JSET Autumn 2020: Countering Negative Matthew Effect in Undergraduate Research with Metacognition and Digital Learning

This work was initiated to support a grant application we have applied for that will allow us to do a collaboration research with the National University of Battambang. Unfortunately, the grant application was not accepted. Still, this has been a good exercise in literature review and synthesizing results from various research efforts. Below is the video prepared ahead of time for the online conference.

For a copy of relevant materials (e.g., presentation, paper) or any questions you may have, please feel free to reach out to me through the Contact Me gadget on this blog's side bar.

Details

Title: Countering Negative Matthew Effect in Undergraduate Research with Metacognition and Digital Learning

Authors: May Kristine Jonson Carlon, Cheyvuth Seng, Jeffrey S. Cross

Venue: 日本教育工学会 2020年秋季全国大会

Date: September 12 to 13, 2020

Abstract

Undergraduate research can be prone to the negative Matthew effect where initial disadvantages can result in compounding difficulties.  This negative effect can potentially be countered by improving the researchers’ self-efficacy to empower the researchers to overcome the initial hurdle of getting started. However, self-efficacy alone will remain to be insufficient if the researchers cannot build up the necessary skills for research. Metacognition can be useful when researchers try to fill their skill gaps through autonomous learning. We discuss the potential of digital learning to improve metacognition and help undergraduate researchers combat the negative Matthew effect by analyzing existing literature on research self-efficacy, metacognition, and digital learning. We then design a longitudinal study targeted at improving research outcomes by implicitly improving research self-efficacy and metacognition through digital learning. This approach can be beneficial to environments such as  Cambodian universities that are recently receiving support to improve digital infrastructure but remain lacking in research human resources.