The Center for Teaching and Learning invites you to participate in a new faculty learning community for the 2019-2020 academic year. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are one opportunity for faculty to participate in sustained scholarly professional development. This FLC occurs in conjunction with the Hedrick Faculty Teaching Fellow program and facilitated by Dr. Tina Cartwright, our 2019-2020 fellow.
Marshall’s Baccalaureate Degree Profile Outcomes define metacognitive thinking as a “student’s ability to evaluate the effectiveness of project plan or strategy to determine the degree of their improvement in knowledge and skills.” A broader understanding of metacognition defines it as a skill set used to regulate thinking and learning processes such as planning, monitoring, and evaluation. Metacognitive thinking has been shown to be an essential skill related to retention and academic success, suggesting that students could benefit from learning experiences aimed at improving their metacognitive abilities (Dunlosky & Rawson, 2012).
Prior research has shown that certain individual characteristics related to personality are predictive of overall college retention (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2003; Conard, 2006; Hall et al., 2008). The presence of growth mindset behaviors predict higher achievement and greater effort than fixed mindsets for students from early childhood through college (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 2006). One key aspect of personality relates to mindset, growth or fixed, as described by Carol Dweck’s Implicit Theories of Intelligence (Dweck, 2006). A unique benefit of Dweck’s theories is that they provide an opportunity AND strategy for modifying one’s own and our students’ self-evaluation abilities.
Using both Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Saundra McGuire’s practical guide, Teach Students How to Learn, participants in this FLC will explore and learn ways to support students in the development of their metacognitive skills. Together, we will review the research to explore and evaluate current best practices relating to promoting further development of metacognitive thinking.
Your participation in this FLC will contribute to the achievement of the following outcomes:
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- Design, employ, and analyze the effect of discipline-specific teaching and learning activities that promote metacognitive thinking.
- Develop a body of scholarship that is shared with the university community.
- Co-author publications
- Present at local, regional, and national conferences on teaching and learning.
- This FLC will meet 4-6 times per semester and present a series of workshops in the Spring 2020 semester.
Meeting times
All meetings will take place from 3:30 – 5:00 pm in the CTL Training Room (Old Main 109). Following are meeting dates for Fall 2019:
September 18 | October 9 & 30 | November 20