Learners are Meta-cognitive: Enhancing students’ metacognitive awareness through problem solving

Understanding and being able to apply an English grammar correctly especially in writing is relatively difficult task for English foreign users, particularly students. In this brief paper, the writer will describe a strategy for teaching Present Tense Passive Voice for the first year students of a senior high school. This grammar topic is found to be problematic for students particularly when they have to transfer active sentences into passive ones. The presented teaching strategy is expected to overcome such problems while enhancing students’ metacognitive awareness through five steps of a contemporary model of problem solving.

1. Identify the problem
As an initial stage of identifying the problem, the teacher distributes an authentic text taken from an English newspaper to the students. In this text, he purposively selects an article consisting of various passive sentences in it. The students are, then, invited to understand the information by reading every single sentence while highlighting sentences written in a passive form. After finishing their reading, randomly several volunteers are asked to tell the information provided in the article to the class and write their highlighted passive sentences on the white board. In the next activity, the teacher hands out an authentic sample of final examination questions dealing with the use of passive voices. In pair, the students are invited to observe and brainstorm what the sample questions is about and try to predict what the answer is. As a main activity of this session, the students are invited to transfer several active sentences into passive sentences. As a first step to accomplish the task the students are invited to answer several initial clue questions dealing with information of how they gather the information and their understanding on the given problem..

In the above session, the teacher intentionally invites the students to engage in activities which indirectly lead them to focus on passive sentences while curiously questioning themselves about their understanding of this particular structure. At this point, he deliberately activates his students’ prior knowledge relevant to solve the given problem. Bruning et al., (2004) assert that schemata or prior knowledge enable students to be more selective and less effort in paying attention, encoding the essential information. The initial questions adopted from Schoenfeld (1985) and Corno and Mandinach (1983) are intended to help the students identify and gather the required information for overcoming the given task. At the same time, authentic material and samples of examination are intended to stimulate personal motivation that passive sentences are commonly used in daily text and even will be crucial for completing their final test. This motivation will support them to be more enthusiastic and persistent in solving the given task (Pressley as cited by Bruning et al., 2004).

2. Representing the problem
In assisting students to accomplish the task, the teacher distributes a blank piece of paper and invites the students to write the specific formula of both active and passive sentences. Later, they are encouraged to identify the formula to generate as many rules as possible in order to change active into passive forms. During this period, the teacher ensures and checks around for assistance. After identifying the formula, the students are given a planning question adopted form King (1991). See appendix 1.

The first and second activities are devoted to help learner to think in a more concrete way. This is useful to reduce difficulty since it assists students to focus only on the required formula for a certain sentence. Bruning et al. (2004) suggest that ‘using some forms of external representation can reduce greatly the amount of information that needs to be remembered in order to identify and solve a problem” (p. 166). Moreover, they also point out that simplifying the information by segmenting or categorizing is beneficial to help learners manage their cognitive loads crucial for the success of their learning. In addition, the planning question is another technique to ask student to consider the various components involved in completing the task. A problem can be easier when the solvers are able to control and recognize contributing factors such as goals, time, budget, constraints etc., to solve the problems (Bruning et al., 2004).

3. Selecting an appropriate strategy
In this session, before embarking on sentence transformation they are encourage to review and evaluate the process and information they have already experienced from identifying to representing the problem. Bruning et al., indicate that “the success that one has when implementing a strategy depend, in large part, on how well one identifies and represents the problem and on type of strategy one adopts” (p. 169). Furthermore, Cooney contends that “experts place a high priority on defining and representing the problem before deciding on a solution; novices do not” (as cited in Bruning et al., 2004 p. 170). Since the given task deals with a fixed matter based on language agreement; grammar, the students have been able to generate their own rules to solve the problem. As the result, a rule-based strategy is the suitable and useful method to solve the given task. Bruning et al. (2004) inform that this kind of strategy has a greater effectiveness since it has a greater possibility of success. Moreover, categorizing enables learners to be can eliminate possible errors and enhance evaluation.

4. Implementing the strategy
Prior to engage in generating a solution, the students are invited to answer a regulatory check list adopted from King (1991) (see appendix-1). This checklist is administered to help students think more carefully and systematically when implementing the strategy. King (as cited in Schraw, 1998) reveals that using this regulatory check list assist learner to control their performances and solve the problems more systematically. After completing this check list, the students are invited to categorize the active sentences according to the formula they have previously constructed. In this activity, they identify whether the sentences are positive, negative, interrogative, simple or complex. After each sentence is appropriately categorized, the students transform the active sentences into passive ones by following the specific rules they have previously constructed. In this process, the students clearly use their procedural knowledge to apply what they already know to a new situation or concept, in this case changing active into passive sentences.

5. Evaluating the strategy
In this session, the students are given opportunities to evaluate through a regulatory check list adopted from King (1991) (see appendix-1) and gain feedbacks both from peers and teacher. These activities are intended to help learner to self-assess and measure to what extent their strategy works or does not, and how it can be improved for future similar task. In addition, Bruning et al., (2004) indicate that most of the study on metacognition, reflective practices, and self-regulation conclude that purposeful evaluation is the basic component for every learning improvement.

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Appendix-1:

A regulatory check list adopted from King (1991)

Planning

1. What is the nature of the task?

2. What is my goal?

3. What kind of information and strategies do I need?

4. How much time and resources will I need?

Monitoring

1. Do I have clear understanding of what I am doing?

2. Does the task make sense?

3. Am I reaching my goal?

4. Do I need to make changes?

Evaluating

1. Have I reached my goal?

2. What works?

3. What didn’t work?

4. Would I do things differently next time?

Appendix-2:

Present Tense-Passive Voice
Active Voice	Passive Voice
(+) S + V(s/es) + O.	(+) O + to be + V3 + by + S.
(-) S + Do/Does + not + V + O.	(-) O + to be + not + V3 + by + S.
(?) Do/Does + S + V + O?	(?) To be + S + V3 + by O?
Conditions/rules to form a passive sentence: 1. The sentence must be a verbal sentence. 2. The sentence has an object. 3. The verb used in the sentence must be a transitive verb. 4. Reverse the object of the active sentence into the subject. 5. Change the V of the active sentence into V3. 6. Change the Do/Does into Is/Are. 7. If the object used in an active form is a singular/uncountable noun, then (is) is used in the passive form. 8. If the object used in an active form is a plural noun, then (are) is used in the passive form. 9. (By) is usually used before the object of the passive form.

References

Bruning, R. H., Schraw, G. J., Norby, M. M., & Ronning, R. R. (2004). Cognitive psychology and instruction (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Fortunato, I. & Deborah, H. (1999). Metacognition and problem solving, The Arithmatic Teacher, 39, 4, 38.

Schraw, G. (1994). Promoting general metacognitive awareness, Instructional Science, 26, 113-125.