Metacognitive awareness ("thinking about thinking") is a crucial skill to help students persist and succeed, and here's how Spelman College hopes to help them master that skill.
SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES
The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar "First in the World" grants to 18 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts.
This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here.
by Lisa Cook, Academic Impressions
Metacognition, or "thinking about thinking," is a crucial skill to help students persist and succeed, but a Spelman College psychology professor noticed that her junior and senior students hadn't yet mastered that skill. In response, assistant professor of psychology Jimmeka Guillory started using metacognitive instruction in her class and immediately noticed a difference. Students demonstrated improvement in their awareness and academic performance, and importantly, more students started coming to seek help during her office hours.
Now Guillory and Francesina Jackson, director of college's Center for Academic Planning and Success, plan to expand their approach with a $2.7 million First in the World grant to track the impact of metacognitive instruction on the academic performance of 2,200 first-year students. The project may hold crucial lessons for other institutions. We talked recently with Guillory and Jackson to learn more about the metacognition techniques they will use and how the project will unfold.
We hope you’re enjoying this read. The full text of this article or report is complimentary for Academic Impressions members. Please login to your member account to read it!
If you're signed up to receive our Daily Pulse, but your institution does not have an active membership, you won't have access to this article.
FIND OUT ABOUT MEMBERSHIP:
An Academic Impressions membership provides multiple users on your campus with unlimited access to exclusive reports, research briefs, hundreds of free webcasts and online trainings, and discounts on conferences. Learn more about membership and get unlimited training and reading for you and your team today.