Identifying Differences in Learning Strategies by Demographics and Course Grade in a Community College Context

Metacognition and self-regulated learning are skills that contribute to student success, but few studies have examined these topics within a community college context. We addressed this lack of understanding by asking community college biology students to metacognitively reflect on their learning strategies. We took a novel approach in our analysis by investigating how learning strategies potentially differed based on race, age, gender, and final course grade. With some exceptions, we found little evidence to suggest that such differences existed. Notably, we found that learning strategies did not differ between high-achieving and low-achieving students, which contradicts previous studies. We offer several possible explanations for these preliminary results, which include misrepresentation by students in their reflections, external and internal barriers to studying, potential flaws in our survey instrument, and students not effectively using learning strategies. We suggest replication of this study with methodological changes to further investigate any potential differences that may exist among these groups of students. Our research is an example of how classroom action research can provide insight into how students learn, which empowers us to make evidence-based changes in our teaching.