#5 Practise Makes Permanent

Welcome back. We have been focusing on how schools can develop all the pre-requisite skills in their students as part of a whole school approach to metacognition. As a learning skill, metacognition is vital for making academic progress, but it also contributes to the mental health and future life chances of students who are able to master it. We cannot therefore afford to ignore the need for metacognition in education, despite the challenges that entails.

It's not actually that complicated once everyone at the school is on board with the idea, and there's no necessity to explain the word 'metacognition' with your students, as they can learn the process without ever having to use the jargon. We don't tend to introduce the word 'cognition' into our communication with learners, despite the fact that the whole learning process relies on their ability to use it, as there is no need to make things more complicated!

The first problem facing schools is that metacognition is a very personal process taking place inside every learner, so we have already talked about ways in which we can bring everyone's thinking out into the open to ensure impact. The second problem is that so many students, including older ones, have not yet developed the skill of thinking metacognitively. There are a variety of reasons for that which we will cover in a future edition.

In the meantime though, any school considering ways to adopt a more metacognitive ethos, has to think carefully about where their students are starting from. We talked previously about the huge impact that a learner's self-concept has on what they can achieve, and the importance of them understanding what the learning process actually looks like, so that they can engage more effectively with it. We have to strengthen those aspects of a learner's skill set, before we start addressing ways in which to help them change the way they think.

We have already mentioned the the first two main components of the learning process, namely, knowing how to face 'challenge' effectively, and feeling comfortable making mistakes. Both skills are really important for effective learning, so creating an environment where using such natural and inbuilt learning tools are openly encouraged, (as well as praised), is essential preparation for thinking metacognitively. The final skill that goes alongside those, (and which needs to be promoted school wide) is the need to 'practise'.

In the same way that we have students who run away from, or fear challenge, and those who will not put pen to paper for fear of making a mistake, there are those who are under the impression that they should be able to get everything right first time! We seem to have two different rules; if you play an instrument or a particular sport, you need plenty of coaching and practise to become good at it. For academic subjects there is an expectation on students to 'get it' quickly and then move on, without too much in the way of consolidation.

Most of us learned to walk and talk over a period of time through daily practise, so our brains tend to be in tune with the idea of practising until we have achieved mastery. There is a common saying that practise makes perfect, but that sets a child up for perceived failure, because who of us is ever perfect at anything? A more accurate statement to share with them is that practise makes 'permanent'! They also need to appreciate why!

Memories are created by information being retained within groups of neurons in the brain. Unless an experience has a high emotional content, an initial memory trace is quite weak and easily lost if not repeated. Constant repetition however, strengthens that particular neural pathway and the brain starts to recognise it as something important and worthy of retention. At that point the pathway becomes coated in myelin which insulates the neurons, causing a permanent memory and faster recall.

If we want children and young people thinking metacognitively in school (which they need to do in order to maintain mental health and achieve academic outcomes), then we have to give serious consideration to how we ensure that they believe in their own ability to learn, can face challenge with resilience, feel confident about making mistakes and have the mindset to practise in order to achieve mastery. Time to give some serious thought as to how you can make that happen for all your students, not just those who already demonstrate some ability to work independently.

Next time; why so many students have not yet developed metacognition and its impact on mental health.