In this study, we examined the combination of three scaffolds in a large introductory biology course: enhanced answers keys, added reflection questions, and added instruction on their use. One way to support students to engage in metacognition and self-regulated learning is to provide them with scaffolds to structure their reflection and consideration of their own ideas. Much more remains to be discovered about how undergraduate students can integrate metacognitive skills to become more effective at complex biological reasoning. Importantly, metacognitive skills develop gradually and are linked to both knowledge and experience students must have some understanding of a disciplinary domain in order to engage in reflection of their understanding of its concepts ( National Research Council, 2000). However, while prompting students to engage in metacognition may be enough for some students, others will require additional support to successfully engage in the practice ( Stanton et al., 2015). Instructors can support students in this process by providing them with opportunities to consider and refine their knowledge within scientific contexts (e.g., Handelsman et al., 2004 Haak et al., 2011 Freeman et al., 2014 Dolan and Collins, 2015). By engaging in metacognition, students question what they know, what they need to improve on, and how they can apply the information ( Wood, 2009). Metacognition is one core component of self-regulated learning and involves awareness of one’s own learning process ( Schraw et al., 2006 Wood, 2009 Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011). Research has shown that students can effectively be their own sources of feedback via self-assessment and self-regulation ( Ross et al., 1999 Boekaerts et al., 2000 Zimmerman and Schunk, 2001 Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006 Andrade et al., 2008). One approach to overcome this challenge is to support students to engage in self-regulation of their own learning by monitoring their own work, generating internal feedback, and using that feedback to make changes to their learning strategies (e.g., Sadler, 1989 Bell and Cowie, 2001 Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006 Wood, 2009). To balance these factors, innovative strategies must be implemented to provide the kind of feedback that can be directed toward individual students’ unique learning needs even in large-enrollment classes. Unfortunately, in large, undergraduate science classes, it is difficult for instructors to provide feedback that is frequent and directed enough to help individual students ( Wood, 2009). Feedback is an important part of students developing scientifically accurate understanding of complex biological concepts and has been shown to lead to improved learning, because it gives students information on what they have done well and what they still need to improve upon ( Black and Wiliam, 1998). Students’ alternate conceptions may not be true misconceptions but rather a combination of confusion about the topic and difficulty with integrating independent ideas into dynamic systems ( Lewis and Wood-Robinson, 2000 Marbach-Ad and Stavy, 2000 Smith and Knight, 2012). Undergraduate biology students need support to learn how to integrate individual concepts and facts into the complex organization required for robust understanding of biological processes ( Wilson et al., 2006). These findings provide evidence for the benefit of designing scaffolds within biology courses that will support students in engaging in metacognition and enhancing their understanding of biological concepts. Further, students who received additional instruction on the use of the scaffolds changed how they used them and, by the end of the semester, were using the scaffolds in significantly different ways and showed significantly higher learning gains than students who did not receive the instruction. Study findings show that both the enhanced answer keys and reflection questions helped students to engage in metacognition and develop greater understanding of biological concepts. This study examined the use of enhanced answer keys with added reflection questions and instruction as scaffolds for engaging undergraduate students in self-regulated learning within an introductory biology course. Various scaffolds can be used to help students engage in self-regulated learning and generate internal feedback to improve their learning. Providing feedback to students as they learn to integrate individual concepts into complex systems is an important way to help them to develop robust understanding, but it is challenging in large, undergraduate classes for instructors to provide feedback that is frequent and directed enough to help individual students.
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