by Kelly Beischel PhD, RN, CAPP, APPC

Updated May 08, 2021

The beauty of fall brings me to tears.

The varied hues of reds and oranges mixed with the yellows and greens is like eye candy. Wouldn’t you agree? Yesterday I was driving down a rural highway to my dentist’s office (making appointments and knocking out procrastination :)) while admiring the eye candy around me.

Fall trees scaledMy thoughts turned to why leaves change color.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t remember why. I will admit that I panicked a bit, wondering if this is a sign that I’m losing my memory. Oh sure, I could Google it.

And I did.

But, I know I previously learned this material.

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever forgotten a lesson that you’re sure you learned in grade school, high school, or even college?

And have you felt like “I should know this?” This happens to our students too, right?

Playing the ‘Should’ Game

In fact, when students fail to score well on a test the default thinking I hear from many professors is, “I ‘covered’ the material. They should know it.” Yes? or Yes?

Or “I taught them how to __________ (fill in the blank with a skill). They should be competent.”

Yes, these statements may be true, the professor very likely did ‘cover’ the material (whatever that means :)) or taught them the skill.

Playing the “should” game sure takes the heat off of us, doesn’t it?

The problem with “they should know it” thinking is that “should” fails to move learners any closer to learning.    

And it certainly doesn’t foster the educator’s understanding of what went wrong. Reflecting on why our learners didn’t score well on their test or why they didn’t pass the competency is a key element to teaching and learning.

But, unfortunately, it’s underutilized. Stay with me here.

There’s good news in all of this.

There are many reflection strategies we can use to get at the heart of why students score poorly on tests. (But, rather than making this post unbearably long and/or inducing overwhelm, I will demonstrate these strategies in the next few upcoming posts.)

Reflection Strategy #1: Use Cognitive Wrappers

This is an effective reflection strategy for students as well as educators. Marsha Lovett at Carnegie Mellon discovered that using exam wrappers is a quick and easy way to improve student learning and to demonstrate to students the connection between study habits and learning.

Exam wrappers are a tool to assist learners to develop metacognitive skills, self-regulation being a skill within metacognition.

Jose Bowen refers to these exam wrappers as cognitive wrappers because the research indicates, “we help students become critical thinkers most, by helping them learn to self-regulate.”

For an example of a cognitive wrapper and a template for you to individualize, feel free to download the cognitive wrapper I’ve posted for you.

“This is genius” ~ Laura, a Sophomore student stated when I introduced the cognitive wrapper in class.

Steps to Successfully Use Cognitive Wrappers:

  1. Following the exam, distribute the cognitive wrapper (CW) to students or post it in the Learning Management System.
  2. Assign students to complete the first page of the CW prior to the following class. (Believe me. They’ll complete it.  They want their grade.)
  3. Return the exam to students during class.
  4. Following your feedback about the exam, students analyze their exam for strengths and weaknesses and complete the back page of the cognitive wrapper.
  5. Some faculty members collect the wrappers to get a pulse on their students’ study habits and to determine if there are any trends. Whereas, others do not collect them, solely using them as a learner tool. I am a collector.
  6. Redistribute the CW back to students in a timely manner so that they can use the strategies they commit to for upcoming exams.

Important Principles when using Cognitive Wrappers

  1. Emphasize to students that their truthfulness on the cognitive wrapper will not affect their grade but rather it is a tool to improve their learning.
  2. If you assign students to complete hard copies of the CW and subsequently collect them, make a copy of the wrapper prior to returning them to students.
  3. If a student comes to office hours to ask questions about the material and/or exam results, use the student’s cognitive test wrapper to discuss issues. This demonstrates the importance of self-regulation and will aid in the student’s critical thinking through self-regulation.

** Caveat – I use testing as an example of how to use a cognitive wrapper. This tool is also effective when students examine their assignment grades.

Do you have a test coming up? I encourage you to download my cognitive test wrapper template; individualize it to your course and administer it to your students. Your students will not only learn more but they will also be able to connect their study habits to their learning.

Win – Win.

Have you ever used cognitive test wrappers? What was the result?