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Embedding Cognitive Learning and Metacognitive Strategies

By AMY BARR (WSC)

RESEARCH QUESTION AND RATIONALE

I am an Engineering Lecturer and have decided to investigate memory strategies for students, which can be promoted across the curriculum, with the help to improve my understanding of cognitive development and be beneficial when taking on departmental or college-responsibility in the future.

During my 3 years of teaching, I have found that one of the hardest and regular challenges students face, is approaching an unknown task. Graduating from secondary education differs to Further education (FE) in that secondary is mainly memory retention leading up to GCSE’s. Whereas FE is applied questioning students are expected to complete assignment style questions as soon as the first term in FE. It is my belief that the ability to apply the subject is more important than memory facts, however the (Advisory, 2008) disagree with me and cite that, ‘memory is much more important than real calculations as a student who stops to calculate may make an error’.

However it has been clear to me that the students are not taught on how to approach an unknown task, and how to persist mentality through to completion. The current education climate has never been more aware of student’s mental wellbeing, with the (BBC, 2020) citing that ‘2020 is a state of mental health crisis’. Students need to be equipped with cognitive and metacognitive strategies to try different ways of learning in and out of class to support their educational experience.

It is part of the colleges character strengths to build resilience, and I think that if students were exposed to regular small problems, before the curriculum content is delivered, this would increase. This is supported by constructive theorists (Wickens, 2003) “large amounts of guidance may produce good performance during practice, but too much guidance may impair later, as correct responses in math, may impair their ability later to retrieve correct responses from memory on their own” . This agrees with my research that students need more time to explore their cognitive abilities rather than a large teacher led style of teaching.

I would like to investigate this aspect of education with my project topic ‘Embedding cognitive learning and metacognitive strategies into Year 1 Mechanical Engineering (FE) lessons to improve student’s tolerance to persist with tasks.’ This topic is manageable and clear within the time frame for my project. It has national importance, as evident in the Code of Practice (Society of Education and Training , 2020) and local importance for the college’s strengths (WSC, 2020). If successful it should be a way to directly raise standards of curriculum delivery which can be mapped across the college and even regional-wide to partner colleges.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Students who arrive to FE with good maths GCSE grades, were not readily attempting the harder mechanical principle problems. This displays that students lacked the confidence to readily try to attempt problems. In 1982, the Cockcroft Report asserted that ‘the ability to solve problems is at the heart of mathematics’ (Cockcroft, 1982) Similarly (Pennant, 2013) emphasized that ‘independent problem-solving skills are essential for students for 21st century life and work.’ This outlook has made it possible to stress the importance of the need for carefully designed activities that will challenge students, students ‘will rarely manifest high ability unless they have the opportunity to do so (Fletcher-Campbell, 2003).

Theorist (Freire, 1972) emphasises the importance of teacher based on dialogue, the drawback of this approach in my research is that it leaves little room from allowing learners to explore their learning. Citing that students to “receptacles” in which teachers “deposit” knowledge.

Differently Gibb, Dewey the theorist who supports child-centred learning quoted “Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” (Gibb, 2020) This would then apply to my research by setting exploratory starter tasks at the beginning of sessions as to get the students minds engaged and open for learning new things.

Personal challenges I face in the classroom is stretching and challenging the more accomplished students (Rowlands, 1974), stresses emphasis on the student’s current ability, an approach which we use in the classroom daily. However an opposing approach would be that of (Montogomery, 2001) who was interested in what a student might achieve but did not yet demonstrate. This is much more useful as a researcher for problem solving as I can then view students with the longer-term implications of what they may achieve rather than what they currently are.

Researching possible solutions to this, I am proposing a new approach to developing my students’ problem-solving abilities. Metacognition, which Swanson defines as ‘the knowledge and control one has over one’s thinking and learning activities’, (Swanson, 1990) is what the research will be based on for application, as the ability to self-regulate one’s thoughts is both a common trait of expert problem-solvers and prominent in the EEF’s Teaching & Learning Toolkit (educationendowmentfoundation, 2020). I also have read that the SEN code of practice (Department for education , 2014) recommends children should be involved in decisions about their education. I have noticed that if students feel engaged and involved they have said that they feel supported and so are more likely to attempt harder problems within the classroom environment.

METHODOLOGY RESEARCH

This study will be conducted with the entire cohort of Year 1 Engineering students a total of 150 students. There will be four intervention groups and one control group. The intervention groups will experience the new teaching strategies, the control group will be taught as per previous years.

It will be carried out by setting students effective cognitive learning tasks at the beginning of every session. Designing activities for applied assignment coursework which would develop students cognitive and metacognitive skills alongside the above, based on existing evidence.

This will be a qualitive data collection through questionnaires similar to below;

Comparison of assessment for learning data between control and intervention group.

Monitoring not correct answers to problems, but whether students are engaged to approach tasks rather than to leave them, and how they felt after using a Likert scale, with how they felt during the task and how they felt after completing the task. This will then have no ethical concerns but have been considered it is not against ability so not to discriminate but against perseverance of the student.

Statistical analysis comparing normalised data between intervention and control groups using data set generated across academic year. Setting end of year assessment task to assess each student’s level of perseverance with gradually increasing problem solving set tasks.

DISCUSSION

Guiding research question: Embedding cognitive learning and metacognitive strategies into Year 1 Mechanical Engineering (FE) lessons to improve student’s tolerance to persist with tasks?
- This project examines the effects of problem solving has on student’s perseverance.
- Does students resilience grow with regular exposure to difficult problems to solve.
- Will adopting this style of teaching be useful for cross curriculum implementation for student development and educational experience.

SIGNIFICANCE

Project research on innovative educational methods and improving student learning experience is very current in today’s media. Even more so for progression for students from educational setting to work, of which the college try to get students work ready.

The advisory committee for mathematics for education could not agree more and recently published a report citing:

‘Employers emphasized the importance of people having studied mathematics at a higher level than they will actually use. That provides them with the confidence and versatility to use mathematics in the many unfamiliar situations that occur at work.’ (Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) , 2020)

Which strongly supports the significance of this action research proposal.

TIMELINE

CONCLUSION

This study’s purpose is to review the development of student’s metacognitive skills, studying within Engineering. The aim is to possess a greater understanding of problem-solving approaches which can be taught to students to help facilitate the learning transition from secondary education to HE and onto life-long learning.

A review of the existing literature and then the findings from this research will be critically analysed. The project will be then presented in poster format to Research One, in addition to a seminar as part of PGCE qualification. This will then transpose directly to any findings to the Friday college wide team meetings, to share good practice so that others can also benefit.

References

Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) . (2020). Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education. Retrieved from Advice on 3-19 mathematics education policy: http://www.acme-uk.org/home

Advisory, T. N. (2008). The Final Report For The National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Foundations For Success .

BBC. (2020). BBC announces major mental health season in turbulent times. Mental Health.

Cockcroft, D. W. (1982). Mathematics counts. London.

Department for education . (2014). SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years . Retrieved from GOV.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

educationendowmentfoundation. (2020). teaching-learning-toolkit. Retrieved from https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/

Fletcher-Campbell. (2003). The gifted and talented: who are they and does it matter who they are? Topic.

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Montogomery. (2001). Educating the Able. Cassell.

Pennant, J. (2013). Developing a Classroom Culture That Supports a Problem-solving Approach to Mathematics. Retrieved from https://nrich.maths.org/10341

Rowlands. (1974). Gifted children and their problems. J.M Dent.

Society of Education and Training . (2020). Society for Education. SET.

Swanson, H. L. (1990). Influence of metacognitive knowledge and aptitude on problem solving. Journal of Educational Psychology, 337-360.

Wickens. (2003). Psychology. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

WSC. (2020). Character-strengths. Retrieved from https://www.wsc.ac.uk/about-the-college/character-strengths

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