(15) Assessing changes in metacognitive awareness among pharmacy students enrolled in a longitudinal course series.

Objective : To determine if engaging pharmacy students in metacognitive strategies over a 5 semester longitudinal course series increases metacognitive activity.

Methods: A personal/professional development course series was provided to the Class of 2023. The revised Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) was administered to this cohort at the beginning of their P1, P2, and P3 years. The Class of 2022 cohort, who did not participate in the course series, completed the MAI during their P3 year (control group). Normal score distributions were observed so a generalized linear model using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to reduce error variance and improve precision. Statistical differences for the whole model and specific levels were reported.

Results: Forty-eight students comprised the intervention group and 140 students served as the control group. No statistically significant differences resulted between group total scores. Statistically significant differences resulted in several domains associated with the regulation of cognition. An increase in metacognitive activity was seen between the intervention P1 and P3 years in the evaluation domain (21.1 (4.24) vs. 23.3 (3.29), p=0.037). Between the intervention P2 and P3 years, increased metacognition was seen in the planning (26.7 (4.38) vs. 24.4 (3.5), p=0.006) and information management (39.1 (4.92) vs. 36.7 (4.54), p=0.03) domains. Several individual items had significant differences between the P3 intervention and control group.

Conclusions: The greatest change in metacognition occurred between the P2 to P3 years. It is difficult to determine if this change was due to the intervention or transformative effect of rotations. Further research is needed to determine if other interventions can further influence changes in metacognition.