Assessing Metacognition During Problem-Solving in Two Senior Concurrent Courses

Abstract

Metacognition refers to people’s abilities to predict their performances on various tasks and to monitor their current levels of mastery and understanding. Flavell 3 distinguished two characteristics of metacognition: knowledge of cognition (KC) and regulation of cognition (RC). KC includes knowledge of the skills required by different tasks, strategic knowledge and selfknowledge. RC includes the ability to monitor one’s comprehension and to control one’s learning activities. There is a considerable amount of data that supports the value of a metacognitive approach to instruction. It includes an emphasis on learning with understanding and on problem solving, but part of the emphasis is on understanding the cognitive and emotional processes involved in these kinds of activities. We designed and implemented several problem-solving learning environments 7 (PSLEs) for two chemical engineering senior concurrent courses entitled Kinetics and Homogeneous Reactor Design and Mass Transfer Unit Operations I at Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Mexico). The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) designed by Schraw and Dennison was utilized as a pre(first day of classes) post(last day of classes) test. MAI is a 52-item inventory that measures adults’ metacognitive awareness. Items are classified into eight subcomponents subsumed under two broader categories, KC and RC. Furthermore, in order to assess metacognitive awareness during problem-solving activities, students had to answer the corresponding problem as well as 2-3 embedded problem-solving prompts and 4-6 embedded metacognitive prompts (from MAI, chosen based on the level of complexity of the problem and the type of knowledge and skills required to solve it). A final design challenge was used to simultaneously assess student attainment of learning outcomes for both courses, through the synthesis and analysis of the reaction and separation stages in a chemical plant. Students were asked to carry out a presentation of their solution methodology, obtained results and conclusions for this challenge. Presentations were videotaped to be further examined. Results for the pre-post MAI exhibit a significant (p<0.05) increase in student metacognitive awareness. Notable progress was also noticed by means of the embedded MAI prompts while solving different kinds of problems (such as story problems, decision-making problems, troubleshooting/diagnosis, and design problems) throughout studied courses, in which students also improved the quality of their embedded problem-solving answers and corresponding partial grades. Analysis of final presentations allowed us to identify students’ abilities to solve complex problems as well as their argumentative and metacognitive skills. The vast majority of students attained expected both courses’ learning outcomes at an acceptable level.