Replacing Cheating with Metacognition – Reevaluating the Pedagogical Role of Homework in Foundational Engineering Courses

Abstract

Saint Vincent College. His interests include integrating active learning techniques into classic engineering courses, and studying the mechanical behavior of soft materials.

Latest Improvements in Metacognitive-Informed, Dual-Submission Homework Methods

“…Frequently, these methodologies look very similar to the self-graded approaches, as the self-graded approaches explicitly attempted to engage metacognitive critical thinking. The shift in emphasis that marks the explicitly metacognitive methodologies was an emphasis in right thinking about the problem rather than a grade for the accuracy of the solution [12]. Instructors emphasized the process over the outcome by evaluations of student-corrected work [13], [14], and/or through the use of student reflections [3], [12].…”

“…The shift in emphasis that marks the explicitly metacognitive methodologies was an emphasis in right thinking about the problem rather than a grade for the accuracy of the solution [12]. Instructors emphasized the process over the outcome by evaluations of student-corrected work [13], [14], and/or through the use of student reflections [3], [12]. By decreasing the emphasis on first time accuracy, students experienced a reductions in workload, stress, and time demands consistent with lower temptations toward cheating and conducive to deeper learning [15].…”

Metacognitive Strategies for Homework Grading: Improving Learning while Saving Time and Decreasing Cheating

“…First feedback. The most common follow-up to the student's initial submission is to provide solutions [1,2,4,5,6,10]. In lieu of solutions, at Ohio State [3] the initial submission was autograded.…”

“…In lieu of solutions, at Ohio State [3] the initial submission was autograded. Instead of being graded for correctness, students' answers were frequently graded for completion [1,2,7] or effort [8,10]. A few approaches, though, graded some [7] or all [13,14] problems in the traditional manner.…”

“…Second submission. Second submissions were usually metacognitive activities, such as corrections [1,3,5,8,9,14], self-grading [4,12], reflections on the solution process [2,9,12,13], and homework "wrappers" [10,11,14]. Homework wrappers were inspired by the more established practice of exam wrappers [16][17][18][19].…”