Metacognitive Knowledge Monitoring in Post-Secondary Education: The Consequences of Poor Knowledge Monitoring and a Program to Facilitate It

One of the most frustrating teaching dilemmas in post-secondary education is helping students who claim to have mastered the course content but are unable to demonstrate their understanding. These students are often convinced they have a command of the material and may even be able to persuade their instructor that their failure is due to the test. But instructors who carefully question these students realize that most of these students have not mastered the material. This paper will briefly report on research from the last decade on metacognitive knowledge monitoring, and then present a program that teaches both self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognition. Over the past five years the author has researched the relationship between metacognitive knowledge monitoring (MKM) and classroom learning and has developed a program in his educational psychology class which compels students to regulate their own learning and develops metacognitive skills. (Contains 1 table.)