Effect of Teaching Metacognitive Learning Strategies on Performance in General Chemistry Courses

• Autores: Elzbieta Cook, Eugene Kennedy, Saundra Y. McGuire
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 90, Nº 8, 2013, págs. 961-967
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • College students often ?nd general chemistry to be a very challenging rite of passage on their way to degrees in various science, technology, and mathematics disciplines. As teachers, we make e?orts to simultaneously patch gaps in students� prior knowledge and instill valuable learning strategies and sound study habits. In this paper, we describe e?ective metacognitive learning strategies for students in general chemistry courses. Many students experience di?culty because they are focused on memorizing facts and formulas instead of understanding concepts and developing problem-solving skills. However, students can be successful if they are taught how to shift their e?orts from low-level to higher-order thinking. We present outcomes from a 50 min lecture on learning strategies presented to a population of nearly 700 science major ?rst-year students after the ?rst examination. The average ?nal grade for the students who attended the lecture was a full letter grade higher than that of those who were absent, while the performance on the ?rst examination was not statistically signi?cantly di?erent for the two groups. Student survey response data indicated that the students who attended the lecture changed their behavior as a result of gaining new information about learning. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using the ANCOVA approach.