title: Assessing students' metacognitive skills.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a diagnostic test for assessing cognitive skills related to metacognition in a physiology course.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cognitive skills believed to be related to metacognition (visualizing lecture information and interpreting diagrams) were identified in a first-professional year (P1) physiology course and test items were constructed for each. Analyses included overall reliability, item discrimination, and variance comparisons of 4 groups to assess the effect of prior physiology coursework and diagnostic test score level on the first examination in physiology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall reliability was 0.83 (N = 78). Eighty percent of the test items discriminated positively. The average diagnostic test scores of students with or without a prior physiology course did not differ significantly. Students who scored above the class mean on the diagnostic test and who had taken a prior physiology course also had the highest average scores on the physiology examination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The diagnostic test provided a measure of a limited number of skills related to metacognition, and preliminary data suggest that such skills are especially important in retaining information.
authors: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA.
authors: Judy
authors: J
authors: Garrett
authors: Martha
authors: M
authors: Alman
authors: Stephanie
authors: S
authors: Gardner
authors: Charles
authors: C
authors: Born
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003071:Cognition; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D013339:Students, Pharmacy