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Self-regulation, a skillset involving taking charge of one’s own learning processes, is crucial for workplace success. Learners develop self-regulation skills through reflection where they recognize weaknesses and strengths by employing metacognitive strategies: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Use of anchors assists learners’ engagement in reflection. The purpose of this work was to gain insight into students’ use of anchors when reflecting on their learning. The two research questions were: (1) To what extent do students link their self-evaluation and learning objective (LO) self-ratings to their reflections? and (2) What dimensions and level of metacognitive strategies do students use in their self-evaluation of and reflections on weekly problem-solving assignments? Data were upper-division engineering students’ anchors (self- evaluations, LO self-ratings) and reflection responses for one assignment. Self-evaluations and reflections were analyzed for the presence of references to LOs. The number of students who linked the anchors to their reflection were tabulated. Additionally, a revised a priori coding scheme was applied to students’ written work to determine type and level of metacognitive strategies employed. Few students linked both anchors to their reflections. Students employed low to medium levels of the metacognitive strategies in their self-evaluations and reflections, even when they linked their anchors and reflections. The evaluating strategy dominated in the self- evaluations, while planning and monitoring dominated in the reflections. Students have limited understanding of the use of anchors to guide their reflection responses. Students overall level of engagement in the metacognitive strategies indicates a need for formal instruction on reflection.
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Students’ Metacognitive Regulation Strategies in Written Reflections within Third-Year Introductory Environmental Engineering Course
Lifelong learning plays an important role in achieving success in one’s professional life. Engaging students in metacognition assists in the development of their lifelong learning abilities. Instructors can integrate reflection activities in their courses to provide multiple opportunities to students for metacognitive engagement. During reflection, students regulate their cognition by engaging themselves in three dimensions of metacognition: Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluating. Reflection is a complex process, and it takes time to reach the level of critical reflection. The purpose of the study was to investigate the change in students' level of engagement in three dimensions of metacognition when reflecting on the third and tenth-week assignments of the environmental engineering course. Data collection took place in the Fall of 2023 at a large Midwest University. Students’ responses to the assigned reflection prompts for each dimension were coded for their level of engagement in each element of the three dimensions using a revised prior coding scheme. Results showed that for both assignments, students' responses were mainly at the vague level for all elements of the three dimensions, indicating students' superficial engagement in the reflection activity. Recommendations for instructors are provided to improve students' understanding of the reflection activity and their level of engagement in the three dimensions of metacognition.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2235227
- PAR ID:
- 10506935
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Society for Engineering Education
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- reflection metacognition students qualitative
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland, OR
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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