PFSMETE Starter Grant Proposal: Further Studies of Metacognition and Chemistry Learning

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

0204779 Despite the importance of a whole spectrum of knowledge from general thinking strategies to specific content in scientists' thinking, most science instructors focus their courses only on content knowledge and neglect to equip students with appropriate thinking strategies. Thus, it is not surprising that students often gain factual and procedural knowledge, but are unable to link and use these ideas to solve novel problems, give coherent explanations, or construct a principled understanding of science. This is unfortunate because, without these abilities, science content knowledge is practically useless to students. On the other hand, understanding of the fundamental principles and thinking strategies of science fosters independent science learning and problem solving. Research in cognitive science and education illustrates that instructors can promote better understanding by explicitly teaching students to use thinking strategies that experts use implicitly. Metacognition refers to the monitoring and regulation of one's own thoughts, and includes the use of both general and domain-specific thinking strategies. An example of a general thinking strategy is evaluating new ideas by comparing them with other things you know about to see if the ideas fit together and make sense to you. A strategy that is more specific to the domain of chemistry is making connections between macroscopic observations and molecular-level explanations. Research has shown that high levels of metacognition are key for understanding ideas and for problem solving. While it is clear that metacognition contributes favorably to learning, many open questions about its specific role remain. With funding from a PFSMETE starter grant, I propose to continue my research regarding metacognition and chemistry learning. First, I propose to use funds from this starter grant to provide a bridge between my PFSMETE postdoctoral work and plans for larger-scale dissemination and study of student learning in the laboratory via the MORE Thinking Frame. Thus, a major focus of this project will be to study the use of the MORE Thinking Frame as implemented by a graduate student instructor who has never used the tool before and the student learning that results from such an implementation. Second, of the three arenas in which chemistry is taught at the college level (lecture, laboratory, and recitation), by far the most challenging context in which to promote student metacognition is that of the large lecture class. Thus, the second major focus of this project will be to develop and study instructional methods that can be used to promote student metacognition during a "lecture" period. I expect that the research and development activities of this project will result in information about how to best design and disseminate metacognitive methods and materials, including an understanding of how use of such innovative methods may be sustained in different instructional contexts; valuable professional development opportunities for graduate students involved in the project; and improved metacognitive abilities, understanding of chemistry ideas and problem solving abilities for students. Overall, the proposed research can be expected to advance understandings of methods for promoting and assessing metacognition in chemistry courses, the cognitive mechanisms underlying chemistry learning, and approaches to the design of more effective learning environments.