Workshop on Higher Education Teaching and Learning

The following metacognition questions aim at guiding your decisions when you approach the conception and delivery of a course.

Not all questions will be relevant for your case or for teaching issue. You should discard those questions that are irrelevant. Ideally, you should gradually create new questions that will help you think about your own teaching so that you can use the standards of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning discipline to recognize shortcomings and correct your reasoning as you go.

1. Is my course aligned? Are the learning outcomes consistent with the teaching and learning activities and the student assessment?

2. Do I know my students well enough? Do I know about their knowledge structures and existing mental models of reality?

3. Are my learning outcomes appropriate for the students I am teaching? Am I aiming high enough?

4. Do my teaching and learning activities try to help students use higher-order cognitive skills?

5. Am I trying to foster my students to take a deep approach to learning?

6. Does the assessment of student work promote the use of higher-order cognitive skills? Does the assessment aim at encouraging deep learning?

7. Am I promoting metacognition?

8. Am I giving effective feedback?

9. Am I giving students the opportunity to try, fail, and receive feedback separate from and independent of any judgment of their efforts?

10. Have I created expectation failures?

11. Am I intrinsically motivating students?

12. Am I fostering critical thinking?

13. Am I helping my students develop a wide array of skills and competencies?

14. Am I helping my students discover knowledge by themselves?

15. Am I helping my students engage in the discipline?