#96 Naturalising Metacognition

Hi Everyone

If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter over the last few weeks, (and I’m aware that many of you have), then welcome, and I hope that the contents will afford you the opportunity to make a real difference. Over the past 95 issues, I’ve looked at metacognition from every angle, but always with a view to making the topic accessible and easy to put into practice.

Those of you who have followed my work for longer will know by now that I don’t often quote research, not because it doesn’t interest me, (I’m a theorist at heart), but because I feel it’s time to start ‘using’ what we know to benefit learners. From my own experience, I’m aware that an interesting piece of research can lead to many satisfying hours of personally following up other citations and references.

The problem with that is, how very easy it is to get caught up in the fascination of finding out about the neuroscience behind learning and feeling excited by the research, without taking it any further. From my own experience (including 4 decades worth of research), I know how slow we can be at putting new knowledge into practice! My feeling is that if we don’t ‘use’ what we know to benefit our students now, then what’s the point of the research in the first place.

So, instead of constantly quoting research, I look instead, at ways to improve teaching and learning within the framework of what I know works as a result of absorbing all that research over a long period of time. I’ve used it to support thousands of students to learn more effectively in the classroom, alongside hundreds more with additional needs to rise beyond everyone’s expectations.

Effective learning boils down to how well a student can use metacognition. They have to be able to recognise what isn’t working for them and find a solution that will help them overcome any barrier that’s preventing them from achieving. Metacognition is literally all about being able to ‘change your mind’, which summarises in simple terms what the learning process is all about. Each new piece of information causes mental adjustments in either understanding or appreciation, which eventually lead to mastery.

What I hope has come through in the last few issues which have been focusing on naturalising metacognition for learners (as opposed to the more regularly used ‘formal’ approach), is how important the classroom environment and the attitude of the teacher are to the development of metacognition. I’m grateful to Martella Diederiks, (a colleague in Namibia who has dedicated her life to improving the life chances of children and young people there), for sending me this recent article. If you’re tempted to go off and read this right now, don’t forget to come back and finish the newsletter!

https://www.psypost.org/metacognitive-abilities-may-be-more-influenced-by-environment-than-genetics/

As a scientist, I’m not entirely sure about the rigour behind this research, but agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment expressed in the article, that metacognition is likely to be more influenced by environment than genetics. The reason for my certainty of this is the result of personal observation during my own and others classroom practice, alongside my work as a success coach. I’ve watched so many times, as children and young people who initially struggled to learn, make rapid progress in an environment that is conducive to thinking differently.

We learn a huge amount sub-consciously in the early years, and even that will be influenced by the environment we’re born into, the attitudes of the people around us and the experiences that we’re exposed to. As we get older and metacognition kicks in (as a more conscious analysis of our thinking and decision making), our thought processes will continue to be impacted by the unconscious database we built up in the first few years of life.

So, what about the children who were born into less-than-ideal circumstances and have an unconscious database created from adverse experiences. In the previous issue we looked at a long list of potential barriers to the development of metacognition, making it vital that we start naturalising it in the classroom. We are doing all learners a great dis-service if we don’t teach them ‘how’ to learn, not by formalising a set pattern of thinking that they find difficult to recognise as a transferable skill, but by showing them how to think differently.

Every child who has some level of cognitive ability is capable of working more independently and making greater progress if we only forget the ‘quick fix’. We need to take the time to create a more metacognitive classroom where students are ‘finding out’ for themselves, through an inquiring and collaborative environment where everyone’s thoughts are sought and valued. (See previous issues for more detail).

If you want to think seriously as a school about how best to introduce metacognition so that it has a real impact on students, then please consider having me in for a day’s training with staff, (England only) so that you can take a whole school approach. Why not bring back the joy into teaching and learning as well as supporting improved mental health for students, whilst continuing to provide a full curriculum. Forgive the pun, but it seems like a no-brainer to me!

Questioning plays a bit part in using metacognition effectively, but it’s not about teachers asking the questions and students providing the correct answer. Next time we’ll look at how to introduce the right kind of questions into the learning environment so that students naturally start questioning their own thought processes.

Take care till then.

Warm regards

Liz