Poster #9 - Training pupils metacognitive monitoring to improve learning in the classroom

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Predicting how well they will perform or have performed in a task – i.e., metacognitive monitoring - can allow pupils to engage in self-regulation and develop strategies to optimize subsequent learning. Thus, a large body of work has focused on documenting the potential interest of metacognitive training to improve learning, in and out of the classroom (Kuhn, 2000; Muijs & Bokhove, 2020). A recurrent finding, however, is that pupils tend to be overconfident in their ability to perform cognitive tasks, which prevents them from adjusting their effort accordingly (O’Leary & Sloutsky, 2019). When encountering unexpected negative feedback, however, they can become underconfident, which decreases their learning motivation. This suggests that a calibration training in successive learning tasks might help pupils to (re)calibrate their confidence and consequently improve their learning. Here, we test the efficacy of a 3-step intervention that consists in asking pupils to predict their ability to conduct a cognitive task, to retrospectively evaluate their output, and to compare the latter evaluation with their actual performance.
Our study involves two large scale metacognitive training experiments. In a test group, teachers used a metacognitive tool involving pictorial confidence scales over extended periods of time. The 4-point scales allowed pupils to report their confidence before performing a learning task (ranging from « I don’t think i can do it » to « I think i can do it very well »), after performing it (« I think that I didn’t manage to do it at all » to « I think that I managed very well »), and after receiving feedback on their performance (« I did worse than what I expected » to « I did better than what I expected »). In a control group, pupils performed an equally engaging, non-metacognitive task (matching images with words subjectively). Pupils performances in the task were rated in both groups. In experiment 1, N = 318 pupils (2nd to 12th grade) used the metacognitive tool up to 9 times. Using the metacognitive tool (test group) allowed pupils to achieve a higher level of performances as compared to pupils in the control group, over all age groups. We also observed that, although pupils of all ages showed appropriate postdictive metacognitive calibration, predictive metacognitive evaluations were only mastered by the oldest pupils (from the 5th grade onwards), while younger pupils’ predictive metacognitive sensitivity did not differ from chance level. We are currently replicating this procedure in a larger cohort (N~624) and over a longer period, in order to see if extended use of the tool might allow younger pupils to better calibrate their predictive metacognitive evaluations. Our findings suggest that metacognitive training has the potential to improve learning even for young pupils.

Authors

• Louise Goupil, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
  Presenting Author

• Frédéric Guilleray

• Victor Serveau

• Joëlle Proust