Keywords Metacognition study habits study skills learning grades

Keywords: Metacognition, study habits, study skills, learning, grades Metacognition, Study Habits, Learning, and Grades Muhammad Dawood, Ph. D Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM dawood@nmsu. edu 575 -646 -5498

Why? • What problem are you solving? – Students are often not clear about the potential of their own confidence in themselves, their own study skills, strategies, and habits, and how these can impact their learning and grades • What are your educational objectives? – To make students aware of the potential impact of Self-Efficacy and Metacognition on their learning and grades – To make them realize that their own study strategies and habits play a much greater role in their learning – To encourage them to use some well-known study strategies to improve learning and their grades

When and Part of What? • Developmental history of the innovation – Attended a workshop “Get Students to Focus on Learning Instead of Grades: Metacognition is the Key!” by Dr. Mc. Guire’s in October 2013 – With permission modified and improvised some of Dr. Mc. Guire’s material for my EE 310 class –many thanks to her for her active guidance – Since then every semester (see below) for my EE 310 class as well as ET 240 and ENGR 100 classes in the College of Engineering (Co. E), NMSU Table 1: Results of Self-Evaluation Study Strategy Instrument (SESSI) Semester Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Fall 2016 Weighted Averages EE 310: Exam 1 (N, # of Students) ET 240: Exam 1 (N, # of Students) ENGR 100: Exam 1 (N, # of Students) Group 1 (T 1) Group 2 (T 2) 58% (N=7) 73% (N=12) 70% (N=9) 67% (N=7) 67% (N=11) 64% (N=9) 61% (N=11) 66% (N=66, 37%) 95% (N=6) 82% (N=10) 74% (N=21) 82% (N=28) 78% (N=19) 75% (N=10) 69% (N=18) 78% (N=112, 63%) 56% (N=9) 71% (N=11) 75% (N=28) 85% (N=10) 56% (N=9, 45%) 71% (N=11, 55%) 75% (N=28, 74%) 85% (N=10, 26%)

Where? • Have you tried this in other institutions? – Not yet at other institutions, but reached out across Co. E – Based on preliminary results, submitted 6 proposals to NSF, 3 times as PI, 2 as Co-PI college-wide, 1 in an advisory capacity – One as Co-PI and as an advisor funded; 1 as PI is recommended for funding – Together these will provide good effort across Co. E and a vehicle for broader participation at other institutions • Is this developed for a single class, a full course, or a curriculum? – Began as a single class, extended to 3 other classes, is being extended to all freshmen in Co. E – Easily extendable to cover other classes as students become aware of its potential

What? • Learning activities and materials developed – Dr. Mc. Guire’s workshop material is modified (with permission) into the following: – A “Self-Evaluation Study Strategy Instrument (SESSI)” to assess current study habits of students (Results shown on slide 3) – A 50 -min lecture covering study strategies based on metacognition, self-efficacy, bloom’s taxonomy, etc. – A “Study Cycle Student Handout (SCSH), ” to choose from suitable study strategies to adopt and follow for rest of the semester and beyond • My theory of change: – Data-driven feedback make students as well as instructors to take note – The feedback coupled with the research-based workable common-sense self-study strategies make them more willing to adopt some of these – Nothing succeeds like success – seeing doing well in one course encourages students to use these strategies for other courses – habit forming? • What has worked really well? – – Results of SESSI were surprising for many of us and were taken very seriously 50 -min lecture helped students to link learning and what they do/can do to learn SCSH provided them a doable strategies to improve learning and grades Feedback about this effort that how it impacted students confidence is/was really encouraging

Prognosis? • How are you documenting impact? – On going data collection and processing using MATLAB and SAS – Writing a journal paper for broader dissemination • How do you plan to scale-up? – Teamed up with ~12 colleagues from Co. E, Education, English, and Psychology – Wrote a few NSF proposals, some getting funded • What challenges are you currently facing? – limited time to do it more thoroughly - will change as my NSF proposal gets funded (hopefully!) – Faculty is slow to adopt these interventions – perhaps my own limited efforts are to blame • What advice would you like from others at FOEE? – Did you do something similar in your courses and how did it go? – Do you see any pitfalls in my approach both in terms of “educational research” and the mode of delivery and administering it? – May I team up with you and we try this in your class at your institution?