Castellanos, M., & Enszer, J. A. (2013, June), Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22384

\bibitem{asee_peer_22384}
  Castellanos, M., \& Enszer, J. A. (2013, June), \emph{Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course}
  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia.
  10.18260/1-2--22384

Mariajose Castellanos and Joshua A Enszer.  "Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course".  2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2013.  https://peer.asee.org/22384 Internet.  23 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_22384}
  Mariajose Castellanos and Joshua A Enszer.
  "Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course".
  \emph{2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2013.
  https://peer.asee.org/22384 Internet.  23 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_22384
author = "Mariajose Castellanos and Joshua A Enszer"
title = "Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course"
booktitle = "2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2013"
month = "June"
address = "Atlanta, Georgia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/22384}
number = {10.18260/1-2--22384}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -             Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a                           Thermodynamics CourseChemical engineering thermodynamics is a core course in the undergraduate curriculum, but itsseemingly unintuitive nature makes it a challenge for novices to understand. At our institution,student feedback for the past several years has included complaints about having to “know” toomany equations, the existence of an apparent disconnect between theory and real worldexamples, and a textbook they do not enjoy using. We believe that focusing on how studentsunderstand their own work with the textbook addresses not only the last complaint, but also theother two, and to that end have modified our thermodynamics course structure with an emphasison reading activities and self-reflection.Now in class, students practice regular reflection through a short weekly assignment that we call“the reflection paragraph,” which supplements the regular problem solving homework. Studentsare instructed to write 200 words to explain what they have learned and to provide evidence ofthat learning. They are also given a series of prompts designed to explore the way they study forthe course and to encourage them to make more direct connections between theory and their ownexperiences and learning. Students also self-assess their reflection using a provided rubric. Thecourse instructor provides comments as feedback for the first few iterations of this assignmentwithout an impact on the grade before starting to numerically assess the student responses andself-assessment for the rest of the semester.Further, in-class activities include regular use of a reading activity, in which students take time toexplain to one another the most important details of the week’s textbook reading, then discusswhy those details are important and relevant. This reading activity leads into a short assignmentof listing what points are unclear about the current problems worked in class, which helps toguide the examples and mini-lectures conducted by the course instructor.In this paper, we discuss in more detail the logistics of administering, collecting, and assessingstudent reflection exercises, as well as discuss the importance of self-reflective activities. Wewill explore the correlations between student self-assessment and instructor assessment on thereflection paragraphs, and provide the results of an attitude survey regarding the incorporation ofreflection exercises into the course. Most importantly, we will report the impact of this requiredreflection activity on traditional exam performance in thermodynamics.
AU  - Mariajose Castellanos
AU  - Joshua A Enszer
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Promoting Metacognition through Reflection Exercises in a Thermodynamics Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/22384
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--22384
ER  -