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Metacognition

Fostering metacognitive skill development in University Education through blended learning

Background

Metacognition, popularly dubbed ‘thinking about thinking,’ refers to knowledge, awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes and approaches to learning.  Metacognitive skills are widely recognised as key transversal skills.  They are strongly linked to academic achievement, essential for effective lifelong learning, and underpin many of the key competencies identified as essential for education for sustainable development.  

The fundamental importance of metacognitive skills makes them a high impact educational target.

UCD Fellows in Teaching and Academic Development created and trialled the Metacognition Design Framework, an evidence-based learning design that scaffolds the development of metacognitive skills in students through blended learning.  

You can learn more about this work in their (opens in a new window)project video and video case studies.

Graphic showing project overview

Designing for learning with the VLE

This participatory action research project focused on leveraging the virtual learning environment to develop students’ metacognitive skills. These skills are essential for both effective critical thinking and lifelong learning, with evidence suggesting that their development can be nurtured with the correct learning approaches. However, there is still uncertainty about how this is best achieved in blended or online environment with evidence suggesting that students need particular support in this environment. The UCD Fellows undertook a comprehensive literature review and from this created their Metacognition Design Framework to support metacognitive skill development using a hybrid approach of face to face and online learning.

Having designed their framework, the Fellows used a mixed methods approach to explore how students engaged with this approach through three case studies involving modules within the Schools of Veterinary Medicine, School of Information & Communication Studies, and School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science. Their quantitative results showed a significant positive impact on student learning, including a significant increase in students’ metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy.  Student focus groups and questionnaires further reinforced these findings showing that students valued the approaches used.

In summary:
  • This research is highly relevant for teaching and learning in either blended or fully online environments.
  • It offers evidence-based practical strategies that can be applied in diverse disciplinary contexts.
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Find out more!

UCD Teaching Fellowship project

Learn more about metacognitive teaching and learning in this (opens in a new window)project video and video case studies. Our 20-minute video explains the project background, explores our approach and summarises our key findings. Alternatively you can read about (opens in a new window)embracing metacognition following our interview for UCD Today.

Fostering Metacognition in University Education

Learn more about our ongoing work by taking a look at our open-access Learning Resource available through Brightspace Community.  This resource provides you with the opportunity to experience our project in action, join our growing Community of Practice, and contribute to ongoing research in this area.

Metacognitive Learning Resource

Open access resource

This newly launched learning resource offers you the chance to learn more about the Metacognition Design Framework and how you can use it to incorporate metacognitive teaching and learning strategies within your teaching. The resource provides first-hand experience of using the learning design within Brightspace and also offers the opportunity for you to learn actively through contribution as part of a Community of Educators.  

There is something of interest for everyone in this resource with a variety of videos, links, exemplars and downloads available for adaptation to your own teaching along with the chance to contribute to research informing further development of the design framework. 

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Open access - no requirement to have institutional access to Brightspace
  1. Visit the (opens in a new window)Brightspace Community Website and create a free account. If you are already a member, (opens in a new window)login to the Brightspace Community. Please note, that it can take a couple of hours for this registration to process
  2. Once logged into the Community, you will be able to access the resource on (opens in a new window)Metacognitive Teaching and Learning Strategies

Are you from UCD?

If you are a UCD Educator or Education Technologist and have found this project interesting then come and work with us!

We are looking for Metacognitive Champions to participate in our research project, "Fostering Metacognition in University Education."

What would this entail?

  • Designing one of your modules in line with our Metacognition Design Framework.  
  • Our open access learning resource will help to guide you through the process and we will also help you one-to-one as you progress.  
  • We would like you to work with us to gather data, so that the work on your module can be published as a short case study and 90 second video case study.
  • Overall, we are aiming to have an open access case study series in a book with a creative commons license. 

What would you gain from the process?

  • Publication of a case report and short video case study, along with recognition as a Metacognition Champion as the project is rolled out more widely as part of our dissemination process. 
  • Becoming a member of our developing Metacognition Community of Practice
  • Ethics is completed as part of the ethics coverage for the project
  • Help with the development of a blended module that promotes student engagement and draws on the resources available within Brightspace
  • Access to our learning resource and example short video case studies to guide you with this process

What are we hoping to achieve?

  • Our overall aim is the development of an active enthusiastic community of practice to aid dissemination of our approach and progress research in this area
  • We are keen to gather enthusiastic, motivated staff with a real interest in promoting effective student learning 
  • We aim to develop a portfolio of exemplars across a broad spectrum of disciplines to guide other staff wishing to draw on this information and take examples forward into their own work
Not from UCD?

If you are interested in our work and finding out more, get in touch - we would love to hear from you!

Video case studies

Project Team

Photograph of Emma O'Neill

Dr Emma J. O'Neill

Associate Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine

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Photograph of Carmel Hensey

Dr Carmel Hensey

Associate Professor, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science

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Photograph of Crystal Fulton

Dr Crystal Fulton

Professor, School of Information & Communication Studies

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Photograph of James Matthews

Dr James Matthews

Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science

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Centre for the Study of Higher Education

University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 7777