Conclusion
Inquiry Question:
How does teaching students to have a metacognitive approach to learning objectives promote their success?
How does teaching students to have a metacognitive approach to learning objectives promote their success?
I began this academic year with a very different set of goals for science teaching and student learning than I have today. Initially I wanted to dive directly into the science content and explore the fascinating details of chemistry or biology with my students. Developing students abilities to be metacognitive learners was not even a consideration at that point. The realization of this inquiry question and its implications for students success was a slow, evolving process. A critical piece of this process was informing my instruction based on what my students and colleagues taught me everyday. As I became more aware of the concerns and needs of my students I was able to begin developing my goals to specifically support their learning.
This idea of promoting student success is something I kept coming back to through my journey. The word success in the school setting had a very singular meaning to me at the start of this year. It simply meant being a good student with high grades. Each day I learned more about my students and came to realized that getting lost solely in teaching the content and getting good grades would be a disadvantage to all. I experienced first hand from observations that strictly teaching students the content will not elevate student success. Students would become disengaged when teachers just wanted to 'get through the content'. Then in turn the teacher would become frustrated with their disengaged students. As Granz (1990) points out, content-area teachers that “just fill students with factual knowledge soon find that students are left with very little of anything important” (p. 184). To give students important and useful tools was something I wanted to attain. I could not support the diverse and in-depth skills of scientific literacy this year. However, teaching students to be more metacognitive and reflective about their learning I hope it was that they could take what they learned and apply it beyond my class. A critical point Granz (1990) made is, success should not be defined solely on students’ mastery of content mater but rather on developing them as learners with a major self-control process, metacognitive skills processing. This point brings to light why metacognition is a skill that I have striven to develop in my classroom this year.
Student success developed to mean their academic success in my class as well as supporting their development in skills that will serve them to be successful well beyond this class, whether that is in higher education, a career, or a fruitful life as an adult. Most importantly I want to build students skills to be life long learners because this will truly allow them to succeed. Metacognitive thinking serves anyone, as they are thoughtful about ramifications, planning necessities, and many other aspects of an adult life. As I reflected on how I could do this I realized that it was essential that I take into consideration what my students believe success and being successful means since the meaning of success is very subjective.
When asked; How have the use of objectives helped you learn? (Artifact 11) One of my chemistry students responded.
"I have a better idea of what we are talking about instead of learning blindly and it helps me see my weaknesses and strengths."
The students' quote helped guide my answer to the inquiry question. Objectives allowed students to interact with clear expectations of their learning. Using these objectives to guide students' reflections on various course work assignments supported their development of metacognitive thinking by forcing them identify specifically what they understood. From that point they could specifically target their misunderstandings and determine the best way to resolve any issues and move forward.
As an educator I hope to develop metacognitive skills to support students to understand what and how they are learning as well as support their development to becoming scientifically literate. “Scientific Literacy is the ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen. A scientifically literate person, therefore, is willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science and technology” (p. 4, OCED, 2012). The ultimate way of promoting student success is by incorporating their metacognitive and scientifically literate skills in one.
This idea of promoting student success is something I kept coming back to through my journey. The word success in the school setting had a very singular meaning to me at the start of this year. It simply meant being a good student with high grades. Each day I learned more about my students and came to realized that getting lost solely in teaching the content and getting good grades would be a disadvantage to all. I experienced first hand from observations that strictly teaching students the content will not elevate student success. Students would become disengaged when teachers just wanted to 'get through the content'. Then in turn the teacher would become frustrated with their disengaged students. As Granz (1990) points out, content-area teachers that “just fill students with factual knowledge soon find that students are left with very little of anything important” (p. 184). To give students important and useful tools was something I wanted to attain. I could not support the diverse and in-depth skills of scientific literacy this year. However, teaching students to be more metacognitive and reflective about their learning I hope it was that they could take what they learned and apply it beyond my class. A critical point Granz (1990) made is, success should not be defined solely on students’ mastery of content mater but rather on developing them as learners with a major self-control process, metacognitive skills processing. This point brings to light why metacognition is a skill that I have striven to develop in my classroom this year.
Student success developed to mean their academic success in my class as well as supporting their development in skills that will serve them to be successful well beyond this class, whether that is in higher education, a career, or a fruitful life as an adult. Most importantly I want to build students skills to be life long learners because this will truly allow them to succeed. Metacognitive thinking serves anyone, as they are thoughtful about ramifications, planning necessities, and many other aspects of an adult life. As I reflected on how I could do this I realized that it was essential that I take into consideration what my students believe success and being successful means since the meaning of success is very subjective.
When asked; How have the use of objectives helped you learn? (Artifact 11) One of my chemistry students responded.
"I have a better idea of what we are talking about instead of learning blindly and it helps me see my weaknesses and strengths."
The students' quote helped guide my answer to the inquiry question. Objectives allowed students to interact with clear expectations of their learning. Using these objectives to guide students' reflections on various course work assignments supported their development of metacognitive thinking by forcing them identify specifically what they understood. From that point they could specifically target their misunderstandings and determine the best way to resolve any issues and move forward.
As an educator I hope to develop metacognitive skills to support students to understand what and how they are learning as well as support their development to becoming scientifically literate. “Scientific Literacy is the ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen. A scientifically literate person, therefore, is willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science and technology” (p. 4, OCED, 2012). The ultimate way of promoting student success is by incorporating their metacognitive and scientifically literate skills in one.
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