Participants were ten technical college science instructors. While PLCs are common in K-12 education, they are less employed at the postsecondary level. There is a gap in the literature regarding PLCs in the context of postsecondary education, and the metacognition of postsecondary level educators. A PLC was used as an intervention over a 15-week semester to aid in the development of metacognitive teaching. Instructor use of metacognition was assessed using pre- and post-surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. The study's results supported literature …

Writing As A Vessel For Thinking: Incorporating Self-Regulation, Metacognition, And Formative Assessment In The Middle School Ela Classroom, Alyssha Ginzel

Culminating Experience Projects

Writing is not only a means of demonstrating what one knows, it is a vessel to knowing. Thus, secondary writing curricula should support students’ learning and knowing. Evidence from meta-analyses suggests that an emphasis on self-regulated instruction to teaching writing (Graham, 2018a; Graham, 2020; Graham & Perin, 2007), metacognitive strategies (Hacker, 2018; Madison et al., 2019), and an emphasis on formative assessment and feedback throughout the writing process (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Fleischer, 2013; Madison et al., 2019) are among the practices with the highest effect sizes on students’ thinking and writing. When purposefully integrating these approaches and practices, secondary-level …

A Multi-Case Examination Of Training Of Self-Explanation When Combined With Worked Examples, Laura Leveridge Stapleton

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

As more students enter higher education unprepared for college level mathematics, amelioration of deficiencies may be a key barrier which, once faced, will increase overall college graduation rates (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006). Corequisite courses offer the opportunity for the underprepared learner to take the gateway mathematics course with support (Complete College America, 2012). Upon passing, mathematics and STEM courses will “unlock,” thus allowing the learner to successfully complete their degree requirements. Faculty are challenged to retain the rigor of college-level coursework while supporting learners who possess a wide range of mathematics levels (Daugherty, Gomez, Carew, Mendoza-Graf, & Miller, …

Fundamental Principles Of Metacognition: A Qualitative Study Of Metacognition, Pedagogy And Transformation, Philip Hulbig

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigated the transformative quality of a metacognitive education. It examined a transformative metacognitive education from both the subjective personal perspective of the student who has gone through the process of transformation and the more objective pedagogical perspective of the professors who work to bring forth such transformational experiences in their students. Through interview and analysis these perspectives were integrated to produce a pedagogical theoretical framework derived from experience and grounded in observations about metacognition across various scientific disciplines. The personal elements of metacognition that promote educational transformation from within the students were contrasted with the pedagogical approaches of …

Metacognitive Strategies Used For Reading Comprehension Among Adult Postsecondary Learners, Mary Lukes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractA significant positive correlation between higher metacognitive strategy use and better reading comprehension among native English-speaking children and adult learners of English as an additional language, consistently presented in the literature, has not been consistently or directly found among native English-speaking adult high school graduates who enroll in postsecondary learning programs such as university programs. Consequences for adult learners with lower reading comprehension scores at college entry include significantly lower earnings over their lifespan due in part to greater risk for not completing a postsecondary program. This nonexperimental cross-sectional study was guided by two theoretical frameworks, one for adult reading …

The Effect Of Priming Metacognition And Critical Thinking On Dispelling Psychological Misconceptions, Marissa Renee Bamberger

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examined to what extent the supraliminal, semantic priming of undergraduate introductory psychology students’ metacognitive and critical thinking skills predicts their ability to dispel common psychological myths and misconceptions. This thesis also investigated to what extent undergraduate introductory psychology students’ personality traits predict their ability to dispel common psychological myths and misconceptions. Fitting standard and hierarchical regression models, this study found that, although gender, age, year in school, and college-generation status were not significant covariates, persons of color typically exemplified greater endorsement of psychological misconceptions than their White / Caucasian peers. Also, compassion (an aspect of the agreeableness trait …