Contact: Allison Matthews

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Students who think about how they learn are more likely to succeed in the classroom – even if they are underprepared for a course – according to a prominent guest who spoke to Mississippi State faculty Thursday [Nov. 5].

Saundra Yancy McGuire, retired assistant vice chancellor and professor of chemistry at Louisiana State University, gave a talk titled “Metacognition: The Key to Improving Writing (and Learning) in Every Course!”

Hosted by the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning in conjunction with the Maroon & Write quality enhancement plan, McGuire’s presentation was filled with ideas to improve student learning that participating faculty can immediately incorporate into their classroom instruction.

“Learning is a process, and we have to give students specific strategies, just like writing is a process and we have to give them strategies,” McGuire said.

She emphasized, “We can’t judge student potential on their initial performance, and we cannot let them do it either.” She explained that students who fail a test often start to believe that they aren’t smart enough to earn an ‘A’ in a course. However, she said students should not be deterred because significantly changing their learning strategies can lead to substantial positive changes in their grades.

McGuire shared numerous examples of students who she had not tutored, but rather advised of proper learning techniques. Time and again she saw amazing improvements in their learning outcomes and the resulting classroom grades, she said.

“Learning the strategies motivates them because then they see that they have a chance to succeed,” she added.

With more than 40 years of experience in learning and teaching support, McGuire has presented at more than 200 institutions. She is the author of “Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation,” (Stylus Publishing, 2015).

McGuire said that in the context of MSU’s Maroon & Write program, encouraging students to engage in writing as a means of thinking about classroom content and comprehension will help ensure students become more engaged and have improved learning outcomes.

She explained that “metacognition” is a term that simply means the ability to think about one’s own thinking. She explained that this includes considering how a person studies and learns and prepares to apply knowledge and even take tests.

“This helps students be more in tune with what they know and don’t know,” she said.

“Does a student really understand or did they just memorize facts,” she asked. Metacognition helps students analyze, problem solve and plan, McGuire said.

If a student’s current behavior is leading to current grades, and more productive behavior will lead to more desirable grades, she said faculty can help those students close the gap between where they are and where they want to be by teaching effective strategies to learn.

“There are so many concepts in our classes, and students think they understand. But if you ask them to take a few minutes to do a writing exercise to explain the concept, then they will see how well they understand a concept or not,” she said.

McGuire shared a repertoire of strategies with her audience, including reading comprehension strategies and even strategies for teaching unprepared students. Among effective metacognitive strategies she shared were always asking “why,” “how” and “what if” questions during the learning process.

She said the success of these methods applies to all disciplines.

MSU’s Maroon & Write quality enhancement plan is an initiative that incorporates writing-to-learn strategies in university coursework, especially in classes not characteristically focused on writing.

For more about MSU's Maroon & Write initiative, visit http://qep.msstate.edu or Facebook at http://facebook.com/QEPMSU or follow on Twitter at @MSUQEP.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.