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Assessing Students’ Metacognitive Skills in a Summer Undergraduate Research Program

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division Technical Session - Empathy, Metacognitive Skills, and Perceptions of Success

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41250

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41250

Download Count

328

Paper Authors

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Simon Ghanat The Citadel

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Dr. Simon T. Ghanat, P.E. is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Citadel. He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University. His research interests are in seismic site response studies, engineering characteristics of strong ground motions, probabilistic seismic hazard analyses and engineering education. He previously taught at Bucknell University and Arizona State University. He also teaches NHI training courses on seismic design of foundations and geotechnical features of highway systems for the Federal Highway Administration.

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Dena Garner

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Todd Wittman The Citadel

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M. Kristen Hefner The Citadel

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M. Kristen Hefner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. Her primary research interests include victimology, power-based violence, gender and social inequalities, and qualitative methods. Much of her current work examines how social inequalities are created and maintained through the criminal justice system. She has published numerous articles that appear in journals such as Justice Quarterly, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Family Violence, and Men and Masculinities.

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Deirdre Ragan The Citadel

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Thad Le-Vasicek The Citadel

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Emily Bierman The Citadel

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Blakely Adair-Hudson The Citadel

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Abstract

Undergraduate research experiences are cited to improve soft skills that include oral and written communication skills, leadership, problem solving, and teamwork. Additionally, literature cites increases in critical thinking skills and retention in the field of discipline, with the latter aspect attributed to the rigorous and ongoing mentoring that occurs between student and faculty in the context of these experiences. Our summer undergraduate research program integrates the faculty/student mentoring component with a specific assessment practice that occurs at the onset, mid-point, and the final phase of the experience. This assessment, called the EvaluateUR, requires both the faculty and the student to assess the student’s various metacognitive skills and integrates required discussions of those assessments between the faculty and student. The outcomes of our study found that on average, students rate themselves higher in their abilities at the onset of the experience compared to how faculty rate them. However, by the end of the program the student and faculty responses were more equivalent. In all aspects scored, both the faculty and the students perceived students improved from initial to post assessment, with the greatest gains in areas related to research abilities, knowledge/content within their respective discipline, critical thinking, and flexibility. This study will discuss the scope of the student projects, results and analyses of the students’ growth, faculty’s assessment of student growth, and correlations between those scores across the span of the experience.

Ghanat, S., & Garner, D., & Wittman, T., & Hefner, M. K., & Ragan, D., & Le-Vasicek, T., & Bierman, E., & Adair-Hudson, B. (2022, August), Assessing Students’ Metacognitive Skills in a Summer Undergraduate Research Program Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41250

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