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Metacognitive mapping: developmental biology students struggle with higher-order cognitive skills in multiple course formats
Aquino Nunez, Wendy Scott, Meadow C. B. Morgan, Dyan
Aquino Nunez, Wendy
Scott, Meadow C. B.
Morgan, Dyan
Abstract
Reflective assignments are a powerful tool in undergraduate STEM courses to promote student metacognition and give instructors and researchers a view of that process. We were interested in understanding student challenges in our developmental biology course, so we used reflective assignments to uncover these challenges and also add to our understanding of student metacognition in upper-level courses. We used structural and initial coding and themed student responses. Then, we were able to compare results across two different course formats. We also compared these analyses with student performance on weekly formative assessments and completed item analysis. Our analyses suggest that students struggle the most with application. Notably, student responses did not differ in an asynchronous online class versus a high-flex in-person class. We also surveyed students (n = 162) on their use and perceived value of the metacognitive assignments for further comparison to other studies of upper-level student metacognitive regulation. Results indicate a strong majority of students completed more than half of the assignments, found the assignments beneficial to their learning, and used the opportunity to plan study time. Overall, we find that upper-level college students have accurate metacognitive knowledge, allowing them to identify challenging topics and cognitive skills, and have acquired the metacognitive regulation tools to develop study plans when prompted by a reflective assignment.
Description
A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.
Date
2025-8-21
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American Society for Microbiology
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Citation
Aquino Nunez W, Scott MCB, Morgan DE. 2025. Metacognitive mapping: developmental biology students struggle with higher-order cognitive skills in multiple course formats. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 26:e00139-24.
https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00139-24