During the fall semester, I hope* to investigate whether metacognitive prompts are associated with differences in students’ exam scores — or, at minimum, whether students report that their learning strategies (a.k.a. study skills) change over time. I plan on collecting data on the following schedule:
- Pre-exam survey
- Exam 1
- Post-exam survey
- Pre-exam survey
- Exam 2
- Post-exam survey
- Pre-exam survey
- Final exam
The pre-exam survey asks students how frequently they do each of the actions below for the course, on a sale of never, seldom, sometimes, often, or always:
- Write notes on main ideas when reading an assigned text for the first time.
- Actively participate and pay attention during class.
- Write notes during class.
- Reorganize notes when not in class.
- Periodically review notes when not in class.
- Start assignments early instead of waiting until last minute.
- Carefully read an assignment’s instructions and rubric before starting it.
- Review instructor feedback and assignment rubric after completing an assignment.
- Study in an environment that is productive for my learning.
- Seek help from others (classmates, friends, instructor, tutor, etc.) if I have questions.
The post-exam survey asks, in questions 1 to 5, how frequently students did each of the actions, on a scale of never, once, a few times, several times, or more than once a day over more than one day. For questions 6 to 8, students are asked to provide a brief answer in their own words:
- Studied in an environment that was productive for my learning.
- Reviewed the notes I had written.
- Reviewed instructor feedback and rubrics on graded assignments.
- Studied in intervals over an extended period of time prior to the exam instead of cramming.
- Sought help from others (classmates, friends, instructor, tutor, etc.) if I had questions.
- Which of your learning strategies helped you prepare the most for the exam? Why?
- Which of your learning strategies helped you prepare the least for the exam? Why?
- What changes to your learning strategies, if any, do you think you should make? Why?
Students will earn 5 points toward their final grade (on a scale of 1,000 points) for completing each survey, regardless of their responses. Each survey is on the Canvas LMS and will be accessible for a defined time period.
It looks like about twenty-five students at most will be enrolled in this course, so I won’t be able to do a statistical analysis of the data, but maybe I’ll be able to identify some patterns.
*Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry during pandemics.