Looking at Metacognition from a cultural perspective

1. Looking at Metacognition from a cultural perspective Minjuan Wang Xiaoyan Pan Associate professor of English, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

2. Trojan Horse Metacognitive Lesson: Check your assumptions!

3. Titanic Metacognitive Lesson: Know your weaknesses!

4. Maginot Line Metacognitive Lesson: Know when to adapt!

6. Critically important, yet overlooked • Metacognition involves thinking about one’s own cognitive processes • Thinking about one’s thinking, learning, reasoning, problem solving, … • Metacognition is essential for effective learning in complex situations

8. Plan & Set Goals Task constraints Beliefs about learning Knowing one’s strengths & weaknesses Evaluate & Adapt Apply Strategies & Monitor Motivation The ideal: Self-regulated learning (SRL) (Butler, 1997; Pintrich, 2000; Winne & Hadwin, 1998)

9. Beliefs have consequences! • Beliefs about learning impact SRL cycle: • Learning is quick/easy vs. hard/effortful • Being a good learner is innate vs. develops

10. Path Model Learning goals Beliefs about intelligence Productive strategies Learning/ Performance gains Self-efficacy

11. Changing beliefs: Summary By working to change students’ beliefs about learning/intelligence, we can see: Sustained changes in belief (for months) Increased motivation/effort More positive attitudes Improved performance (even after a delay)

12. Teaching students to plan Consider student as an independent learner (e.g., in online learning environment) Critical skills: Setting learning goals, planning Plan Set Goals Evaluate Adapt Apply Strategies Monitor

13. What is Culture? • Beliefs and behaviors accepted within communities • that may range from small family units to national or intra-national systems

14. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions • Power Distance (PDI) • Individualism/Collectivism • Masculinity (MAS) • Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI), and Long Term Orientation (LTO) (Hofstede, 1991)

15. Power Distance and Learning

16. Individualism-Collectivism

17. Uncertainty Avoidance

18. Cultural differences in • Beliefs about learning • Hard vs. easy • Knowledge transmission vs. construction • Goal setting • Just to get a degree • Or really want to learn • Perceptions of • communication • role of the instructor • classroom conduct • deadlines

19. A New Tool: Wrappers • A wrapper is an activity that surrounds a pre-existing learning or assessment task and fosters students’ metacognition • One can build a self-monitoring wrapper around any pre-existing part of a course (lecture, homework, test)

20. Why Wrappers Work • Time efficient (Students and faculty will use them) • Students are doing the task anyway • Wrapper only adds a few minutes of time • Metacognition practice is integrated with the task • Students are self-monitoring in the context where it is needed • Feedback on accuracy can be built in • Wrapper support can be gradually faded

21. Homework Wrappers • How they work: 1. Instructor creates self-assessment questions that focus on skills students should be monitoring 2. Students answer questions just before homework 3. Complete homework as usual 4. After homework, answer similar self-assessment questions and draw their own conclusions “This homework is about vector arithmetic… How quickly and easily can you solve problems that involve vector subtraction?” “Now that you have completed this homework, how quickly and easily can you solve problems…?”

22. Conclusions • Metacognitive skills and beliefs about learning have consequences for students’ learning and performance. • Teaching metacognition – introducing these new skills and beliefs, and giving students practice at applying them – improves students’ learning. • Low-cost interventions can have big payoffs, so try it!

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