Randy Isaacson is an Associate Professor of Education at Indiana University South Bend and has been utilizing the H-ITT system to research and develop innovative teaching methods.
Photo Courtesy of Indiana University
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"As an educational psychologist who teaches teachers, I focus my
teaching and research on the teaching-learning process, particularly the
impact of learning-to-learn and metacognition. My research has
demonstrated that students who are most at risk for failure in college
are most likely to overestimate their mastery of course content. There
is evidence that this is due to poor metacognitive knowledge monitoring
(MKM); students don't know they don't know.
The H-ITT student response system allows me to teach MKM in my classes by setting up questions in class that require students to answer higher-level questions AND state how confident they are in their answer. Each student uses their H-ITT clicker to answer a question, indicate their confidence in their answer (high, medium, or low) and then discuss the question with a partner in class. They then "vote" again on their answer and indicating their confidence in their answer after talking to their partner To encourage students to reflect on their level of confidence and examine whether their confidence ratings are consistent with reality I award "clicker points" that are fairly heavily weighted on accurate confidence; when students know-they-know an answer they receive more points, when they over-estimate confidence for an inaccurate answer there are negative consequences. When students are highly confident for correct answers they earn 9 points but incorrect highly confident answers receive no points. When students have medium confidence (I call it "Fairly Sure") they receive 6 points for correct answers, but only 1 point if the answer is incorrect. When student have low confidence ("Just Guessing") for correct answers, they receive 3 points, but only 2 points if they are incorrect. After students discuss their answers with their partners they "vote" on the question a second time with fewer points for the second question but still emphasizing the accuracy of confidence ratings. The H-ITT system allows me to help students to focus on their metacognition by rewarding them not only for getting questions correct, but also reflecting on the confidence they put into their responses. I have found this helpful to both overly confident students (i.e., colleagues will point out their unrealistic confidence in every class) and the student who consistently is correct in their answer but lacks confidence. Metacognition is clearly an important ingredient in the teaching-learning process and the H-ITT system has allowed me to teach metacognition AND collect research data that will allow me to explore this phenomenon in great detail." Randall Isaacson is a specialist in underachieving and at-risk youth, motivating youth, and sports psychology. He is a recipient of numerous honors and grants for work with youth in education and sports. He conducts workshops on teen self-esteem, parental roles in education, and classroom discipline. Photo Courtesy of Indiana University. This is not an endorsement of H-ITT by Indiana University. Learn more about Dr. Isaacson. E-mail Dr. Isaacson: risaacso@iusb.edu
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