Self-directed learning (metacognition)

Help students assess the task at hand and evaluate their own strengths & weaknesses, plan an approach, apply strategies and monitor their performance

• Be more explicit about task definition than you may think necessary. Be clear about course goals and why they are important, what students need to do to meet the objectives of an assignment, etc. Share samples of work (anonymously, from a previous semester) and highlight strong and weak features, or do’s and don’ts.

• “Think out loud” and describe how you would approach a problem or task. Model your own metacognitive processes to demonstrate that even experts reassess and adapt their thinking.

• Provide simple heuristics for students to assess their own work, identify errors, and self-correct. For example, “Is this a reasonable answer?” or “What assumptions am I making here?”

• Have students analyze work of their classmates and provide feedback. This not only yields helpful ideas from others, it helps students monitor and evaluate their own work more effectively.

Attend to student beliefs about intelligence and learning

• Disabuse students of unproductive beliefs (e.g., “I can’t do math .”) by highlighting the positive effects of practice, effort, and adaptation.

• Show how different types of knowledge are needed for different types of tasks. For example, distinguish procedural knowledge (HOW to do something) from conceptual knowledge (WHY is that important? What does it mean?). Or walk students through the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and note the difference between being able to recall a fact, discuss a concept, solve a problem, etc.

• Help students set realistic expectations for their learning. When students have a truer sense of just how much time and effort is required, they’ll be more likely to persevere when they encounter challenge or frustration.