(cover image by F1Digitals on Pixabay)

by Cindy Nebel

 Many educators use exam wrappers as a way to increase metacognition in their students (1). Exam wrappers can be designed in lots of different ways, but in general they ask students to reflect on their performance, to think about the content that they did well and poorly on, and the strategies that they used or could use differently the next time.

In a recently published article, the authors took exam wrappers one step further and sent students to our blog to learn more about retrieval practice and metacognition in particular and to see how that would impact students’ strategy choices (2).

We know that left to their own devices students most often choose less than desirable strategies, like re-reading instead of retrieval (3). There are a lot of reasons why this might be the case, including lack of awareness, the fact that those strategies “have always worked in the past”, the immediate feeling of ease that comes from strategies like re-reading, etc. Regardless, it’s possible that a little “show and tell” could be enough to convince students that strategies like re-reading are simply not working very well for them.

In this study, the researchers looked at exams in a college-level introductory biology course in which students took several exams. Students could gain extra credit for completing exam wrappers after four of the exams in the course. On the first and last exam wrappers, students were asked to rank order strategies they had used for studying before the exam. On the wrappers in between, students were asked a number of questions, but they were also sent to resources to learn more.

In particular, on the second exam wrapper students were sent to this blog and asked to interpret this image:

On the third exam wrapper, students were sent to this podcast and asked students to answer multiple-choice questions about the definition of metacognitive monitoring and the results of the research study described (where retrieval practice helped with metacognition).

The results showed that the exam wrappers impacted students’ study choices. There was a large decrease in the number of students who reported re-reading, with many students very specifically saying they did less re-reading when asked to explain in their own words. Students also reported more “forced recall” demonstrating an increased use of retrieval practice.

There were a few other more nuanced findings that are interesting as well. While the blog and podcast were not specifically about these things, students reported spending more time summarizing information in their own words, working in groups, and drawing as strategies to replace re-reading later in the course. Presumably, spending less time re-reading opened up more opportunities for students to engage in more active strategies, which is also a very positive outcome of this study.

What does this mean for you?

1. Exam wrappers are helpful! Carefully writing questions that will encourage students to think about their study strategies can increase metacognitive awareness.

2. This study also may indicate that students don’t always know what the alternatives could be to the strategies that lead to poor exam performance. Strategically sharing this information with them while they are realizing their strategy didn’t work well may increase student adoption of more effective strategies

3. While this wasn’t the purpose of the study, one thing I am happily taking away from this study is that sharing resources from our blog with students may enhance their learning. Don’t know where to start? Send them here.

References:

1. Gezer-Templeton, P. G., Mayhew, E. J., Korte, D. S., & Schmidt, S. J. (2017). Use of exam wrappers to enhance students’ metacognitive skills in a large introductory food science and human nutrition course. Journal of Food Science Education, 16(1), 28-36.

2. Sobel, M., & Higgins, L. (2024). “Enhancing” exam wrappers with research into learning is associated with a shift in study strategies in a first semester biology course. Journal of College Science Teaching, 7, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047231X.2024.2373028

3. Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. III, (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practice retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17(4), 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210802647009