The overall aim of this thesis was to improve health professions education by investigating spaced learning, concept learning and metacognitive learning using an educational neuroscience-inspired... Show moreThe overall aim of this thesis was to improve health professions education by investigating spaced learning, concept learning and metacognitive learning using an educational neuroscience-inspired approach. Our studies illustrate that cognitive psychology and neuroscience may guide the development of educational interventions. Examples from cognitive psychology are: the post-decision wagering method, overt learning theory, and metacognitive theory. Additionally, neuroscience informed us on the use of spacing formats. Vice versa, we used educational theories as input for neuroscientific hypotheses to uncover the mechanisms of concept learning. Our fMRI study is an example of how educational neuroscience may also be used to answer fundamental research questions about the science of learning. Overall, I argue that the value of educational neuroscience-inspired research lies in the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the open-minded view on collaborating with other disciplines. Furthermore, educational neuroscience has an urge to explain underlying mechanisms of behaviour and the field embraces the importance of flexibility in methods. I believe it is this combination of qualities that makes educational neuroscience a valuable addition to currently existing approaches in the health professions education research community. Show less
This thesis shows the final results of a longitudinal project where the same participants (12 to 15 yrs.) were followed for three consecutive years. The first objective of this study was to... Show moreThis thesis shows the final results of a longitudinal project where the same participants (12 to 15 yrs.) were followed for three consecutive years. The first objective of this study was to investigate the development of both quantity and quality of metacognitive skills. The second objective was to establish whether the development of metacognitive skills is intelligence-related or relatively intelligence-independent. Finally, the generality vs. domain-specificity of developing metacognitive skills was investigated. While thinking aloud, participants performed two different tasks representing two different domains: A text-studying task and a problem-solving task. Participants__ intellectual ability was assessed, as well as their metacognitive skills and learning performance for both domains separately. In summary, this thesis has shown that (1) Metacognitive skills do increase spontaneously in frequency and quality during young adolescence, albeit not continuously. The various subscales of metacognitive skillfulness do not develop at the same pace; (2) Metacognitive skills have their own contribution to the prediction of learning performance, on top of intellectual ability. The relation between intellectual ability and metacognitive skills as predictors of learning performance is not affected by development between 12 and 15 yrs.; (3) Around the age of 15 yrs. metacognitive skills become fully general. Show less
