Without instructional support, learners show low cognitive strategy use and almost absent metacognitive strategies in journal writing, and realized strategy use correlates with learning outcomes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Nückles et al. (2004) found journal writing without instructional support resulted in almost absent metacognitive strategies and clear deficits in cognitive strategies, with realized knowledge construction strongly correlated with learning outcomes. → Nückles 2020

Evidence¶

Nückles 2020¶

Nückles, M., Roelle, J., Glogger-Frey, I., Waldeyer, J., & Renkl, A. (2020). The Self-Regulation-View in Writing-to-Learn: Using Journal Writing to Optimize Cognitive Load in Self-Regulated Learning. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09541-1

q2 · i? · review · r2

Observational analysis of university students' learning journal entries written as follow-up coursework after weekly seminars with only a brief informal introduction. The review reports "journal writing without instructional support resulted in almost absent metacognitive strategies", and that realized knowledge construction strongly correlated with end-of-term test outcomes.

"journal writing without instructional support resulted in almost absent metacognitive strategies and clear deficits in the use of cognitive strategies"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Self-Regulation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Metacognition — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Instructionally supported (prompted) journal writing outperforms unsupported journal writing on learning outcomes (Hedges's g = 0.78) — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Keeping a structured learning diary without further intervention did not improve university students' self-regulation — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Cognitive and metacognitive prompts in learning journals helped early in a term but became detrimental by its end; adaptive fading-out mitigated this — related
• Combining cognitive and metacognitive prompts optimizes germane processing; metacognitive prompts alone help only when remedial planning is prompted and remediation is possible — related
• Reflective Practice Improves Outcomes When Structured — related
• Self-regulated learning improves achievement — a broader claim this one bears on
• Metacognitive strategy instruction, which includes comprehension monitoring, improves academic performance by a medium amount, and in one non-randomised study comprehension-monitoring training raised low achievers' reading scores — related
• Metacognitive Strategies Improve Learning — a broader claim this one bears on
• Short-term prompting in weekly learning journals increases university students' self-reported metacognitive strategy use over time — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Learning journal writing improves learning outcomes, but learners often do not apply sufficient strategies without support; prompts, worked examples and fading are the supports studied — a broader claim this one bears on
• Short-term prompting in weekly learning journals increases university students' self-reported cognitive strategy use over time — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Strategy prompts strongly increase learners' use of the prompted strategies, and the effect on comprehension is mediated by strategy use — related
• Cognitive and metacognitive prompts did not increase self-reported online strategy use, the quality of strategies in learners' notes, or learning outcomes in hypermedia learning — related
• Short-term prompting increases the quantity of cognitive strategy use in open-ended learning journals, but not the quantity of metacognitive strategy use — related
• Students' use of metacognitive actions to direct group work increased over time when using the Knowledge Catalyser tools — related