Relationships between Prediction Accuracy, Metacognitive Reflection, and Performance in Introductory Genetics...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Educational Psychology
• Genetics Education

Background:

• Student performance perceptions often misalign with actual academic outcomes.
• Metacognition, encompassing self-awareness and strategy implementation, is crucial for learning.
• Understanding the link between self-assessment, metacognitive reflection, and academic performance is vital.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between students' grade predictions, metacognitive reflections, and actual performance in an introductory genetics course.
• To determine if students' predictive accuracy or metacognitive reflections improve over a semester.
• To explore how shifts in self-assessment accuracy correlate with changes in academic performance.

Main Methods:

• Employed a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative data (grade predictions, performance) and qualitative data (metacognitive reflections).
• Tracked students' grade predictions, post-grade reflections, and final performance throughout a semester-long introductory genetics course.
• Analyzed the frequency and nature of metacognitive responses in student reflections.

Main Results:

• As a cohort, students did not demonstrate improved grade prediction accuracy or increased metacognitive reflection frequency over the semester.
• Students who transitioned from overpredicting to accurate prediction or underprediction showed significant performance improvements.
• Higher-performing students were more likely to engage in metacognitive reflection than lower-performing peers.

Conclusions:

• While group-level metacognitive accuracy did not improve, individual shifts towards more realistic self-assessment correlate with enhanced academic performance.
• Metacognitive reflection is more prevalent in high-achieving students, but increased reflection frequency alone doesn't guarantee grade improvement.
• Interventions aimed at fostering accurate self-assessment and effective metacognitive regulation strategies are recommended for student success.