Chemistry Solutions

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I have always believed that helping students become aware and actively reflective of their own thought processes is an important step toward their becoming independent, life-long learners. There is a lot of academic research^1,2,3 about the benefits of this process, called metacognition, in all levels of education, and many schools and colleges have pages on their websites dedicated to the topic.^4,5 Yet, as stated in many of these studies, students continue to struggle with productively practicing this important skill.

The question for teachers, then, is how can we effectively and efficiently teach metacognition within our own classrooms? In this article, I will share how I incorporate metacognition into some regular classroom structures. I have used these techniques with 10^th- and 11^th-grade students in honors chemistry and with seniors in college prep physics.

Setting the tone

In the beginning of each school year, I discuss with students what metacognition means and how they will use it. At the same time, I establish its importance in my class by designating it as worth 5% of their overall grade for each quarter. To minimize the teacher workload, I streamline the grading process across all metacognition assignments, making each reflection worth a single point, based mainly on completion (assigning 1 or 0.5 point for full or partial completion, and 0 for missing or no good-faith effort). Ideally, I would not assign points for non-content-related skills like metacognition, as my goal is for students to develop this habit and continue to use it on their own, without the external reward of a grade. However, I have found that assigning even a small point value to this work encourages many students to complete it and to take it seriously. Consistently weaving short metacognitive activities into class routines can lead students to begin anticipating these reflective activities, making them a normal and expected part of class and, hopefully, planting the seed to grow their own habits of reflection.

Providing feedback in the first few reflections may be needed to guide students toward deeper analysis of their thoughts than they might be used to, but ideally this should become a process where the teacher is a silent observer of student thinking. Though I do, occasionally, provide individual feedback, in most cases what the students are telling themselves is enough. The value is in the students learning to reflect on their own habits and thoughts, not on my telling them what they should do. This practice, therefore, can be used without adding much to your grading load.

Sticky thinking

Figure 1. Sample “sticky thinking” entry.

One technique I use is called “Sticky Thinking.” I use paper lab notebooks in my classes, but this approach could also be adapted for digital use. When the students get back their graded notebooks after the first lab assignment, they get a few minutes to review the written feedback along with the rubric. I then review highlights from the overall assignment, including any places where I noted common struggles.

Next, students choose something about their own work on which they would like to improve in the next lab assignment. They are initially encouraged to write a single small and specific goal which they feel is readily obtainable for the next lab assignment. This goal is written on the top half of a sticky note (I prefer 3"x5" or 4"x4") and placed on the page where the next lab will go in their notebook (see Figure 1). Some students might choose simple, low-risk goals, such as to be more correct or complete in labeling units. Others may choose goals based on my feedback, such as to give stronger evidence in their conclusions using the CER (claim-evidence-reasoning) framework.

After the lab debriefing and goal-writing has concluded, the notebooks are closed, and we move onto other things. When the next lab assignment comes around, their sticky thinking goal is right there, as they begin working on the new assignment, to remind them of what they want to improve. The bottom half of the sticky note is filled in only after this new lab assignment is completed and returned with feedback and a grade. At this point, we again go through the debriefing process and, this time, each student writes a brief response related to the stated goal on the first sticky note, then takes a new sticky note and writes a specific goal for the next lab. Beginning this process with the first lab of the year and allotting extra time for students to think about goals the first 2-3 times begins a routine that allows the subsequent goal sessions to take less and less time.

So, does this work? Are my goals accomplished? Typically, my risk-averse honors students start by writing goals they know they can meet. As the year goes on, most will stop “playing school” and start writing goals for things they really want to work to improve. I rarely comment on their goals, and instead just make a mark to acknowledge that I have seen it. This is meant to be a conversation with themselves that I am simply observing by reading their notes. Occasionally I will encourage a student who is genuinely upset at not meeting a goal, or add a smiley face to co-celebrate a big breakthrough. It takes me no more than 30 seconds per lab notebook to check the note and type the grade in my gradebook. My favorite part of this technique is that students have a living record of their thinking in their lab notebooks and can choose to keep working at one skill or scatter their attention to multiple areas. So, yes, I do believe this practice helps my students become actively aware of their thought processes while also working to improve them. And, as a bonus, I find much less need for repetition in the corrective feedback I generally provide

As the year goes on, most will stop “playing school” and start writing goals for things they really want to work to improve. I rarely comment on their goals, and instead just make a mark to acknowledge that I have seen it. This is meant to be a conversation with themselves that I am simply observing by reading their notes. Occasionally I will encourage a student who is genuinely upset at not meeting a goal, or add a smiley face to co-celebrate a big breakthrough. It takes me no more than 30 seconds per lab notebook to check the note and type the grade in my gradebook. My favorite part of this technique is that students have a living record of their thinking in their lab notebooks and can choose to keep working at one skill or scatter their attention to multiple areas. So, yes, I do believe this practice helps my students become actively aware of their thought processes while also working to improve them. And, as a bonus, I find much less need for repetition in the corrective feedback I generally provide.

Standard-based unit reflections

The next technique does take some time to create but once made, you’ll have these metacognition forms forever. I use self-reflection forms either at the end of a 3- to 4-week unit, or at the end of a major project. Using a standard format, I have created forms for different standards that I will emphasize throughout the year. The focus of the forms comes from a combination of school standards and NGSS Science and Engineering Practices. One form targets our school’s “Vision of the Graduate,” which is based on the “4C” skills of communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Figure 2. A portion of the “Critical Thinking” self-evaluation form. The overall standard appears at the top, with various criteria listed below to indicate what it looks like when the standard is met.

In the paper version of this form (Figure 2), students put a checkmark in the left column if they have met a given criterion, and in the right column if they are still working toward meeting it. I have recently converted this into an online format using our school’s grading platform. Each criterion now has four options, ranging from “never” to “always.” At the end of the form is an open response question asking, “which criterion are you going to work on and how?” The electronic forms have been a breeze to review, while providing me the option to capture certain open responses and mirror them back anonymously to the class. Through the grading platform, students now have access to all their self-reflections in one place, without having to keep track of loose papers.

This technique is adaptable to almost anything you want to focus your students’ attention on. When first creating these forms, I started with our school’s 4Cs and then over time, wrote forms for additional skills. These included general academic skills like how to prepare for a test and discipline-specific skills like graphing. Finally, I added a form based on content for each course. After several years, I now have 1-2 content-based reflections for each of the nine units in both my lab physics course and my honors chemistry course.

Metacognition works best when students are invested in self-reflection. Making forms like these a regular part of your classroom routines can help students develop a metacognition mindset. Everyone’s classes are different, and teachers may find different ways to use or structure the forms but taking the time to decide how and when they might be useful must be the first step. I like to use self-reflection after unit assessments, projects, and occasionally other kinds of formative or summative assessments that seem appropriate. Another teacher might want to set the tone for a certain kind of work by having students reflect on progress toward a relevant skill or practice. Reflecting on certain core skills after lab work or after a group project may provide insight for both the teacher and the students to improve the learning experiences for similar future work.

One thing I have found to be helpful for students is to take time to mirror back some of the responses to certain reflections and allow some time for class discussion. This anonymous sharing of responses serves several purposes: (a) students realize they are not alone in their struggles, (b) students may find new ways to work toward a standard, and (c) students are reminded that others in the class may be feeling and reacting very differently than themselves. This year, after handing back the first graded assessment of the year to my honors chemistry students, I posted an electronic copy to our online platform and made a large print paper copy for a hallway bulletin board. This kind of public display can help to reinforce that this is an expected and serious part of the course.

Productive talk

The last strategy I want to share is one I did not create myself. It is a great resource for specifically targeting science discussion skills. Figure 3 shows a portion of this “Talk Moves Checklist” that I was given during a workshop many years ago. This resource was originally developed through a Tufts University and TERC collaboration that has since evolved into a set of elementary school educational resources, though the checklist is appropriate for any level of education. After using it during the workshop, I liked the checklist so much that I copied and laminated a classroom set for use in my classes.

When students are doing group work, such as a lab, POGIL, or team activity, I hand out the laminated checklists. To ensure students are using these talk moves, they are instructed to write their chosen talk move at the top of the work they will be handing in that day and then write a 2-3 sentence reflection to describe how they used it (including a specific example) and how it impacted the team’s work. When first using the talk moves, each team works collaboratively on a single goal and writes a team reflection. I again use the mirroring-back technique to help students gain insight into how others may use the same talk move differently and how higher-quality science discussion can positively influence teamwork. In my experience, the extra time I spend mirroring back reflections early in the school year pays off in more thoughtful use of these talk moves later in the year. Once students understand what to do and have experienced all the talk moves, they progress to selecting their own team talk goals and then from team reflection to individual reflection. Finally, each student will choose their own goals and talk moves. Similar to mirroring back, I sometimes give the teams 3-5 minutes at the end of the activity to share their individual reflections with each other, in hopes of building awareness and acceptance of personal responsibility along with the habit of self-reflection.

As a general rule, I will use the talk moves several times within a few weeks, but then not use it at all for about a month. Unlike the other techniques, this technique can start to feel overused with repetition, and the open-ended responses become less than sincere.

Final thoughts

There are many ways to incorporate metacognition into high school science classes, and I hope these ideas have given you a concrete starting point for finding ways to help your own students become aware of, learn to critique, and ultimately improve their abilities to reflect on their own thinking. Every strategy has its limits, and different classes will respond differently. For example, I haven’t been able to use the strategies as often in my classes that include a lot of high-risk, high-absentee, and special needs students as I can in my other classes. This is not for lack of capability, but the “buy-in” for looking into oneself can never be taken for granted. Forcing metacognition without buy-in just builds resistance and leads to less authentic responses. Only you can decide which strategies will work in your classroom and how often they can be used.

If increasing your use of metacognition is something you’d like to try, my suggestion is to go slow in building your “toolbox” of tasks. Start with only one. Check in with yourself about whether it is a good time for you to add something new. Try it a few times and then do some metacognition of your own to decide whether it “fits” you and your classes. Most importantly, be kind to yourself as you work to improve your practice while helping your students improve theirs.

References

¹Stanton, J. D.; Sebesta, A. J.; and Dunlosky, J. Fostering Metacognition to Support Student Learning and Performance. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 2021, 20 (2). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20....

^‌2Narengaowa, W.A.; Tungalag, O. Research on Metacognitive Strategies of Children’s Self-Regulated Learning. Health Psychology Research. 2024, 12(1), 1 (September). https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.....

³Dutemple, E;, Brokl, C.; and Poulin-Dubois, D. I Think Therefore I Learn: Metacognition Is a Better Predictor of School Readiness than Executive Functions. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology. 2024, 2 (May). https://doi.org/10.3389/fdpys.....

‌⁴https://teaching.uoregon.edu/resources/active-learning-metacognition

⁵https://ctl.utexas.edu/metacognition