Transcript sslw2014 presentation

Metacognitive
Transformation:
Enacting Pedagogical Memory at
Times of Academic and Linguistic
Transition
Jennifer Eidum Zinchuk
University of Washington
@jzinchuk / [email protected]
Introduction
• Part of a larger research study defining
metacognition and studying metacognitive
practices in the writing classroom
• Responds to the need to evaluate metacognition
at a moment in time.
• Methodological development of metacognitive
framework.
Defining Metacognition
• Metacognition: “Thinking about Thinking”
• Two components to metacognition:
• Metacognitive Awareness: awareness of a task
and of thinking & learning strategies;
• Metacognitive Regulation: use of
metacognitive awareness to monitor and
control thinking and learning.
(Hacker; Negretti & Kuteeva)
Defining Metacognition
A. Metacognitive Awareness: Reflection
B. Metacognitive Regulation
1. Self-Assessment
2. Confidence (Locus of Control)
3. Self-efficacy / Help-Seeking Behavior
Pedagogical Memory (Jarratt, Mack, Sartor, Watson):
• The process of remembering the past through the
lens of present, often collective, classroom
experiences
Writing Through Transition
• Transition to college one of the most
significant transitions in one’s life.
• For international students, it includes multiple
transitions:
• Language learner to language user
• Foreign to American academic context
• General learning to disciplinary learning
• This transition is not sequential; nor does it
only happen once.
Power of Transition
King Beach “Consequential Transitions”
• Transition: "developmental change in the
relation between an individual and one or
more social activities”
• Consequential: "when it is consciously
reflected on, struggled with, and shifts the
individual's sense of self or social position"
Reflective struggle is key to learning and a
force for change:
"consequential transition is the conscious
reflective struggle to propagate knowledge
linked with identity in ways that are
consequential to the individual becoming
someone or something new, and in ways that
contribute to sociogenesis; the creation and
metamorphosis of social activity and
ultimately, society" (Beach, p 57).
Writing Through Transitions
• Transitions, then, provide a powerful
moment for individual and social change
• Also an important site for academic study
Context for English 108
• Administrators wanted to create a remedial
writing course before school starts.
• Recognizing the problems with
remediation, writing program faculty took
a different approach to understanding
“underprepared” students:
• Students lack confidence in writing (I’m a
“bad” writer),
• Students lack practice in writing (fluency and
comfort with writing tasks).
Writing Ready Enrollment
Chart Title
350
300
250
International
Students
Domestic
Students
200
150
100
50
0
2004
2009
2011
2014
Course Overview
• Title: Writing Ready—Getting a Start on Writing in
College.
• Recently, 20 sections taught by Graduate TAs.
• Approximately 16 students per section (321 enrolled
in 2013).
• Taught during Early Fall Start, one month before
regular Autumn Quarter begins.
• 2 ½ hours per day, 4 days per week, for 4 weeks.
• All students are incoming freshmen, they receive 5
credits on their Autumn Quarter transcripts.
• The course has an additional fee ($1,494); most
students live in the dorms.
Overview of the Course
1) 2-week Writing Sequence
Writing
Reading
• First day writing “Snapshot” • Read Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn
of a memorable writing
From You”
moment (positive or
negative)
• Read Ramirez and Beilock
“Writing About Testing
• My Writing Life – reflection
Worries Boosts Exam
on who you are as a writer
Performance in the Classroom”
• My Learning Profile – analysis • Read Meyer and Land
of who you are as a learner
“Threshold Concepts and
(integrating learning concepts
Troublesome Knowledge”
with experiences)
Overview of the Course
2) Group Conference Presentation
• Library research workshop
• Individual research task (~Annotated bibliography)
• Group Conference Presentation (+ attend and evaluate
others)
• Conference analysis
3) Final portfolio
• All class writing organized into portfolio
• In-class writing reflection
Course Goal Statement
• We want students to leave English 108
with more Fluency, more Confidence, and
more Self-efficacy with respect to writing,
reading and learning in English.
Measuring Metacognition
• Analyze archive of student essays (approximately
150 “snapshot” and “reflection” pairs) from first
and last day of course.
• Capture a picture of how students construct and
use their pedagogical memories
• Create a framework that can measure students’
awareness of metacognitive practices
Measuring Metacognition
• First Day – 1-hour timed writing “snapshot”
Tell me about one distinct moment in your writing life .
..
Say you were stuck and unable to write. What were you
writing, when, and why were you unable to make
progress?
You might write about a time when you found writing
easy—when was that? How old were you? What were
you writing? Why do you think now that it was “easy”
to do?
Measuring Metacognition
• Last Day – 1-hour timed writing “reflection”
As you look back on all the work you have done these
past four weeks, think about what kinds of difference
this class has or has not (!) made for you as a writer and
learner.
What goals have you achieved, or begun to achieve?
What hopes, questions and anxieties do you have going
forward into fall quarter? Have you discovered any
useful strategies for addressing these questions and
anxieties?
Metacognition Framework (ver. 1)
Question A: Is the student able to reflect upon his/her prior
writing experiences, demonstrating metacognitive awareness?
Question B: Does the student demonstrate an understanding of
college reading and writing demands and an awareness of how
his/her abilities match those demands?
Question C: Does the student show confidence in his/her
abilities to face learning demands? (self-efficacy / confidence)
Question D: Does the student show evidence of reaching out for
support or willingness to seek help when necessary (naming
specific locations for support such as the writing center, libraries,
office hours, etc.)?
Findings
• Looked at 9 random essays from one class
• Rated first-day “snapshot” essay and last day
“reflection” essay on scale of 1-3
• Average change from “Snapshot” to “Reflection”
.94
Average change for individual questions:
Question A: 1.0
Question B: 0.89
Question C: 1.0
Question D: 0.89
Findings: Embodied Practice
• Student 3 (“Snapshot” essay)
• “I think my writing is so poor. I always forget the
word when I want to write it. And I also don’t
know if my sentences is right. I worry about I am
really slowly when I am writing. I want to know
how can I solve this problems. It’s big trouble to
puzzle me.”
Findings: Embodied Practice
• Student 3 (“Reflection” essay):
• “I remembered I was really nervous because this
is is first time I took class in English…And I
remembered the first office hour I was really
nervous too. I sat down on the stairs and talk with
my friend about tensioning. But when I talked
with my teacher I found she is very nice. Even
though I spoke not fluent, she listened to me.
After I talked with her I felt relaxed and
comfortable because she said: “Don’t afraid of
anything and everything will be ok.”
Findings: Confidence
• Student 8:
• “This class helped me to cross that learning
threshold from high school writing into college
writing at a less-threatening pace, which, in turn,
made that leap seem far smaller”
Findings: Self-Assessment
• Student 8:
• “When I first walked into this classroom … I had
no idea where to begin. Now though, I have a
systematic way for sitting down with a paper or a
prompt and dissecting it so that I can reform and
collaborate the ideas from my brain and the paper
in front of me to create a college level piece of
writing.”
Metacognition Framework (ver. 2)
Question A: To what extent is the student able to reflect upon
her prior writing experiences, relating them to present learning
demands?
Question B: To what extent does the student demonstrate an
understanding of college reading and writing values (e.g. reading
for main idea, analysis not summary, process not product, higherorder concerns not grammar, etc.)?
Question D: To what extent does the student show confidence in
her ability to influence her learning outcomes and meet learning
demands?
Question D: To what extent does the student show evidence of
reaching out for support or willingness to seek help when
necessary (naming specific locations for support such as OWRC,
libraries, office hours, etc.)?
Next Steps
• Create rater training with samples
• Rate essays with group of instructors
• Revise framework
• Use [adapted] framework to analyze
student spoken reflections, both focus
groups and individual interviews
Looking Forward
• How can a framework like this be used to
support our pedagogy?
• What are some of the cautions of using a
framework to evaluate metacognition?
Questions?
Thank you!!
Jennifer Eidum Zinchuk, University of Washington,
[email protected], www.globalpedagogy.com