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Fostering Metacognition in a Professional Course: towards redesign of a Master’s programme in Occupational Psychology

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Johnson, Sarah (2006) Fostering Metacognition in a Professional Course: towards redesign of a Master’s programme in Occupational Psychology. Investigations in university teaching and learning, 4 (1). pp. 37-49. ISSN 1740-5106

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Abstract

Metacognitive skills such as critical reflection, problem solving and contextual/situational awareness are core employability skills (amongst others); they also foster deep, constructivist approaches to learning and facilitate lifelong learning via critical reasoning and transformation of prior learning in Piagetian terms (Montgomery, 1994; Biggs, 2003). These skills are also desired outcomes for occupational psychology master’s students/consultants-in-training (my own subject teaching area). Upon graduation, many students further their consultant-in-training skills and must continually self-monitor understanding and tailor solutions to meet client problems and challenges independently. These skills (amongst others) are then externally assessed and full chartered status awarded. Thus learning must be active and continual. However, the course aims, outcomes and assessment criteria generally make only vague references to reflection in particular; remaining mostly implicit and part of a hidden curriculum. Reflection is only informally assessed and not consistently part of the course structure or teaching strategies. Thus, these skills are often poorly demonstrated within student coursework ...

This paper discusses proposals for the redesign of the course. It deals with the enhancement of aims/outcomes with reference to one particular module, for example purposes, along with assessment criteria and teaching-learning activities, all with a view to fostering metacognitive skills of critical reflection.

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