Abstract
At Creighton, the goal of personal growth of our students encompasses the nurturing of life-long learners. To this end and within the framework of the Ignatian pedagogy paradigm, I use cognitive wrappers to challenge students to appropriate their own process of learning. Cognitive wrappers are effective tools that focus on using metacognition and reflection skills to get students to analyze the factors that contribute to their performance in course exams (general physics 2xx courses) and plan strategies that will strengthen their study habits to improve their exam performance. I distribute a form to the students after the first or second exam in the semester with a series of questions that lead students to reflect on their study habits and likely sources of errors, if applicable, in their answers to exam questions. I collect the forms and assign full score if the form is completed thoughtfully. Then, I provide overall feedback to the class as a whole. Among other benefits to this exercise, I get to know students on a deeper and individual level, students get to analyze the efficacy of their strategy to prepare for exams and become open to suggestions to try alternative, best-practices or research based, study habits and, importantly, students realize that their learning is, ultimately, their responsibility and opportunity.