A nice overview of metacognition by Jose Bowen, and a specific metacognitive exercise which could be added to any course activity. Any article which has citations from Socrates to 2013 ought to be popular at Kenyon...
Self-awareness is a central component to the Liberal Arts mission and this article lays out simple strategies to promote metacognitive awareness without setting aside class time for it.
Interesting stuff in this article, from managing what can seem like a torrent of feedback, to thinking about the ways that different people respond to the same comments, to the metacognitive exercise of thinking about your own reactions. It's also worth noting that these tips come from a book that's not just for students - and the techniques might be useful for faculty and staff too.
This article makes a good argument for spending more time on introductions in class, and for including some metacognitive work on students' interests and self-perceptions as learners on the first day. Now personally, it takes some work to get me to buy into icebreaker activities - but I think the argument, and the techniques described, have merit.
Curating your own portfolio can be a valuable metacognitive exercise, helping students cement their learning and plan for the future. Or it can be an exercise in checking off boxes. Which sounds like a better use of student time and tuition dollars?
One issue in discussions of college writing is how to incorporate writing practice into STEM courses. Some Kenyon professors in STEM subjects include journal assignments and process descriptions into their courses. Here are some suggestions on similar metacognitive "writing to learn" approaches, including guidelines for feedback to students.
From the article: "Exam wrappers are short activities that direct students to review their performance (and the instructor's feedback) on an exam with an eye toward adapting their future learning... Exam wrappers ask students three kinds of questions: How did they prepare for the exam? What kind of errors did they make on the exam? What could they do differently next time?"
On this podcast, Saundra McGuire discusses the ways she's seen student achievement improve by working lessons in study skills into her classes. Are there basic (or basic-seeming) learning skills you'll be encouraging your students to use this semester?
Asking students to report their confidence in an answer is a way to get them to reflect on their own learning, and gives you a window on where understanding and error may lie.
How do you look at a student's work and grade the "effort" or "process" which went into it? One answer might be asking them to state briefly what they did particularly well this time around.
This paper serves as a guide to starting a portfolio project. It focuses on the "learning portfolio" as a tool which encourages the student to reflect on their own learning, with special attention to their own progress. I was particularly taken with the point that a portfolio can be an appropriate tool at any level of the curriculum - an individual course or set of courses, the program or department level, or the whole institution - though of course, that choice will change the purpose of the portfolio, and therefore its design.
An interesting page of resources from DePaul, mixing resources for health and counseling with some classroom approaches which can help students process the learning components of their late-semester stress.
Interesting list of prompts which ask students to reflect on their learning process and preferences. Some of these might make good course evaluation questions. How do you help students reflect on their time at Kenyon?
Interesting ideas here about the value of requiring students to annotate their own work and the sources they consult. Note the point that these professors actually dedicate regular class time to the exercise.