#27 - How Children Think

Hi Everyone. I want to move away from the topic of metacognition in schools just for a moment to think about what happens before children ever come into formal education. Every child (barring serious developmental issues), starts learning from the moment they are born. They have inbuilt 'cognitive' abilities that allow them to absorb information directly from their environment, which gradually builds into a massive database on which to draw for the rest of their lives.

Even small children have a comprehensive neural network which is working overtime to learn all about the world they live in. This type of learning is driven by curiosity, which attracts them to 'new' things, keeping their attention for long enough to focus on a sufficient number of details for an initial perception to form. Further engagement with the same thing at a later date adds more detail and results in a changed perception. ie; learning.

These constantly changing perceptions are all added to the comprehensive database forming in a child's sub-conscious mind, understanding begins to grow, and eventually they will start to use what they 'know' to create imaginary games. Children are thus learning on a daily basis, and using what they know, long before they begin to attend school. I would go so far as to say that they are actually excellent learners at this stage.

Think about how much unconscious effort a child will put into learning to crawl, climb or walk, just so they can reach some desired object and 'learn' more about it. That learning process involves facing some kind of challenge, being prepared to experiment and find out what works, (using the result of mistakes to adapt), and then practising until mastery is reached. Their own experiences are informing them about how the world works.

Why is it then, that once we place children in school, it doesn't take long before quite a few of them become wary of challenge and run away from it either physically or mentally. Some won't put pen to paper in case they make a mistake, and others will only try something once and if it doesn't go right, refuse to try again having lost sight of how useful practice can be? What have we done to our previously excellent learners?

We have moved the goalposts on how learning happens! Now instead of learning from their own experience, we expect children to sit still, be quiet, and be taught what we think they should know. The attention and focus that came so naturally to them due to curiosity pre-school, is now so very hard to achieve because this new way of learning is driven by our expectations as educators. It also requires conscious effort on their part, rather than the previously effortless and unconscious download.

We have to teach children how to make the leap from one type of learning to the other. Some students never bridge that gap and leave school feeling that they are 'rubbish' learners. If we are going to insist on educating children using old fashioned, flying in the face of neuroscience methods, at the very least we should teach them how to learn effectively. Now they need to learn in a conscious and purposeful way that allows them to meet our expectations of what a good education involves. This is where metacognition comes into it's own.

Metacognition requires a conscious recognition of the need to take responsibility for our own thoughts, work out if what we are thinking is getting the results we want and if not changing to a different way of doing things. Children who don't have a strong sense of self, don't understand what the learning process entails, and don't appreciate their own role in it will not be able to think metacognitively. For me it is therefore obvious what we need to do.

It's not about introducing 'metacognition' into school, it's about 'developing' metacognition in your learners over time. We need to improve their self-concept as a learner, introduce them to the challenge, mistakes, plus practise, nature of learning and help them to feel comfortable using that in a classroom setting. We also need to ensure that we don't perpetuate the idea that they are passive recipients of learning by the way that we teach them. They have to recognise their own role in the learning process.

Look out for the details of my 'metacognition in practice' training courses that will start again in January and I will help you to build a school where students become more engaged, independent learners who know how to think metacognitively.