Improving Retention and Performance among College Freshman Using Metacognitive Training: The Metacognitive Expertise Assessment Tool

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College freshman face the challenges of adapting to instructional styles and expectations that differ from high school and junior college experiences. Several researchers have demonstrated that improving academic performance in college requires more than a traditional, remedial study-skills orientation (Biggs, 1978; Derry & Murphy, 1986; Ford, 1981).For many students, college challenges their level of motivation and requires significant adjustments to academic aptitude but standard curricula usually provides little or no help in identifying and overcoming the barriers to learning (Newell, Dahm, Harvey, & Newell, 2004) or the development of metacognitive skills. The purpose of this research was to conduct a study that furthers empirical findings; findings that show that students are exposed to metacognitive strategies in the classroom perform better academically.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: Improving Retention and Performance among College Freshman Using Metacognitive Training, Integrating the Boardroom and the Classroom

Dr. Katherine Pang, PhD has been a speaker at many conferences around the world on e-learning, cognition and instruction, instructional design and technology as well as law and business-related topics. Dr. Pang has over 25 years of experience in the private sector as well as academia. She has law, business, and education degrees and has been a contributor to many professional organizations in law, technology, learning and instruction. She has founded several education-related companies and is a faculty member at the University of Texas at Tyler.