The effects of socio-metacognitive sense-making on students' physics academic mindsets

Abstract

This study examined the effects of the Socio-Metacognitive Sense-Making Teaching Approach (SM²TA), which used metacognitive discussions, prompts, and reflections for sense-making in Physics, on the academic mindsets of students using a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The study participants were 62 Grade 10 pupils. The four dimensions of Academic Mindsets (Sense of Belonging, Individual Mindset, Self-Efficacy and Task Relevance) were investigated in this study. Findings of the study revealed that students exposed to SM²TA significantly enhanced students' overall academic mindsets in Physics, (t=2.28,p=0.013) with a moderate effect size (d=0.58). Further, students exposed to SM²TA significantly outperformed those exposed to Non-SM²TA  on the sense of belonging (t=1.73, p=0.044), individual mindset (t=1.82, p=0.037) and self-efficacy (t=1.71, p=0.047) but the two groups had comparable performance in tasks relevance. Findings indicate that SM²TA has essential implications in instructional practices specifically in enhancing students' Physics academic mindsets. It is recommended that the SM²TA be used for classroom instruction and curriculum development to improve academic mindsets and examine its effects on other 21^st century skills.