Characterizing the Development of Metacognitive Skills in Life Science Undergraduates and How They Use Metacognition to Learn Independently and Collaboratively

Effective Years: 2020-2025

Metacognition refers to awareness and control of one's own thinking. Previous research shows that supporting students' development and use of their metacognitive skills can enhance their success in STEM courses. For example, by using their metacognitive skills as they learn about new ideas, students can better identify concepts they do not understand. This knowledge allows them to select, implement, reflect upon, and adjust their learning strategies to build better understanding over time. While collaborating in small groups, students can also ask questions and make statements to stimulate metacognition in one another. STEM students who develop strong metacognitive skills are positioned to learn more effectively and persist in their majors. Thus, we need to better understand the changes that occur as life science students acquire metacognitive skills across their college careers, how small group work can be designed to enhance social metacognition, and the effects of students' metacognitive abilities on learning, reasoning, and problem-solving in the life sciences. This knowledge will inform how life sciences learning environments can be designed to support undergraduate students' development and use of metacognition in and out of the classroom.

This project will advance knowledge by characterizing: (1) the development of metacognition in undergraduate life science students throughout their college careers (without intervention); (2) how students prompt metacognitive thinking in one another (social metacognition) and how this prompting influences their reasoning during small group problem solving; and (3) the relationships between individual and social metacognition. Metacognitive development will be characterized via development of longitudinal case studies of life sciences majors at University of Georgia (a doctoral university), University of North Georgia (a master's university), and South Georgia State College (an associate's/baccalaureate college). The investigations will focus on when and how students use their metacognitive skills, and how students' personal epistemologies and self-efficacy may affect metacognition. Yearly profiles of each student will be constructed based on analyses of semi-structured interviews, think-aloud protocols while problem-solving, as well as responses to published inventories. Social metacognition will be investigated through analysis of video recordings of small-group work in an upper-level Cell Biology classroom. Later cohorts of students will then be guided in the use of effective types of social metacognition while working in small groups. Ultimately, the project will apply the research findings to create and evaluate a Metacognition in Biology seminar course for first-year life science students taking the Introductory Biology course at the University of Georgia. This course will be integrated with university programs that support talented rural and first-generation college students. The project will also impact science faculty development more broadly via an online workshop series of a national education network.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This CAREER project is supported by NSF's Education & Human Resources Directorate Core Research (ECR) Program and its Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.