Investigating the Use of Metacognitive Strategies in Reading Primary Scientific Literature

Deep understanding of primary scientific literature (PSL) is essential to becoming an effective scientist because it is one of the most reliable ways of conveying new ideas in the scientific community. At the same time, however, PSL is notoriously difficult to understand—especially for students just beginning to explore the scientific field. This presents a problem: how do we efficiently teach the rising generation of scientists how to utilize one of their most valuable tools? Previous studies provide a solid foundation that metacognitive strategies increase reading comprehension. However, there is little research that investigates metacognitive strategies used in comprehending PSL. In our study, we utilize think-aloud interviews to gain insight into the thought processes of biology faculty and undergraduate students when reading PSL. Comparing experts (faculty) and novices (undergraduates) is useful in understanding complex tasks like reading scientific articles. We are using deductive coding starting from Schraw and Dennison’s metacognition in reading framework to analyze faculty and student interviews. Preliminary analysis of faculty interviews reveals that they use a variety of metacognitive strategies to better understand the text. As we continue our analysis, we hope to discover patterns, strategies, and logical paradigms to explore the difference between experts and novices in the field. This will in turn allow us to find which metacognitive strategies are most beneficial to reading and understanding PSL.