1 Looking at Metacognition from a cultural perspective Minjuan Wang Xiaoyan Pan Associate professor of English, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

2 Trojan Horse Metacognitive Lesson: Check your assumptions!

3 Titanic Metacognitive Lesson: Know your weaknesses!

4 Maginot Line Metacognitive Lesson: Know when to adapt!

5

6  Metacognition involves thinking about one’s own cognitive processes  Thinking about one’s thinking, learning, reasoning, problem solving, …  Metacognition is essential for effective learning in complex situations

7

8 Task constraints Plan & Set Goals Evaluate & Adapt Apply Strategies & Monitor Beliefs about learning Motivation Knowing one’s strengths & weaknesses (Butler, 1997; Pintrich, 2000; Winne & Hadwin, 1998)

9  Beliefs about learning impact SRL cycle:  Learning is quick/easy vs. hard/effortful  Being a good learner is innate vs. develops

10 Beliefs about intelligence Self-efficacy Learning goals Productive strategies Learning/ Performance gains

11 Changing beliefs: Summary  By working to change students’ beliefs about learning/intelligence, we can see:  Sustained changes in belief (for months)  Increased motivation/effort  More positive attitudes  Improved performance (even after a delay)

12 Teaching students to plan  Consider student as an independent learner (e.g., in online learning environment)  Critical skills: Setting learning goals, planning Plan Set Goals Evaluate Adapt Apply Strategies Monitor

13 What is Culture?  Beliefs and behaviors accepted within communities  that may range from small family units to national or intra-national systems

14 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions  Power Distance (PDI)  Individualism/Collectivism  Masculinity (MAS)  Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI), and Long Term Orientation (LTO) (Hofstede, 1991) (Hofstede, 1991)

15 Power Distance and Learning

16 Individualism-Collectivism

17 Uncertainty Avoidance

18 Cultural differences in Beliefs about learning Hard vs. easy Knowledge transmission vs. construction Goal setting Just to get a degree Or really want to learn Perceptions of communication role of the instructor classroom conduct deadlines

19  A wrapper is an activity that surrounds a pre- existing learning or assessment task and fosters students’ metacognition  One can build a self-monitoring wrapper around any pre-existing part of a course (lecture, homework, test)

20  Time efficient (Students and faculty will use them)  Students are doing the task anyway  Wrapper only adds a few minutes of time  Metacognition practice is integrated with the task  Students are self-monitoring in the context where it is needed  Feedback on accuracy can be built in  Wrapper support can be gradually faded

21  How they work: 1. Instructor creates self-assessment questions that focus on skills students should be monitoring 2. Students answer questions just before homework 3. Complete homework as usual 4. After homework, answer similar self-assessment questions and draw their own conclusions “This homework is about vector arithmetic… How quickly and easily can you solve problems that involve vector subtraction?” “Now that you have completed this homework, how quickly and easily can you solve problems…?”

22  Metacognitive skills and beliefs about learning have consequences for students’ learning and performance.  Teaching metacognition – introducing these new skills and beliefs, and giving students practice at applying them – improves students’ learning.  Low-cost interventions can have big payoffs, so try it!

23 Aronson, J. M. (ed.). (2002). Improving academic achievement: Impact of psychological factors on education. San Diego: Academic Press. Azevedo, R., & Cromley, J. G. (2004). Does training on self-regulated learning facilitate students' learning with hypermedia? Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(3), Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), Butler, D. (1997). The roles of goal setting and self-monitoring in students' self-regulated engagement of tasks. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. Ertmer, Peggy A., & Newby, Timothy J. (1996). The expert learner: Strategic, self-regulated, and reflective. Instructional Science, 24(1), Henderson, V. L., & Dweck, C. S. (1990). Motivation and achievement. In S. S. Feldman & G. R. Elliott (Eds.), At the threshold: The developing adolescent (pp ). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), Pintrich, P. R. (2000). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp ). San Diego: Academic Press. Winne, P. H., & Hadwin, A. F. (1998). Studying as self-regulated learning. In D. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.