See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: What Should Students be Learning in Our Geology Classrooms?
Abstract:
If an important goal of higher education is to help students become expert learners, then our curricula should reflect that aim. Most post-secondary instruction, however, remains focused on disciplinary content. Courses specializing in critical thinking and strategies for college success are largely unsuccessful because skills leaned in these courses do not transfer well; research suggests that instruction on metacognitive knowledge and skills needs to be embedded within each discipline. Such instruction need not displace disciplinary content, but can instead be used to support (wrap) learning of that content.
Both of us include explicit instruction about learning, metacognition, and reflection in all of our geology courses. We use a variety of activities (e.g., readings, discussions, reading reflections, knowledge surveys, journals, portfolios) to help students set learning goals, self-assess their content mastery, develop their metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation skills, and reflect on the motivation and value of their learning. These activities constitute only a small fraction of total points awarded in each course, but student performance on these activities correlates well with their final grade.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: What Should Students be Learning in Our Geology Classrooms?