35th Annual Red River Psychology Conference
Annika Maser

Concordia College

Faculty Mentors: Mona Ibrahim and Mark Jensen

Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Metacognitive Learning Strategies (MCLS) in enhancing academic performance. Given the relatively low success and retention rates in STEM fields of study, teaching metacognitive skills may be helpful to students in STEM courses. Throughout two consecutive semesters, study journals were collected from two cohorts enrolled in a course that taught MCLS. Each contained roughly the same number of males and females. The study journals contained qualitative reflections and quantitative data. Results showed that, among both cohorts the most effective of the learning strategies included paraphrasing material and explaining concepts to others. This presentation will summarize further findings obtained from qualitative and quantitative analyses conducted on the student journals, and correlations between the use of MCLS and students’ college GPAs. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the effectiveness of teaching MCLS and improving student learning in STEM courses.