Effects of Practicing Self-Monitoring of Mathematical Problem-Solving Heuristics on Impulsive and Reflective College Students' Heuristics Knowledge and Problem-Solving Ability

Abstract The authors designed a step-by-step self-monitoring method to help impulsive students overcome their unwillingness to self-monitor. They predicted (a) that self-monitoring in general would help student learning of the heuristics of solving mathematical problems, (b) that self-monitoring would be more helpful for the impulsive students than for the reflective students, and (c) that step-by-step self-monitoring would be more helpful for the impulsive students than an external reminder that provided cues for general self-monitoring. The first 2 predictions were supported by the results of the study. As for the 3rd prediction, general self-monitoring was found to be more beneficial than step-by-step self-monitoring for the impulsive students. The findings are discussed in terms of competition for cognitive resources between learning and self-monitoring.

[1]  R. D. Young,et al.  Attentional deficits with and without hyperactivity: Teacher and peer perceptions , 1982, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[2]  Samuel DiGangi,et al.  Effects of self‐monitoring and contingent reinforcement on on‐task behavior and academic productivity of learning‐disabled students: A social validation study , 1992 .

[3]  J. Kagan Reflection--impulsivity: the generality and dynamics of conceptual tempo. , 1966, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[4]  H. Simon,et al.  Situated Learning and Education1 , 1996 .

[5]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Skill Acquisition: Compilation of Weak-Method Problem Solutions. , 1987 .

[6]  William Y. Lan,et al.  The effects of self-monitoring on students' course performance, use of learning strategies, attitude, self-judgment ability, and knowledge representation , 1996 .

[7]  W. Bender,et al.  The Effects of Self-Monitoring on Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Who Are Receiving Pharmacological Interventions , 1997 .

[8]  N. Salkind,et al.  The Development of Reflection-Impulsivity and Cognitive Efficiency , 1977 .

[9]  J. Pascual-Leone,et al.  Postfailure Reflectivity/Impulsivity and Spontaneous Attention to Errors. , 1990 .

[10]  William Y. Lan,et al.  The Effects of a Self-Monitoring Process on College Students' Learning in an Introductory Statistics Course , 1993 .

[11]  Otto Jelsma,et al.  The Matching Familiar Figures Test: Computer or Experimenter Controlled Administration? , 1988 .

[12]  R. Hartley,et al.  'Imagine you're clever'. , 1986, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[13]  D. Schunk Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective , 1991 .

[14]  E. Shapiro,et al.  A Comparison of Teacher-, Peer-, and Self-Monitoring with Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading Among Students with Learning Disabilities , 1992 .

[15]  J. Kagan,et al.  Modifiability of an impulsive tempo. , 1966, Journal of educational psychology.

[16]  L. E. Arnold,et al.  Behavior checklist factor analysis for children and adolescents. , 1974, Archives of general psychiatry.

[17]  E. Ghatala,et al.  Delusions about performance on multiple-choice comprehension tests. , 1988 .

[18]  Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer,et al.  Contextual Interference: Interactions with Reflection-Impulsivity , 1989 .

[19]  Julius Marie Pieters,et al.  Practice schedule and cognitive style interaction in learning a maze task , 1989 .

[20]  P. Reimann,et al.  Turning examples into cases: Acquiring knowledge structures for analogical problem solving , 1996 .

[21]  Michael Pressley,et al.  Self-Regulated Learning: Monitoring Learning From Text , 1990 .

[22]  Keith J. Holyoak,et al.  The cognitive basis of knowledge transfer. , 1987 .

[23]  L. C. Miller,et al.  School behavior check list: An inventory of deviant behavior for elementary school children. , 1972 .

[24]  S. Messer,et al.  Reflection-Impulsivity: Stability and School Failure. , 1970 .

[25]  E. Ellis,et al.  Teaching Learning Strategies to Learning Disabled Students in Postsecondary Settings , 1989 .

[26]  B. Zimmerman Models of Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement , 1989 .

[27]  Donald F. Dansereau,et al.  Transfer of Information: An Instructional Perspective , 1987 .

[28]  E. Ghatala,et al.  Sometimes Adults Miss the Main Ideas and Do Not Realize It: Confidence in Responses to Short-Answer and Multiple-Choice Comprehension Questions. , 1990 .

[29]  V. Shipman,et al.  Cognitive Styles: Some Conceptual, Methodological, and Applied Issues , 1985 .

[30]  Philip H. Winne,et al.  Inherent details in self-regulated learning , 1995 .

[31]  T. O. Nelson,et al.  Allocation of self-paced study time and the "labor-in-vain effect". , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[32]  R. Schmidt,et al.  New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training , 1992 .

[33]  Jeffrey J. Walczyk,et al.  Is the failure to monitor comprehension an instance of cognitive impulsivity , 1989 .