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Meta-cognition and Autonomous
Learning Model or
Taking Responsibility
for Your Own Learning
Adapted from Paul Wangerin,
Learning Strategies for Law Students
52 Alb. L. Rev.471-528
(Winter 1988).
| Meta-cognition
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refers to the awareness by learners of the learning process
Example: A student using Metacognition processes would recognize
that how you study any particular piece of material depends on what you
want to learn from the material
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to two separate but related processes or cluster of activities:
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| Knowledge about cognition |
is a person's knowledge about her own cognitive resources and the compatibility
between the person as a learner and the learning situation.
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| Self-regulation of cognitive activities |
refers to the ability of the student not only to be aware of her abilities
and learning process, but to also monitor her study activities during the
learning process and make appropriate adjustments
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Unfortunately traditional law school study
skills fail to include these kinds of meta-cognitive activities.
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| The Autonomous Learning Model |
refers to taking responsibility for your own learning. To
do so you must take into account four variables:
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Studying Outcomes
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Study Activities
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Course Characteristics
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Student Characteristics
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| Studying Outcomes |
| If your studying is to include a metacognitive element, you must start
with a understanding of the different outcomes you wish to achieve.
To achieve success in law school, you must know what outcomes you desire
and you must study differently depending on the studying outcomes you seek
In general the outcomes can be classified as either: |
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Informational products are forms of knowledge that comes from study activities.
Informational products include: |
| Verbatim knowledge |
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When you learn verbatim knowledge you learn and remember what is
specifically said in class or specifically writing in reading assignments.
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While verbatim knowledge is rarely, if ever, tested directly in law school,
possession of such knowledge is the foundation for all other learning and
is extremely important in virtually all law school classes
practice short answer questions and hypotheticals to pinpoint areas of
weakness.
use a learning tool such as "superlearning" to memorize the rules, standards,
tests of the law.
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| Interpreted knowledge |
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Interpreted Knowledge allows you to paraphrase information and state the
general point or rule of materials read.
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You develop interpreted knowledge in law school when you learn.
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how to state the rule or holding in a particular case, or
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when you describe in somewhat different words the essence of a case or
a statute.
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| Constructed knowledge |
Constructed knowledge involves an understanding of the relationships that
exist between seemingly unrelated bits of information.
This is the kind of knowledge that most law school classes try to develop,
it is also the kind of knowledge that most students have a difficult time
developing.
If you want to develop constructed knowledge you must constantly look for
relationships between unrelated bits of information.
Developing outlines, graphic organizers and flowcharts will help develop
constructive knowledge. |
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Performance capabilities are the ways in which you can act on the knowledge
derived from studying. Performance capabilities include: |
| Recognition |
Recognition involves recognizing already learned information products
and is important in issue spotting examinations. |
| Production |
Production involves producing already learned informational products and
is crucial in closed book exams.
Regardless of how many issues you spot, you will not do well unless you
can produce informational products from memory. |
| Generalization |
Generalizing requires you to apply learned information wholly new factual
situations.
You will succeed in law school only if you are capable of generalizing
about the informational products already learned.
If you want to develop generalizing performance capabilities, you must
practice exam questions and short-answer questions which will allow you
to apply your learned information to new factual situation. |
| Study Activities |
Actual study methods produce different studying outcomes.
Study activities can be divided into two types:
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Cognitive
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Self-management
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| Cognitive Activities include: |
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Memory
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Selection
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Integration
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Cognitive monitoring
| Memory |
produces verbatim knowledge. |
| Selection |
differentiate among and within sources of information according
to importance and produce interpreted knowledge. |
| Integration |
involves studying new material in light of previously studied
material and produces constructed knowledge. |
| Cognitive monitoring |
involves continually assessing the need for and adequacy of different
kinds of cognitive monitoring. It is the most important because it is thinking
about thinking. |
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| Self-management |
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Self-Management activities are those activities which maintain and enhance
the attention, effort and time you devote to learning.
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While self-management activities are more mundane than cognitive activities,
they make it possible for you to engage in efficient cognitive activities.
Self management activities include
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Which is assessment of the need for and adequacy of self-management
activities |
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| Different course |
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can be intellectually different.
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some course such as property (and torts) require students to learn a lot
of specific rules.
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other courts such as contract (and torts) require memorization of a few
rule but the application to many different factual situations.
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| Different professors |
may teach the same course in different ways
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some may place great emphasis on the policies
some may utilize socratic method while others use cooperative learning
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| Different kinds of exams or grading expectation |
require different learning strategies
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Your choice of learning strategy should be based on the
material to be covered and in light of factors peculiar to the professor
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| Student Characteristics |
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You should tailor your study strategy to your cognitive characteristic
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Student characteristics which should effect choice of study activities
include:
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academic abilities and experiences in study activities
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level of physical or mental energy
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self-confidence and perception of studying ability
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ability to memorize
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reading ability
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experience with short answer questions, objective questions and essay questions
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