Self Reflection of Engineering Majors in General Chemistry II

Research indicates that integration of metacognitive instruction with discipline-based learning can enhance student achievement and facilitate self-directed learning. Students must actively participate in knowledge monitoring in order to assess whether or not they understand course material. In this paper, we describe initial efforts in the General Chemistry II course to incorporate opportunities for students to think about and reflect on their learning and understanding of the content taught each week. Students are asked to answer two questions: "What did I learn this past week [from list of chapters covered]?" and "What remains unclear to me and that I need to review further [from list of chapters covered]?" These questions were asked in conjunction with weekly quizzes delivered outside of class via the learning management system. The goal is for students to take action on an on-going basis to address topics they don't understand either by reviewing the topics and/or asking the instructor or others for clarification. Faculty can also use student reflections to review material with which students are struggling. In this paper, data from the reflections of over 300 students enrolled in one of eight sections is examined with respect to the nature of student responses (e.g., conceptual versus procedural), relationship between student response and exam performance, and variation between sections with different instructors. The focus of this study will be first year engineering majors, since these students comprise approximately 86% of the students enrolled in this course with smaller numbers of science, mathematical sciences, and business majors. Key questions of interest include: What is the nature of student responses (conceptual or procedural)? Do responses vary by course week and/or gender? What is the relationship between student response (conceptual or procedural) and their performance on the exam?