Thinking about thinking helps students learn

Educators use metacognition, often called thinking about thinking, to improve learning. In a 2024 study, researchers designed an intervention to improve undergraduate chemistry students’ ability to solve problems by greater use of metacognition.

Students vary in their capacity to solve problems, often because their views of their ability are affected by their previous experiences, especially of not being successful. Another cause of difficulty is overfocusing on getting the correct answer rather than understanding how to arrive at the correct answer. The researchers used two coordinated strategies to counter these difficulties.

Two-step approach to improve metacognition

The second strategy provided an expert solution to the problem set, which showed both the thinking processes and the expected answer. The researchers asked students to compare their answer to the one given in the expert solution and to write reflectively about the exercise. The team then used thematic analysis to identify two distinct groups of responses from 373 accounts by 178 students.

One group of responses showed a high level of engagement with the Goldilocks Help framework. Indicators of engagement clustered into three subthemes: cognitive, emotional and behavioural. The second group of responses showed similar indicators, but of disengagement.

Students benefited from the Goldilocks Help scaffold in combination with expert solutions, self-assessment and reflection

Researchers used the written responses to confirm earlier work which had identified four main types of student behaviour. The four types varied with respect to their use of the framework, their depth of reflection and their success in problem solving.

The findings suggest that students benefited from the continued and repeated use of the Goldilocks Help scaffold in combination with expert solutions, self-assessment and reflection. Analysis showed that these measures resulted in both enhanced problem-solving capacity and metacognition.

Greater student awareness

The researchers noted variability in students’ engagement with the interventions. Cognitive gains included that after the interventions, some students could identify flaws in their approaches, while those who initially lacked problem-solving skills learned to slow down and reflect more deeply.

However, some students resisted using the framework, fearing that it took too much time. Others worried using it would result in them getting a wrong answer. They believed their existing approach would enable them to get it right.

The findings suggest that reflective writing can help students recognise their own progress more clearly and can provide educators with data to help them target student support more effectively.