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Using strategy instruction and confidence judgments to improve metacognitive monitoring

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Abstract

Current models of self-regulated learning emphasize the pervasive need for metacognitive monitoring skills at all phases of the learning process (Winne and Hadwin in Studying as self-regulated learning. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp. 227–304). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998). In this investigation, we examined the impact of teaching 5th grade students how to self-monitor their comprehension and make confidence judgments. One treatment class (N = 21) engaged in process-oriented comprehension monitoring training while the other (N = 24) engaged in both comprehension monitoring training and response-oriented monitoring accuracy training. Findings revealed that students in both treatment classes improved their calibration accuracy and showed higher confidence on test performance than students in two comparison classes (N = 47, N = 26) after 2 weeks of instruction. However, students in the monitoring accuracy training class also showed significant gains in overconfidence in comparison to those in the other three classes. Implications for integrating comprehension-monitoring training at the elementary school level are discussed.

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Notes

  1. This condition was actually comprised of two classrooms of students. The two classrooms were taught by the same teacher and were considered as one unit when randomly selecting classrooms for treatment placement. Thus, we had a total of four different 5th grade teachers who agreed to participate in the study and each of their classrooms were assigned to a different condition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, North Carolina State University, 1890 Main Campus Drive, Campus Box 7249, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Jessica D. Huff

  2. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    John L. Nietfeld

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  1. Jessica D. Huff
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  2. John L. Nietfeld
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Correspondence to Jessica D. Huff.

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Huff, J.D., Nietfeld, J.L. Using strategy instruction and confidence judgments to improve metacognitive monitoring. Metacognition Learning 4, 161–176 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-009-9042-8

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