This study operationalises the empowering concept of metalearning in the specific
context of engagement with a threshold concept.An experience of metalearning
was constituted in two parts. First students’ awareness of themselves as learners is
prompted by, and focuses on, a learning profile that is generated online through the
completion of the Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI). Second, students are
given an opportunity to interpret their respective profiles and write a short and
undirected reflective account of their interpretation.The second part of the
experience focuses not only on students’ awareness but also on their capacity to
control their future learning on the basis of their heightened awareness.
An initial metalearning experience was provided early in a microeconomics module
encouraging students to reflect on their learning in the context of their prior
learning of microeconomics. A second metalearning experience was provided later
in the module when the RoLI response context was shifted specifically to the
learning of the threshold concept in question.