Assessing students' metacognitive skills

Objective. To develop a diagnostic test for assessing cognitive skills related to metacognition in a physiology course. Methods. Cognitive skills believed to be related to metacognition (visualizing lecture information and interpreting diagrams) were identified in a first-professional year (P1) physiology course and test items were constructed for each. Analyses included overall reliability, item discrimination, and variance comparisons of 4 groups to assess the effect of prior physiology coursework and diagnostic test score level on the first examination in physiology. Results. Overall reliability was 0.83 (N = 78). Eighty percent of the test items discriminated positively. The average diagnostic test scores of students with or without a prior physiology course did not differ significantly. Students who scored above the class mean on the diagnostic test and who had taken a prior physiology course also had the highest average scores on the physiology examination. Conclusion. The diagnostic test provided a measure of a limited number of skills related to metacognition, and preliminary data suggest that such skills are especially important in retaining information.