METACOGNITION MATTERS FOR LEARNING
Jenni Quilter�Executive Director, Expository Writing Program, and Assistant Vice Dean for General Education�Arts & Science
Katie Schneider Paolantonio�Clinical Professor, Biology
Arts & Science
Duncan Smith �Associate Professor, Biology�Arts & Science
March 19, 2025
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PRESENTERS
Duncan Smith �Associate Professor of Biology�duncan.smith@nyu.edu
Jenni Quilter �Executive Director, Expository Writing Program;�Assistant Vice Dean for General Education, A&S
Katie Schneider Paolantonio�Clinical Professor of Biology�ks146@nyu.edu
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Our students are not equally prepared
take the former into account
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Many students develop learning strategies too late
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Coordinated interventions are needed
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Redesigned CAS College Cohort
Authoring Your NYU Story is a redesigned semester-long college-cohort course for all CAS first years. It was first rolled out in fall 2024 and developed by Student Affairs and the Changemaker Center in partnership with CAS:
“Combining self-reflection, group discussion, and exploration of professional development and interpersonal theory, this course helps students cultivate a sense of purpose and direction. By weaving together the lived experiences that have brought students to this point, the course helps shape how students can intentionally use their time at NYU, how they can be the author of their lives moving forward, and empowers them to identify the contributions they will make to our community and our world.”
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1,440 Students Enrolled
46 Instructors, CLs & Sections
14, 75 Minute Sessions
Fall 2024 Implementation
Self
Community
Pathways
Action
Authoring Your NYU Story
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Metacognition Module
Designed by Jenni Quilter (with a huge thanks to Jason Joyce who ed the design of Authoring Your NYU Story in general)
Slides designed for cohort leaders to adapt as they wish (and included at the end of this deck) and which included student expectations (86% of incoming students are used to receiving an A or A- for their work, etc.), Bloom’s taxonomy, discussion questions to guide reflection, narrative example of student study strategies, data that shows how other students interpret Bloom’s taxonomy, and examples of metacognitive study strategies.
Slides were introduced in orientation for cohort leaders and talked through in 45 min session.
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Which level did you tend to work in when studying in high school?
Do you expect to work in the same levels in college?
Map everyone’s answers on the board through a show of hands.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning was developed in 1956.
Newer versions exist, and the categories can shift according to which version you use, but the basic premise remains: this pyramid describes six different kinds of learning.
DISCUSSION
Takeaways
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Principles of Biology
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The Peer Facilitator Program
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What do the PFs do?
_________________________________________
7.6 hours/week
PFs compile their goals for the semester
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The Science of Teaching
Reflection and Preparation (30 – 45 minutes)
Pedagogical Training (1 hr 15 mins – 1 hr 30 mins)
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The basic model
Modified from Otero et al. 2010
Preparation Weekly meetings with the IoR
Pedagogy
Weekly course in scientific teaching and learning
Practice
Facilitate weekly tutorials of 25 - 30 undergraduates
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Are these programs successful?
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Investigating impact (students)
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Investigating impact (students)
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Investigating impact (students)
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Tutorials impact student confidence
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Metacognitive Strategies
OfkjadlsjOf the
86 % of the students who said Yes say that learning these metacognitive strategies has influenced how they approach other courses.
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Investigating impact (PFs)
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Do PFs become better learners?
Breland et al. 2023 found significant increases in MAI scores after the first semester of participating in their LA program (F(1, 440) = 22.42, p < 0.001)
The largest increases were found in these questions:
Breland et al. 2023. The Benefits of Participating in a Learning Assistant Program on the Metacognitive Awareness and Motivation of Learning Assistants. CBE Life Sci Educ. 22(3):ar30.
doi: 10.1187/cbe.22-08-0156
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Next steps: Teaching Innovation Award
Eugene Plavskin
Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Biology
Incoming Instructor for PoB
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Key Takeaways
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RESOURCES
PoB PFs, Fall 23
PoB PFs, Spring 24
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BULLET POINTS
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DISCUSS
[OR, CONSIDER, SHARE,
REFLECT,
ETC.]
Share the following information with us in the chat.
Use this slide to add some topics for the audience to reflect upon, or use this as a prompt for another activity.
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DISCUSS
[OR, CONSIDER, SHARE,
REFLECT,
ETC.]
Share the following information with us in the chat.
Use this slide to add some topics for the audience to reflect upon, or use this as a prompt for another activity.
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SLIDE WITH IMAGE
Today, that trailblazing spirit makes NYU one of the most prominent and respected research universities in the world, featuring top-ranked academic programs and accepting fewer than one-in-five undergraduates.
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SLIDE WITH IMAGE LEFT
Today, that trailblazing spirit makes NYU one of the most prominent and respected research universities in the world, featuring top-ranked academic programs and accepting fewer than one-in-five undergraduates.
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ACTIVITY
Today’s activity is written out here, with directions and ideas for reflection. Explain to the audience what you want them to do in the time allotted, and replace the picture on the right with an activity-related image.
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Metacognitive Learning & the CAS Cohort Experience
Summer 2024
Jenni Quilter
Why are we talking about metacognitive strategies in first year cohort?
There are many professors who say that they wished students understood the benefit of metacognitive learning strategies early in their college career; understanding not just what you’re learning but why and how can transform your motivation, radically deepen your enjoyment and understanding of a subject, as well as significantly improve your grades.
This session is a basic introduction; look to the final slide for additional readings and information.
What study strategies did you rely on in high school?
5 mins to list strategies out on a board:
From the Office of Student Success we know that
86%
of incoming first years are used to receiving an A or A- for their work in high school.
CIRP Survey 2019 & 2020
DISCUSSION
What is the difference in the kind of learning you’d practice for each task?
What is the difference between learning a what and learning a why?
CIRP Survey 2019 & 2020
DISCUSSION
Incoming first years expect to spend
18 hrs
a week preparing for class, and 70% expect that most or half of this time will be spent reading.
Which task would requires more learning?
Which level did you tend to work in when studying in high school?
Do you expect to work in the same levels in college?
Map everyone’s answers on the board through a show of hands.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning was developed in 1956.
Newer versions exist, and the categories can shift according to which version you use, but the basic premise remains: this pyramid describes six different kinds of learning.
DISCUSSION
In case you need more data:
Which level did you tend to work in when studying in high school?
Do you expect to work in the same levels in college?
In one survey, 21% of students said they focused on knowledge in high school, 35% on comprehension, 25% application, 13% on analysis, 3% on synthesis, and 3% on evaluation.
In the same survey, 7% of students expected to focus on knowledge in college, 6% on comprehension, 15% on application, 35% on analysis, 5% on synthesis, & 15% on evaluation.
How do we change our study strategies to reflect a shift in learning ?
STUDENT ONE: During office hours, Josephina expresses that she was happy the exam was on a Monday, because she had a lot of time to prepare the previous weekend. She shares that she started studying after work on Saturday evening and did not go out with friends that night. When queried, she also shares that she reread all of the assigned textbook material and made flashcards of the bold words in the text. She feels that she should have done well on the test, because she studied all Saturday night and all day on Sunday. She feels that she did everything she could do to prepare. That said, she is worried about what her grade will be, and she wants you to know that she studied really hard, so she should get a good grade on the exam.
STUDENT TWO: Later in the week, Maya visits your office. When asked how she prepared for the first exam, she explains that she has regularly reviewed the PowerPoint slides each evening after class since the beginning of the term 4 weeks ago. She also read the assigned textbook pages weekly, but expresses that she spent most of her time comparing the ideas in the PowerPoint slides with the information in the textbook to see how they were similar and different. She found several places in which things seemed not to agree, which confused her. She kept a running list of these confusions each week. When you ask what she did with these confusions, she shares that she brought them to her weekly study group with peers from her course lab section. There, she says, she got most of her questions answered and lots of her confusions cleared up. She has come to office hours to ask you about a couple of things that she did not figure out before the exam that she thinks she probably missed. She is not too worried about her score on the exam, because most of the material related to problems and concepts that she felt had been thinking about a lot.
To the right are descriptions of study strategies of two different students as told to faculty.
In pairs, discuss the key differences.
What do you guess about how each student is doing in the class overall?
STUDENT ONE: During office hours, Josephina expresses that she was happy the exam was on a Monday, because she had a lot of time to prepare the previous weekend. She shares that she started studying after work on Saturday evening and did not go out with friends that night. When queried, she also shares that she reread all of the assigned textbook material and made flashcards of the bold words in the text. She feels that she should have done well on the test, because she studied all Saturday night and all day on Sunday. She feels that she did everything she could do to prepare. That said, she is worried about what her grade will be, and she wants you to know that she studied really hard, so she should get a good grade on the exam.
STUDENT TWO: Later in the week, Maya visits your office. When asked how she prepared for the first exam, she explains that she has regularly reviewed the PowerPoint slides each evening after class since the beginning of the term 4 weeks ago. She also read the assigned textbook pages weekly, but expresses that she spent most of her time comparing the ideas in the PowerPoint slides with the information in the textbook to see how they were similar and different. She found several places in which things seemed not to agree, which confused her. She kept a running list of these confusions each week. When you ask what she did with these confusions, she shares that she brought them to her weekly study group with peers from her course lab section. There, she says, she got most of her questions answered and lots of her confusions cleared up. She has come to office hours to ask you about a couple of things that she did not figure out before the exam that she thinks she probably missed. She is not too worried about her score on the exam, because most of the material related to problems and concepts that she felt had been thinking about a lot.
To the right are descriptions of study strategies of two different students as told to faculty.
In pairs, discuss the key differences.
What do you guess about how each student is doing in the class overall?
The difference between these two students rather neatly maps onto Flavell’s 1976 definition of metacognitive learning strategies, which is the ability to…
In pairs, come up with one learning strategy that would help you shift from remembering to applying or analyzing.
DISCUSSION
You get to
design your own learning adventure!
These study strategies
change according to academic discipline, but here are some possibilities:
Free-write for 10 minutes:
What do you now understand about your own thinking & learning?
How do you want to modify your current learning process?
How are you going to assess your own progress beyond reviewing the material?
[KEEP NEXT THREE SLIDES AT END OF DECK]
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LET US KNOW HOW WE DID!
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