Developing metacognitive awareness - a modified model of a PBL-tutorial

Abstract: In order for students to become good self-directed learners, an awareness of one’s own learning process and studying strategies is essential. The aim of this paper is to describe a project –and the results of it - where a modified model of a problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial is used, a project launched to develop students’ metacognitive awareness and improve the quality of their tutorials. Dental hygiene students and their tutors at the faculty of Odontology, Malmö University participated in the project which meant that the students worked independently during the first PBL-session with the tutor only paying a few short visits to the group. At these visits, the students presented their problems, hypotheses and objectives with the purpose to create an opportunity of primarily reviewing and reflecting but also getting feed-back from the tutor. The tutor was present throughout the second PBL-session. This model was alternated with and compared to the traditional “Malmö model” in which the tutor participates throughout both PBL-sessions. The project was evaluated through interviews. A Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) was filled in before and after the project. Results for the MAI show a significant increase in metacognitive awareness. In the interviews, students state that they participated in the PBL-session to a greater extent and had more spontaneous discussions without the tutor, but also that they felt a lack of security and sometimes interrupted by the visits from the tutor.