#133 - Perspectives on AI and Metacognition

Hi Everyone

A few weeks ago, I enjoyed a great chat with Wade Younger, an AI specialist with a particular interest in metacognition. We met via Zoom, and spent a happy hour discussing the links between AI and metacognition, from our two different perspectives. The conversation just flowed and having read a lot of the same research, we experienced a very fulfilling ‘meeting of the minds’.

During that initial session, we both had so much to say, (I’m sure that won’t surprise you), that we had to cut ourselves off after an hour, and leave the rest for another time. Wade asked if I was happy to record our next conversation in case any of our followers were interested in hearing how he and I had ended up converging on metacognition, just from opposite directions.

You can hear the whole of that follow-up conversation, by following the link;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJnU907UFhM

During our chat, Wade brought up the way in which we are influenced by brain waves, which particularly resonated with me at the time as I was planning to use a slide on that topic during my presentation the following week at a conference in London. (See last week’s newsletter.)

I’m grateful for the additional insight that came from that moment as it subsequently provided an extra point to ponder that I could share with schools. The table I use, shows 5 different brain waves, Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma and when you listen to the recording, you’ll notice that Wade refers to several of them and the impact that they have on adults.

With my focus being more on learners, I usually refer to the same topic when talking about how children from 0-2 are using the longest, slowest ‘Delta’ waves. In those early years, that applies both to when they’re asleep, and also to when they’re awake. Most young children live in a permanently dream-like state where memories are being formed unconsciously.

From around 2-5 years old, a child starts using the shorter ‘Theta’ waves to grow their ‘imagination’ whilst still finding it difficult to be certain about what’s real and what isn’t. Although some level of reasoning is available to the under 5’s, the full capability to do so arrives only with the expansion of faster ‘Alpha’ waves, and even then, information is still being stored partly in an unconscious database.

Those Alpha waves are an essential start for enabling a child to have greater conscious involvement in their learning, which in turn results in a more retrievable memory storage. Even so, the shorter, faster ‘Beta’ waves still need to kick in around age 7 before a student can access the full set of active reasoning skills that will enable them to become a more independent academic learner.

You can see why some countries choose to let children play and follow their own curiosity for the first 7 years, and only start formal schooling at the point where the brain is fully capable of conscious reasoning and memory storage. Even then, the intense concentration required for problem solving which older learners will need for passing formal exams, will require the use of ‘Gamma’ waves that become more readily available around age 11.

During our conversation, Wade had asked me about the connection between brain waves and metacognition, which surprisingly I hadn’t really consolidated in my own mind before. I pointed out that when I use the word metacognition, I’m following the literal translation of the word created by John Flavell (going beyond the learning) to describe the conscious process of analysing your own thoughts in order to make progress in education.

I have been regularly using the brain wave chart on my slide to make the point that we need to support children make the switch from unconscious to conscious learning when they start school. Learning from a curriculum is very different from just soaking up information directly from the environment with very little effort involved. Some students face difficulty in formal learning situations purely because they haven’t yet become aware of the need to switch.

That’s where developing metacognition becomes so important, helping students to ‘go beyond the learning’ to become more conscious of themselves as learners, understand how learning happens, and take responsibility for making progress. What my conversation with Wade consolidated for me was how important the application of Beta and Gamma waves is to the development of metacognition.

I really appreciate Wade’s invitation to chat and his thought-provoking contributions to both of our conversations, as well as making the recording available to share with you. If listening’s not your thing, then hopefully my accompanying written thoughts will be of interest and you’ll join me again next time.

Take care till then.

Warm regards

Liz