Using a Learning Philosophy Assignment to Capture Students’ Metacognition and Achievement Goals

Abstract

As key components of self-regulated learning, metacognition and goal orientation have been tied to improvements in academic achievement. Some research supports a bidirectional relationship between metacognition and goal orientation in which they promote each other as well as learning outcomes. We created a learning philosophy assignment (LP) to encourage students’ consideration of their learning strategies and goals resulting in a record of students’ metacognition. Research suggests that low-achieving students may have different metacognitive capabilities and learning goals and as such may be differentially impacted by the assignment. This paper considers the content of the LPs. Students were split into achievement quartiles to explore any patterns in metacognition or learning goals distinct to achievement level. Our content analysis confirms that the LP was successful in documenting metacognition and learning goals in all students. There were some differences related to achievement level.