Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter XVII
Metacognition in
Information Systems
Education
Steve Benson
Edith Cowan University, Australia
ABSTRACT
My interest in producing this chapter arises from the fact that I am mildly afflicted with
Asperger's syndrome and have some medium-term memory degradation. The level of
introspection that I have had to develop onto my own mental processes in order to function
has been useful to me in my role as an academic, because I can understand many of the
learning problems that students face. Conversations at international conferences and
email interactions suggested that my personal insights would be useful to other academics.
Here, I present data from a six-semester period that suggest that it would be beneficial to
change Information Systems curricula to incorporate metacognitive education. I also
describe the changes that I have made to my own teaching methods and the elements of a
metacognitive teaching program.
INTRODUCTION
Educators would state that learning processes are most effective when they are tailored
to the cognitive style of the student. There are many instruments for assessing the cognitive
style of students. Some of these, such as Myers-Briggs, address personality as a factor
(Dewar & Whittington, 2000), while others such as Sternberg-Wagner (Benson & Standing,
2001a) focus on processing styles. However, the more sophisticated the instruments are, the
more unwieldy they are in practice. No lecturer can afford the time and effort to present the
curriculum from several perspectives, and it would be a logistical nightmare to divide the class
