Introductory Biology Students’ Use of Enhanced Answer Keys and Reflection Questions to Engage in Metacognition and Enhance Understanding

“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).”

“…engage in metacognition, and use their own self-generated feedback; and 2) that doing so leads to improved learning and greater success in school (Sadler, 1989; Black and Wiliam, 1998; Pintrich, 2000; Bell and Cowie, 2001; Zimmerman and Schunk, 2001; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Wood, 2009).”

“, 2006; Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011), and three phases that function in a cyclical manner: 1) forethought, 2) performance or volitional control, and 3) selfreflection (Zimmerman, 2000).”

“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).”

“Past work has shown that students can 1) learn to self-regulate their own learning, engage in metacognition, and use their own self-generated feedback; and 2) that doing so leads to improved learning and greater success in school (Sadler, 1989; Black and Wiliam, 1998; Pintrich, 2000; Bell and Cowie, 2001; Zimmerman an…”

“Students can take a proactive role in understanding their own learning by monitoring their own work and generating feedback they can use to adjust their strategies (Sadler, 1989; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).”

“…learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996; Rickey and Stacy, 2000; Anderson and Nashon, 2006; Schraw et al., 2006; Young and Fry, 2008; Vukman and Licardo, 2009; Sandi-Urena et al., 2011; Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011; Stanton et al., 2015).”

“Past research has shown that students can learn how to self-regulate their learning and that those who do so have greater success in classroom settings (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman and Schunk, 2001).”

“Metacognition involves the awareness of one’s own learning process (Wood, 2009) and includes both metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation (Lawson, 1984; Jacobs and Paris, 1987).”

“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).”

“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).”

“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).”

“Past work has shown that students can 1) learn to self-regulate their own learning, engage in metacognition, and use their own self-generated feedback; and 2) that doing so leads to improved learning and greater success in school (Sadler, 1989; Black and Wiliam, 1998; Pintrich, 2000; Bell and Cowie, 2001; Zimmerman an…”

“Further, students may need instruction on how to properly use and understand rubrics (Andrade, 2005), but little work has focused on the type of instruction that would effectively enhance students’ use of rubrics or answer keys for self-regulated learning.”

“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).”

“about a concept, what they needed to know to understand it better, what they did not understand, and whether or not they understood the idea well enough to apply the information to a different situation (Wood, 2009).”

“These two components of metacognition and understanding are closely related, in that students can use metacognition to become aware of their own learning processes, which in turn helps students to perform better, have greater learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996;…”

“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).”

“Panadero et al. (2012) had previously examined the use of self-assessment scripts to support students in engaging in self-regulation.”

“This is especially important in undergraduate-level biology courses in which students may have confusion and difficulty connecting individual facts with complex, dynamic systems (Lewis and Wood- Robinson, 2000; Marbach-Ad and Stavy, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006; Smith and Knight, 2012).”

“to be metacognitive and assign plausibility or intelligibility to their own ideas is one way to help students change their alternative conceptions to more scientifically accurate conceptions (Tanner and Allen, 2005).”

“These two components of metacognition and understanding are closely related, in that students can use metacognition to become aware of their own learning processes, which in turn helps students to perform better, have greater learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996;…”

“…feedback through self-regulated learning and self- assessment and that scaffolds, such as rubrics, can play a role in evaluation of ideas and generation of feedback (Ross et al., 1999; Boekaerts et al., 2000; Zimmerman and Schunk, 2001; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Reddy, 2007; Andrade, 2010).”

“…learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996; Rickey and Stacy, 2000; Anderson and Nashon, 2006; Schraw et al., 2006; Young and Fry, 2008; Vukman and Licardo, 2009; Sandi-Urena et al., 2011; Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011; Stanton et al., 2015).”

“Students who employ metacognition perform better (e.g., Anderson and Nashon, 2006; Young and Fry, 2008; Vukman and Licardo, 2009; Stanton et al., 2015) and have increased learning outcomes (e.g., Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996; Stanton et al., 2015) and increased problem-solving ability…”

“This is especially important in undergraduate-level biology courses in which students may have confusion and difficulty connecting individual facts with complex, dynamic systems (Lewis and Wood- Robinson, 2000; Marbach-Ad and Stavy, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006; Smith and Knight, 2012).”

“…learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996; Rickey and Stacy, 2000; Anderson and Nashon, 2006; Schraw et al., 2006; Young and Fry, 2008; Vukman and Licardo, 2009; Sandi-Urena et al., 2011; Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011; Stanton et al., 2015).”

“This engagement may help students take active control of their own learning and may be particularly useful in the self-reflection phase of self-regulated learning (Zimmerman, 2000; Nicol and Milligan, 2006).”

“Self-regulated learning is composed of three major components: cognition, metacognition, and motivation (e.g., Schraw et al., 2006; Sinatra and Taasoobshirazi, 2011), and three phases that function in a cyclical manner: 1) forethought, 2) performance or volitional control, and 3) selfreflection…”

“These two components of metacognition and understanding are closely related, in that students can use metacognition to become aware of their own learning processes, which in turn helps students to perform better, have greater learning gains, and greater problem-solving abilities (Baird, 1986; Tobias and Everson, 1996;…”

“…feedback through self-regulated learning and self- assessment and that scaffolds, such as rubrics, can play a role in evaluation of ideas and generation of feedback (Ross et al., 1999; Boekaerts et al., 2000; Zimmerman and Schunk, 2001; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Reddy, 2007; Andrade, 2010).”

“This is especially important in undergraduate-level biology courses in which students may have confusion and difficulty connecting individual facts with complex, dynamic systems (Lewis and Wood- Robinson, 2000; Marbach-Ad and Stavy, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006; Smith and Knight, 2012).”

“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).”

“Further, the questions challenged students to consider the intelligibility, plausibility, and wide applicability of the concepts that were relevant to the assignments (Grotzer and Mittlefehldt, 2012) and thus were explicitly embedded in the conceptual framework underlying the study (Figure 1).”

“Finally, some past work examining the practice of posting answers after an exam found no relationship with students’ test performance (Lake and Chambers, 2009).”

“Providing students with answer keys that include explanations of the correct ideas and reflection questions can support students in evaluating their learning (Sabel et al. , 2017).”

“Conducting a literature review, selecting a theoretical framework, and building a conceptual framework are some of the example of Sabel et al. (2017), the authors indicated there was a gap in the literature regarding how scaffolds engage students in metacognition to promote learning in large…”

“Instructors may also choose to use “enhanced answer keys” with reflective metacognitive questions embedded to deliberately prompt student metacognition (Sabel et al., 2017).”

“Instruction in the use of “enhanced answer keys,” which included explanations of correct answers, details about how questions were scored, and additional reflection questions designed to engage students in metacognition, resulted in significantly higher learning gains for students enrolled in an introductory biology c…”

“Other studies have shown that this type of instructor guidance can have an impact on the way students use learning strategies (Sabel et al., 2017).”

“Scaffolding—the breaking down of a complex concept or task into smaller parts that can be structured with guidance for students—is a common instructional strategy that can improve students’ self-regulation of learning and student learning outcomes in STEM (Belland, 2016; Offerdahl et al., 2017; Sabel et al., 2017; Ewe…”

“For example, Sabel, Dauer, and Forbes (2017) used enhanced answers and reflection questions to promote biology students’ autonomous learning skills.”

“Metacognitive growth has also been assessed in a variety of classroom settings (Kramarski and Mevarech, 1997; Miller and Geraci, 2011; Nietfeld et al., 2006; Callender et al., 2016; Sabel et al., 2017; Molin et al., 2020).”

“There has been a growing focus on understanding how to develop students’ metacognitive abilities to support success in college science courses (Cook et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2014; Stanton et al., 2015; Dye and Stanton, 2017; van Vliet et al., 2015; Sabel et al., 2017; Sebesta and Speth, 2017).”

“…post-exam analysis exercises (Williams et al., 2011; Mynlieff et al., 2014; Stanton et al., 2015), cues to check their answers in multiple circumstances (on practice problems, homework, and exams; McDonnell and Mullally, 2016), and using enhanced answer keys and reflections (Sabel et al., 2017).”

“…resulted in improved self-evaluation skills and students reporting a shift from using study behaviors that emphasize rote memorization to those that promote conceptual understanding (Mynlieff et al. , 2014; Sabel et al. , 2017; Dang et al. , 2018; Muteti et al. , 2021; Santangelo et al. , 2021).”

“To balance this factor, innovative strategies must be implemented to provide feedback on students' learning needs [25].”

“For example, instructors can invite students to complete written reflections on the effectiveness of their study strategies immediately after completing an exam and seeing the grade they earned on the exam (7, 35).”

“In 2020, we used the CATME Web-based program (https:// info.catme.org) that evaluates teamwork by recording both (Mynlieff et al. 2014; Siegesmund, 2016; Sabel et al. , 2017).”

“Existing research on self-reflection in biology largely treats it as an intervention (32) or focuses on affective responses (33), leaving a gap in understanding its broader function.”

“Sabel, Dauer, and Forbes (2017) found that learning materials can help students’ multi-disciplinary cognition and conceptual understanding of biology.”

“Students learn by using wrappers that their current study strategies may not be working and provide them with insights on how to improve in future semesters, potentially developing a growth mindset (Knight et al., 2022; Sabel et al., 2017).”

“Reflective assignments create a clear expectation for student engagement in metacogni­ tion, although students often require instructor support via consistent deadlines and grade incentives to remain engaged and complete such reflections (13).”

“One method of fostering reflection, deeper engagement, and more active learning with any material, including reading textbooks, is by offering questions (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Day et al., 2018b; Sabel et al., 2017).”

“Building on it, a conceptual framework composed of three core frameworks, namely, (1) self-regulated learning, (2) metacognition, and (3) scaffolding (Sabel et al., 2017).”

“…(Armstrong, Wallace & Chang, 2019; Dye & Stanton, 2017; Mayne, 2012; Nunaki, Damopolii, Kandowangko & Nusantari, 2019; Rahmat & Chanunan, 2018; Sabel, Dauer & Forbes, 2017; Stanton, Dye & Johnson, 2019; Trujillo, Anderson & Pelaez, 2016; Yumusaka, Sungurb & Cakiroglu, 2007; Wheeler &…”

“Research has repeatedly shown that metacog­ nitive skills improve academic performance and promote lifelong learning habits (1, 2, 5–7).”