The Role of Metacognition in Students’ Understanding and Transfer of Explanatory Structures in Science

This chapter explores the power of metacognition in helping students to reflect upon and revise their underlying causal assumptions in service of deeper science learning and to transfer the concepts that they learn. In six eighth grade science classrooms, we introduced “metacognitive moves” into instruction about the nature of the causal patterns implicit in density and pressure-related concepts. Classes participated in a density unit followed by an air pressure unit making it possible to assess transfer, cognitive, and metacognitive statements, using pre- and post-assessment, interview data, writing samples, and key classroom conversations. Four categories of cognitive and metacognitive strategies emerged in students’ statements increasing in sophistication from explicit knowledge claims to engaging in reflective reasoning and examining the applicability and plausibility of concepts. There was a strong correlation between the number of metacognitive statements students made during their interviews and higher post-assessment scores. Students who made more metacognitive statements gave more relational causal responses on their posttests—reflecting greater ability to incorporate the complex causal concepts. Those students who made more metacognitive statements on their density posttest showed more transfer of understanding to air pressure. The notion of metacognition applied in this study consists of knowledge of persons (both interpersonal and intrapersonal), monitoring, and evaluation. Knowledge of persons invites awareness of students’ sense-making process. Monitoring and evaluation also occur in the context of students’ ideas, as students test their faith in a particular idea, assessing whether they really believe that idea and whether they should keep on doing so.