Helping Learners Become Their Own Teachers: The Beneficial Impact of Trained Concept-Mapping-Strategy Use on Metacognitive Regulation in Learning

Several empirical studies have shown that, during COVID-19-caused distance learning, many learners were struggling to realize the extent of self-regulated learning activities that were required to ensure the ongoing learning progress. Due to the significance of self-regulated learning regarding students' learning success, the construct of metacognition also gained in importance, since corresponding skills are closely related to successful self-direction in learning. In our study, we focused on the learning strategy of concept mapping (CM), which is (1) directly related to beneficial effects on learning and retention performance, as well as (2) considered to cause constructive side-effects regarding metacognitive skills and, thus, self-regulated learning. To grasp CM's full potential in terms of improving cognition-related learning performance, however, appropriate training of this learning strategy seems to be required. This raised the question of whether and to what extent appropriate CM training is also necessary to improve the metacognitive skills of our participants (N = 73 university students of different majors) in terms of the accuracy of their judgments of learning (JOLs). Although we were able to show, in a previous study, that the CM-training intensity did not affect the absolute level of these JOLs, the results of our current study show that there is, nevertheless, a significant effect in terms of the JOLs' accuracy when considering their relationships to objective learning performance. Thus, CM training intensity affects the competence of metacognitive monitoring. In addition, we found that scaffolding- and feedback-including training conditions tend to counteract systematic misjudgments regarding the domain of conceptual knowledge, in particular. Practical implications and recommendations that can be derived from these results are discussed.

Experience and Health-Related Behavior in Times of the Corona Crisis in Germany: An Exploratory Psychological Survey Considering the Identification of Compliance-Enhancing Strategies.

Despite the need for enduring preventive behavior in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, several counteracting behavioral reactions can be observed worldwide. Considering the grave consequences resulting from such health-related risk behavior, we carried out an online questionnaire study to identify personal characteristics that frame a motivational sketch of those who refuse to follow the pandemic-related preventive measures. Our results from a sample of N = 570 German participants already indicate obvious changes in relevant variables in the four-week investigation period during the pandemic's initial phase (25th March to 22nd April 2020). Above all, the willingness to take preventive measures decreased, as did the assessment of the pandemic's severity. The perceived own vulnerability also turned out to be clearly age-dependent and, overall, our sample showed a negative affectivity deviating distinctively from a reference sample. These and other findings allow for identification of sources for public health interventions that can help to increase compliance with required prevention behavior, and thus, counteract COVID-19.