Then I analyzed the relationships between what people said they do and how they actually performed. I used a statistical technique structural equation modeling that allowed me to look at a number of variables and their effect on performance. Purpura added, A lot of people used to say, if you planned more you d do better on tests. Other people said, You didn t check your work, if you had you would have done better on tests. What I found, Purpura said, was that you don t do better on tests if you just plan.
Planning needs to be associated with a number of specific strategies doing strategies.
It s very complex. Purpura also found that the notion that smart learners have a lot of metacognitive strategies and weak learners don t have them is not true. Everybody uses metacognitive strategies. Everybody thinks, in other words. But the problem is when people think and don t do or when people do and don t think.