Metacognition, Pattern Recognition and Natural Language Processing (Update #6)

Pattern recognition is a key metacognitive strategy that can be harnessed for student writing. University Writing Centers train peer tutors to help student tutees reflect upon their writing in order to identify patterns. These patterns may be found in many different writing features and students are encouraged to analyze how the patterns are unique or generalized. For example, students in tutoring sessions may suddenly recognize a general essay structure that is used across content areas (genre) Tutors are taught to identify the moments when tutees articulate their thinking, such as “Oh, I’ve written this same type of paper for a different class.” Or peer tutors may point out a pattern with similar syntax or grammar problems within a paper. The student often cannot recognize their own mistakes until they are helped to do so. This is why formative assessments, such as one long essay at the end of a class, miss the opportunities that students have during the writing and creating process to recognize patterns. Without practice, students can’t correct habits, develop strategies or identify tools to help them improve.

Natural Language Processing is a branch of computer science that also uses pattern recognition. According to IBM, natural language processing is “concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words in much the same way human beings can.” These technologies can be tailored and individualized to meet specific business and academic needs. For example, The APP Solutions company, breaks the functions of natural language processing into six main purposes and provides an example of a software application for each:

Text analysis (Buzzsumo)

Plagiarism detection (Copyscape)

Text summarization (Text Summarizer)

Text generalization (Chatbot)

Text translation (Google Translate)

Text correction and adaptation (Grammarly)

These are the same types of the functions that students need to understand and master as they craft academic and creative writing assignments. Students and teachers can determine how these digital affordances can be harnessed to meet their specific needs.

References: https://theappsolutions.com/blog/development/pattern-recognition-guide/

OVIATT, SHARON, et al. “The Impact of Interface Affordances on Human Ideation, Problem Solving, and Inferential Reasoning.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), vol. 19, no. 3, Oct. 2012, pp. 1–30. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1145/2362364.2362370.

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/natural-language-processing