Rethinking Metacognitive Intervention: A Scaffolded Exam Wrapper Strategy

Abstract

Students lack the behaviors and strategies that support success in postsecondary environments, which has led one-third of all college students to enroll in remedial courses (Bowen, Chingos, & McPherson, 2009). One particular executive function that low-achieving students are often without is metacognition, or thinking about thinking. Traditional models of education in the United States do not teach students how to analyze their performance even though metacognition is linked to improved academic performance (Young & Fry, 2008). This work presents a scaffolded metacognitive strategy to help low-achieving students improve their metacognitive skillfulness and examination performance.