Marcel V. J. Veenman

The Generality vs Domain-Specificity of Metacognitive Skills in Novice Learning across Domains.

Abstract A first objective of this study is to determine the generality versus domain-specificity of the metacognitive skills that students bring into new learning situations. Additionally, this study addresses the relationship between intelligence and metacognitive skillfulness as predictors of novice learning. Fourteen high or (relatively) low intelligent psychology freshmen (novices in the domains of physics and statistics) participated in the experiment. Subjects passed through three different simulation environments representing physics, statistics, and a fictitious domain. Both the subjects metacognitive skillfulness and learning performances were assessed for each domain. Results support the generality of novice metacognitive skills across domains. Furthermore, metacognitive skillfulness contributes to novice learning partly independent of intellectual ability. Implications for metacognitive skill training are being discussed.

Changes in the relation between cognitive and metacognitive skills during the acquisition of expertise

This paper focuses on the transformation of general metacognitive skills of novices into domain-specific regulatory procedures of experts, and the relation of those skills to intelligence. Research has shown that the general metacognitive skills of novices, although partly correlated to intelligence, additionally contribute to learning outcome on top of intelligence. The metacognitive skills of experts appear to be domainspecific and unrelated to intelligence. Two experiments were conducted. The objective of the first experiment was to confirm and generalize these earlier results concerning the relation of intellectual ability, metacognitive skillfulness and learning of novices vs. advanced subjects. The objective of the second experiment was to investigate this relation under different conditions of task complexity. It was hypothesized that advanced subjects would regress to more novice-like behavior under very complex learning conditions (i.e., general metacognitive skills and intelligence would re-appear as combined predictors of learning outcome). On the other hand, low intelligent novices, irrespective of their metacognitive skillfulnes, were expected to fail on very complex problems. Results partly confirmed these hypotheses. Implications for the conditions under which metacognitive experiences should be implemented, are being discussed.RésuméCet article porte sur la transformation des capacités métacognitives générales des novices en des procédures de régulation propres à des domaines qui sont celles des experts, ainsi que sur les relations entre ces capacités et l’intelligence. La recherche a montré que les capacités métacognitives générales des novices, faiblement corrélées à l’intelligence, ajoutent leurs effets à ce dernier facteur dans la réussite aux apprentissages. Les capacités métacognitives des experts sont spécifiques à des domaines et indépendantes de l’intelligence. Deux recherches ont été conduites. L’objectif de la première était de confirmer et de généraliser les relations antérieurement constatées entre aptitude intellecturlle, capacité métacognitive et apprentissage, chez les novices et chez les experts. L’objectif de la deuxième recherche était d’étudier les mêmes relations dans des conditions variable de complexité de la tâche. L’hypothèse était que dans les conditions d’une tâche très complexe, les sujets plus experts reviennent à des comportements proches de ceux des novices (i.e., capacités métacognitives générales et intelligence réapparaîtraient, dans ces conditions, comme prédicteurs associés de la réussite de l’apprentissage). D’autre part, des novices de faible intelligence, devaient échouer face à des problèmes très complexes, indépendamment de leurs capacité métacognitives. Les résultats vont en partie dans le sens de ces hypothèses. Les implications concernant les conditions d’exploitation des capacités métacognitives sont discutées.

Technical students' metacognitive skills: relating general vs. specific metacognitive skills to study success

Abstract The first objective of this study was to determine whether metacognitive skillfulness is entirely part of intelligence as predictor of learning or not. Furthermore, the generality vs. domain-specificity of metacognitive skillfulness was investigated. Sixteen technical university students participated in the experiment. They performed two tasks while thinking aloud, a model construction task that was part of their curriculum and an unfamiliar discovery–learning task representing a fictitious domain. Both the participants metacognitive skillfulness and learning performance were assessed for each domain. Furthermore, exam grades and study credits were collected. Results support the generality of metacognitive skills across tasks and domains. Results further show that metacognitive skillfulness contributed to learning results (partly) independent of intellectual ability. Implications for metacognitive skill training are being discussed.

Test anxiety and metacognitive skillfulness: Availability versus production deficiencies

Abstract This paper focuses on the role of metacognition in test anxiety. In two experiments, the metacognitive skillfulness of high vs. low test-anxious secondary school students was contrasted. Low test-anxious subjects exhibited a superior metacognitive skillfulness during math performance relative to high test-anxious subjects. Furthermore, differences in metacognitive skillfulness were performance related. In order to unravel causality in the relation between metacognition and test anxiety, two types of test-anxious students may be distinguished analogous to Naveh-Benjamin (1991). Type-1 students would lack metacognitive skills (availability deficiency), through which they experience failure and develop test anxiety. Type-2 students would experience task irrelevant thoughts, which causes cognitive interference with available metacognitive skills (production deficiency). Results of Study 1 reveal that metacognitive cueing may represent an adequate method for the identification of both types. Due to time-constraints, metacognitive cueing in Study 2 failed to do so.

Initial Inductive Learning in a Complex Computer Simulated Environment: The Role of Metacognitive Skills and Intellectual Ability.

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the role of metacognitive skillfulness and intellectual ability during initial inductive learning with a complex computer simulation. It was hypothesized that adequate learning behavior and performance is initiated by a high quality of metacognitive skillfulness. Theories proposed by Elshout [Elshout, J. J. (1987). Problem solving and education. In E. de Corte, H. Lodewijks, R. Parmetier, & P. Span (Eds.), Learning and instruction (pp. 259–271). Oxford: Pergamon Books Ltd. Leuven: University Press] and Raaheim [Raaheim, K. (1988). Intelligence and task novelty. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of human intelligence (Vol. 4; pp. 73–97). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum] predict that the impact of intellectual ability on learning performance is at most moderate during initial inductive learning. Students with a low or high intellectual ability were asked to induce rules of optics by conducting experiments with lights and lenses in a computerized Optics Lab. Learning performance was assessed using both qualitative and quantitative measures. Results showed that metacognitive skillfulness was positively related to learning behavior and to scores on the qualitative tests. As predicted by Elshout (1987) and Raaheim [1988; Raaheim, K. (1991). Is the high IQ person really in trouble? Why? In H. A. H. Rowe (Ed.), Intelligence: reconceptualization and measurement (pp. 35–46). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum], the impact of intellectual ability on learning performance was moderate during initial inductive learning. Metacognitive skillfulness and intellectual ability appeared to be unrelated. This study shows that during initial inductive learning with a complex computer simulation learners draw heavily on their metacognitive skillfulness, which results mainly in qualitative knowledge. Consequently, complex computer-simulated learning environments are only appropriate for novice learners with high metacognitive skillfulness.

Differential Effects of Instructional Support on Learning in Simulation Environments

This article investigates a complex Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI), of intelligence and metacognitive skill as aptitudes with structuredness of learning environment as treatment. A more structured learning environment is usually regarded as beneficial to learning in low intelligence students, whereas it may not affect or may even interfere with learning in high intelligence students. The overall analyses of four studies are presented, including a total of 99 subjects. High and low intelligence novices passed through either structured or unstructured simulation environments in the domains of heat theory, electricity, or statistics. Thinking-aloud protocols were analyzed in order to assess the metacognitive skillfulness of subjects. Several learning tests were administered, assessing both declarative and procedural domain knowledge. The results show that structuredness of learning environment did not affect learning in high intelligence subjects, irrespective of their level of metacognitive skillfulness. However, the structured learning environment yielded enhanced learning performances in low intelligence subjects with a low level of metacognitive skillfulness, while it interfered with learning in low intelligence subjects with a relatively high level of metacognitive skillfulness.

Metacognition in Science Education: Defi nitions, Constituents, and Their Intricate Relation with Cognition

This chapter provides a general overview of the role of metacognition in science education. First, a distinction is made between metacognitive knowledge and skills. Metacognitive knowledge refers to the knowledge about the cognitive system, while metacognitive skills concern the regulation of cognitive processes. The historical roots, the nature of processes involved, the development and acquisition, and assessment methods are discussed for both concepts. It is argued that adequate metacognitive knowledge is prerequisite to the acquisition of metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills, in turn, are the main determinant of learning outcomes. A comprehensive theory of metacognitive skills as self-instructions is presented, indicating that metacognitive skillfulness is not merely a response to anomalies in task performance but also includes the active, self-induced regulation of problem-solving and learning behavior. Next, the role of metacognitive skills in science education is discussed from the perspective of various learning processes involved in task performance. That is, from the perspective of how metacognitive skills are enacted in reading text, problem-solving, inquiry learning, and writing. It appears that metacognitive skills for orientation, planning, monitoring, and evaluation are equally important for these learning processes in science education. Finally, implications for the instruction of metacognitive skills are discussed. The chapter emphasizes the recurrent problems with the “fuzziness” of the concept “metacognition” and of its constituents. Nevertheless, it provides a concise review of many of the main approaches to metacognition that appear in the literature.

Assessing Metacognitive Skills in Computerized Learning Environments

In this chapter, metacognitive skills are considered to be an organized set of metacognitive self-instructions for the monitoring of and control over cognitive activity. These self-instructions can be represented as a production system of condition-action rules. For the assessment of metacognitive skills, however, these covert rules have to be inferred from overt learner behavior during task performance. In computerized learning tasks, on-line traces of learner activities can be unobtrusively stored in logfiles. Prerequisite to logfile assessment is the selection of relevant indicators of metacognitive learning activities on the basis of a rational task analysis, which indicators have to be validated against other on-line measures obtained with, for instance, thinking-aloud protocols. Such analyses of logfiles will allow for the assessment of metacognitive skills as an aptitude, that is, as a relatively stable repertoire of self-instructions. In order to further capture the dynamic change in metacognitive processes over time, progressive patterns of metacognitive activity can be identified in logged traces through time-series analysis. It is argued that the aptitude and dynamic approaches to assessing metacognitive skills are complementary to one another, rather than excluding each other.

Discovery and maintenance of the many‐to‐one counting strategy in 4‐year‐olds: A microgenetic study

This study investigated the development of the many-to-one counting strategy in 4- year-old children. In the first experiment, 52 children participated. Their development with respect to two kinds of tasks, a hidden-items task and a needed-items task, was studied over four sessions. Children (n = 28) who accurately used the many-to-one strategy in Session 4 also participated in the second experiment. These children were presented with more difficult hidden- and needed-items tasks. It was found that children often produced the strategy for the first time on tasks with relatively few items. Most children then kept producing it, even if they initially did not obtain much profit from its use because of counting errors. Increasing task difficulty resulted in children making more counting errors or reverting to invalid strategies depending on the nature of the new task.

Multi-domain, multi-method measures of metacognitive activity: what is all the fuss about metacognition … indeed?

Studies about metacognition, intelligence and learning have rendered equivocal results. The mixed model assumes joint as well as independent influences of intelligence and metacognition on learning results. In this study, intelligence was measured by standard tests for reasoning, spatial ability and memory. Participants were 13-year-old school students. Measures of metacognitive activity were gathered by analyses of thinking-aloud protocols within two task domains, i.e., history and physics. Prior knowledge and learning results were measured by tests constructed by the researchers. The results showed that metacognitive activity did not relate to learning results in either task domain. For history, the learning result was only determined by prior knowledge. For physics, intelligence influenced the learning result via prior knowledge, but the effect of execution activity, i.e., exercise, appeared more important. It is possible that ‘learning by doing’, i.e., exercise, is a powerful mean for promoting the application of knowledge in physics.