Supporting Elementary Students’ Self-Regulated Learning and Fraction Knowledge

An important goal of education is to help children independently control their own learning. To be able to self-control their learning, children should have a good sense of what they know, and how well. When children identify a gap in their knowledge, they need to then know what steps to take to address that gap. Yet, it is sometimes challenging for students to accurately judge what they do, and don’t, know well. This is especially problematic in challenging, but critically important domains, like when learning about fractions. This research will test methods for improving fourth through sixth graders’ fraction learning, transfer of learning from one context to another, and children’s ability to assess what they know and do not know, which is known as metacognition. Strategies for improving students’ metacognition will be evaluated as they are learning fraction content by emphasizing both why students should be aware of what they do and do not know and how they should go about self-assessing this understanding using reflective questions, such as (1) “What information is given?” (2) “What steps do I need to take to get the right answer?” (3) “How can I check that my answer is right?” and (4) “If I think my solution is wrong, what should I do next?? This research will reveal insights on how to successfully encourage the productive use of metacognition and self-regulated learning in the context of math (fractions) learning.Few studies in the domain of math learning investigate both self-awareness of what one knows and does not know (i.e., monitoring) and decisions on how to proceed in the same experiment. This research plan will focus on implementing and evaluating metacognition training to improve fraction performance accuracy, self-awareness of what is known and not known about fractions, and control decisions, as well as the extent to which our metacognition training transfers broadly to other related math tasks and persists over a two-week delay. Fourth through sixth graders will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) a fraction content instruction, (2) fraction content instruction + metacognitive monitoring training, or (3) fraction content + metacognitive monitoring + control training. All children will complete a battery of their fraction knowledge at a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest to assess the potential benefit of metacognitive training beyond fraction-specific training on directly trained and related tasks. Investigating the promise of metacognitive training by asking children to engage in general, self-reflective questions in a “low cost” online intervention in the context of math learning will build on math cognition and math education theory. The results will also contribute important information regarding the design and implementation of potential educational interventions and teaching strategies leveraging metacognitive training in younger children.This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.