Investigating the Relationship Between Metacognitive Reflection and Learning Outcome in Inferential Statistics
Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is a critical tool for learning. However, the effect of metacognition on learning depends on the quality of one’s metacognitive thinking. Poor metacognition can limit learning, while higher quality metacognition can enhance learning (Koçak & Boyacı, 2010). In addition, high metacognitive confidence, or the perceived validity of one’s thoughts, is related to better academic performance (Moreno et al., 2022). Metacognition can play a role in learning challenging topics, such as statistics. In the current study, we examine whether quality of metacognitive reflection is associated with better learning, increased confidence, and reduced statistics anxiety.
This study used data collected in an introductory statistics course during the Spring 2023 semester. We examined course records from 247 undergraduate students, including student responses to a pre-course metacognitive assessment, which prompted students to think about problem solving in prior classes and the current class, and three post-test metacognitive reflections, which included a rating of student confidence. In addition, we used student scores on three summative assessments and final grades.
We will report the results from several analyses. First, we will use the quality of the pre-course metacognitive reflection to predict the first summative assessment score. Second, we will explore whether quality of post-exam metacognitive reflections predict final grades. Finally, we will explore the association between student confidence level and academic performance. The results from these analyses could help us better understand factors related to student learning.