1. Discussing Metacognition: Metacognition, Discussion Boards, and the Bard
John Ottenhoff
(aka The (Token) English Guy)
Associated Colleges of the Midwest*
*Beloit, Carleton, Coe, Colorado, Cornell, Grinnell, Knox, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Macalester, Monmouth, Ripon, St. Olaf

2. Metacognitive Hamlet How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unus’d. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th’ event,
A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward,--I do not know
Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do,’
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do’t.
(Hamlet, )

3. Key assignment: online forum
Upper-level Shakespeare seminar
Two 80-minute sessions (Tue/Thu)
Typically one play each week.
By Monday night, first post to discussion board:
Initial exploratory comments
Questions and puzzlements
First reactions, responses, interpretations

4. forum… By the end of the week, follow-up posts:
continue our in-class discussions
write what you didn’t get to say in class
react to the views of your classmates and professor
offer links to helpful articles and websites
comment or reflect on classroom discussion.

5. forum…my role Regular monitoring and review Class use: quotes, prompts
Minimal intervention
Period grades (+ / -); roughly 15% of final grade

6. Epistemological assumptions
Community at the center of meaning making in the literature class; social learning; the necessity of give-and-take, revision
“...talk about books and subjects is as important educationally as are the books and subjects themselves. For the way we talk about a subject becomes part of the subject…” (Graff, Clueless in Academe)
Discussions are an essential part of the intellectual fabric of an academic discipline; expert knowledge / expert process.

7. assumptions... Authority as complex:
Students creating interpretive authority
My role as authority
Responsiveness to the author while constructive one’s own interpretations

8. Beyond the forum The “meta” thread
Midterm third-person “thread” analyses
Role assignments: first response, responder, synthesizer
Talk-throughs
Questions: What does it mean to know a play?

9. Metacognitive awareness: reading the forum
A first rubric:
Intro (introductory remarks, opening)
Response (direct response to others’ questions)
Connection (explicit linking to other members of the seminar, naming of others)
Meta (metacritical commentary about one’s own knowledge or approach)
Question (asking a question)
Opinion (stating an opinion)
Report (offering information from a secondary source or personal experience)
Cite (direct citation from the text)
Closing (closing remarks, signing off)

10. “Meta” instances of self-reflection
analysis of what students know and the process of knowing
statements of “not knowing”
discussion about the process of reading and learning
Student4, for instance, acknowledges doubt about a conclusion, “I haven't really figured out who yet”; and reaches out to the class for assistance, “Anyone have any ideas?”
Student2 expresses uncertainty as an introduction an extended posting of interpretive opinion and speculation: “I can't seem to understand Shakespeare's motive behind this play.”
Student5 characterizes a position of knowledge vis-à-vis the rest of the class.
Student7posts the most comprehensive summarizing statement reflecting on the week’s discussion

11. Meta metacognition
CASTL (Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning)
Looking for evidence; reflecting about my teaching / teaching reflectively
Co-presenting; Heidi Elmendorf (Biology, Georgetown University)

12. Coding the forums

13. Conclusions: online discussions
Extended student engagement by supporting their initial encounter with new material before class and providing an outlet for revisiting material after class;
Led to richer conversations--often more thoughtful and responsive than is typical of in-class conversations;
Fostered reflective understanding by preserving the exchange of ideas and allowing students and faculty time and opportunity to revisit the conversations;
Stimulated “intellectual play” by creating informal venues that value process over product;
Cultivated the development of intellectual communities, which in turn encouraged students to take a more active approach to their learning.

14. Broader conclusions
Fruitful lessons at the intersections of a liberal arts curriculum: beyond disciplines, beyond technology; metacognition, reflection
Building expectations for the practice of expert processes early in the curriculum
The central role of productive conversation in learning
Authority as complex, multi-voiced, involving much more than knowledge and power