Improving metacomprehension accuracy in an undergraduate course context.

Abstract

Students tend to have poor metacomprehension when learning from text, meaning they are not able to distinguish between what they have understood well and what they have not. Although there are a good number of studies that have explored comprehension monitoring accuracy in laboratory experiments, fewer studies have explored this in authentic course contexts. This study investigated the effect of an instructional condition that encouraged comprehension-test-expectancy and self-explanation during study on metacomprehension accuracy in the context of an undergraduate course in research methods. Results indicated that when students received this instructional condition, relative metacomprehension accuracy was better than in a comparison condition. In addition, differences were also seen in absolute metacomprehension accuracy measures, strategic study behaviors, and learning outcomes. The results of the current study demonstrate that a condition that has improved relative metacomprehension accuracy in laboratory contexts may have value in real classroom contexts as well. (PsycINFO Database Record

Measures of relative metacognitive accuracy are confounded with task performance in tasks that permit guessing

“…These findings suggested the opposite from the Griffin et al (2009) study, namely, that greater domain skill is associated with greater metacognitive resolution. Positive correlations in comprehension experiments have also been found by Wiley et al (2016). Notably, this study also used multiple-choice testing.…”

Timing matters! Explaining between study phases enhances students’ learning.

“…Therefore, we hypothesized that the main effect of in-between versus after-study explaining on students' learning outcomes should be serially mediated by students' monitoring activities and their metacomprehension accuracy (see also Wiley et al, 2016, for related findings).…”

To What Extent Do Situation-Model-Approach Interventions Improve Relative Metacomprehension Accuracy? Meta-Analytic Insights

“…However, even when learners have enhanced access to such cues, they might not use them if they do not understand that this is the level of mental text representation that will be assessed during testing. Hence, the comprehension-test-expectancy intervention is another effective approach to improving relative metacomprehension accuracy because it guides learners toward selecting situation-model cues: Learners are instructed that upcoming tests will assess their deeper understanding and receive respective sample test questions (Griffin et al 2019b;Thiede et al 2011;Wiley et al 2008Wiley et al , 2016a. For example, in a study by Griffin et al (2019b, Experiment 1), learners in the memory-test-expectancy group were told that their memory of specific details would be tested, and they completed sample memory test questions about practice texts.…”