#57 Metacognition at Home (3)

Hi Everyone.

In the previous 2 issues I’ve shared ways in which parents can support their children over the summer to be more ‘metacognition ready’ at the start of the new term, just a few weeks away from now.?Even if the school that your young student attends, hasn’t yet started to focus on helping learners to think in a more metacognitive way, supporting its development at home can still contribute to improvements in well-being and academic progress.

We looked first at the need for a successful learner to have a positive view of their own abilities and how we can develop that more effectively at home. If you missed that issue, you can read it here.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/55-metacognition-home-liz-keable/

Secondly, every student needs to understand how learning works, (not generally taught in school), so we also discussed ways to ensure that children become more familiar with the ‘how’ of being successful. Use this link to catch up if necessary.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/metacognition-home-2-liz-keable/

In this issue we’re going to focus on the importance of a child or young person appreciating that they have a role to play in the learning process. ?Developing metacognition allows a learner to engage more consciously with the curriculum in order to become more independent in school. An important starting point is that the student actually appreciates the need to take responsibility for their own thought processes, and become a more active learner.

Remember what metacognition involves; being able to assess your own thinking, decide what’s working and what isn’t, and then make the necessary changes in order to achieve a better result.

So, to help your child or young person appreciate the active role they need to take in relation to their own learning, try the following suggestions.

Make sure your child learns to shoulder some kind of responsibility at home, to create a starting point for conversations about doing so in school. (They need to appreciate what responsibility looks like and feels like, in order to sense the extent of the involvement they need to have in their own learning.)

Expose children to the idea that a whole range of perspectives may exist in any given situation, and help them express their own opinions whilst respecting those of others! (Children need to see themselves as an individual whose own thoughts matter a great deal when it comes to their own well-being and academic progress. That needs to be balanced however with an acceptance that others may think differently, and feeling comfortable with sharing/listening for the purpose of weighing up potential possibilities.)

Allow your child to see you ‘change your mind’ sometimes, and always explain how new information has led you to have a different view. (Being willing and able to change your mind is an essential metacognitive skill. It should however be based on ‘reason’, so model flexible thinking, showing a readiness to analyse newly acquired information before changing a previously held idea.)

The sub-conscious brain believes everything it’s told, so help your child remove the word ‘can’t’ from their vocabulary! (The non-thinking part of our brain has a strong influence over conscious thoughts, so it’s really important to offer a solution, by saying ‘I can do this, I just need some help’. Don’t encourage’ ‘I can’t do it YET’, because the sub-conscious will still focus on the ‘can’t’.)

Help them to see that it’s the level of effort someone is prepared to put into a task that’s the vital ingredient, not a pre-destined ability! (Some learners give up easily in the face of something they find hard, presuming that it’s easy for everyone else. It’s really important that they learn how success comes from a determination to keep trying until mastery is achieved. This is as true for academic learning, as it is in learning to ride a bike, play a musical instrument, or reach the top level of a digital game.)

Praise effort, focus and persistence, so that achievement is seen to come from personal endeavour! (When you praise a child or young person make sure you’re supporting the development of the skills you want them to have more of. Notice that these skills all come from having a particular mindset, not from any specific level of ‘ability’)

I hope that these last 3 issues have been of particular help to parents and carers who support learners of any age, to improve their relationship with learning. I also hope that it has been of equal interest to educators and anyone else with an eye to improving the educational and life chances of children and young people.

See you next time with news of a 'summer special' for teachers.

Warm regards

Liz

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