Metacognition-A powerful skill for building resilience: Nurtures Self-Awareness in the Classroom and builds Thinking.

The ‘meta’ refers to higher-order cognition about cognition, or ‘thinking about one’s thinking’. It is often considered to have two dimensions: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation.

Metacognitive strategies refers to methods used to help students understand the way they learn; in other words, it means processes designed for students to 'think' about their 'thinking'.

Whether we're driving our cars, reading a book, texting a friend, or eating at a burger joint, we're using our brains. Our thought processes aren't limited to the classroom, and we learn all the time, from everyday experiences as well as from teachers and professors. So what's important about this learning? It's called metacognition, or what you know about your own thoughts. Metacognition is a deeper level of thinking that includes your ability to think about your thinking; how you understand, adapt, change, control, and use your thought processes.

Charlie, a professor preparing to instruct on metacognition, has written some ideas on the board about when his students use metacognition:

• Anytime you problem solve or apply strategies, like figuring out a tip at a restaurant or planning a road trip across the country.
• To reflect on results from a learning experience, or evaluate them, such as when you receive a B on a test and do extra credit to push the grade to an A.
• When you're aware of ways that work for you to remember information, like dates or facts for a test.

Metacognition describes the processes involved when learners plan, monitor, evaluate, and make changes to their own learning behaviours.

What does metacognition mean?

The ‘meta’ refers to higher-order cognition about cognition, or ‘thinking about one’s thinking’. It is often considered to have two dimensions: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation.

Metacognitive knowledge includes the learner’s knowledge of their own cognitive abilities (e.g., I have trouble remembering people’s names), the learner’s knowledge of particular tasks (e.g., the ideas in this article are complex), and the learner’s knowledge of different strategies including when to use these strategies (e.g., if I break telephone numbers into chunks I will remember them) (Brown, 1987; Flavell, 1979). 

Metacognitive regulation describes how learners monitor and control their cognitive processes. For example, realising that the strategy you are using to solve a maths problem is not working and trying |another approach (Nelson and Narens, 1990). Monitoring and control are described in more detail in the following section. 

What is the theory behind metacognition?

A theory of metacognitive regulation that is widely cited in the research literature is Nelson and Narens’ (1990) Model of Metacognition. This consists of two levels: the object level and the meta level 

1. The object level is where cognitive processes or ‘one’s thinking’ occurs. One example is decoding text when reading. At the object level, cognitive strategies (e.g., decoding) are used to help the learner achieve a particular goal (understanding the meaning of the text). 
2. The meta level is where your ‘thinking about thinking’ takes place. At this higher-order level, metacognitive strategies are used to ensure the learner reaches the goal they have set. To continue with the reading example, this would begin with the learner thinking about how well they have understood the paragraph they have just read. This is termed monitoring. If they are happy with their comprehension level they will continue reading. If not, they will perhaps reread the paragraph, or decide to use a dictionary to help their understanding. These actions are called control processes, as they are changing the learner’s cognitive processes or related behaviours, based on the monitoring feedback.

Perkins (1992) defined four categories of metacognitive learners: tacit; aware; strategic; reflective.

‘Tacit’ learners are unaware of their metacognitive knowledge. They do not think about any particular strategies for learning and merely accept if they know something or not.

‘Aware’ learners know about some of the kinds of thinking that they do – generating ideas, finding evidence, etc. – but thinking is not necessarily deliberate or planned.

‘Strategic’ learners organise their thinking by using problem solving, grouping and classifying, evidence seeking, decision making, etc. They know and apply the strategies that help them learn.

‘Reflective’ learners are not only strategic about their thinking but they also reflect upon their learning whilst it is happening, considering the success or not of any strategies they’re using and then revising them as appropriate. For an example of this categorisation in action, see the work of Harvey and Goudvis (2007).

What other terms are associated with metacognition?

? Self-regulation and metacognition are sometimes used interchangeably. However, Whitebread and Pino Pasternak (2010) state that a consensus is now emerging in the research literature “that metacognition refers specifically to the monitoring and control of cognition, while self-regulation refers to the monitoring and control of all aspects of human functioning, including emotional, social, and motivational aspects” (p. 693). ? Self-regulated learning is a term which describes self-regulation in academic setting.

Executive functioning describes a variety of cognitive processes that are required to attain a goal. This includes working memory, inhibitory control, attention control, and attention shifting. Metacognition can be seen as the behavioural output for these executive functions. For example, a learner monitoring how well they are remembering a string of numbers (an example of metacognitive regulation) is the behavioural output of the executive function of working memory (Jansiewicz, 2008).

What are the benefits of metacognition?

? Metacognitive practices help learners to monitor their own progress and take control of their learning as they read, write, and solve problems in the classroom.

? Research indicates that metacognition is a powerful predictor of learning. Metacognitive practices make a unique contribution to learning over and above the influence of intellectual ability. The implication of this research is that improving a learner’s metacognitive practices may compensate for any cognitive limitations they may have (Veenman, Wilhelm, & Beishuizen, 2004; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg 1990).

? Metacognitive practices have been shown to improve academic achievement across a range of ages, cognitive abilities, and learning domains. This includes reading and text comprehension, writing, mathematics, reasoning and problem solving, and memory (Dignath & Büttner, 2008; Dignath, Buettner, & Langfeldt, 2008).

? Metacognitive skills help students to transfer what they have learnt from one context to the next, or from a previous task to a new task. 

What are the challenges of metacognition?

One of the challenges of metacognition is the imprecision of the term. Some of this is due to the difficulties distinguishing between cognition and metacognition. Further issues with the construct are discussed below: ?

There is debate over whether metacognition is domain specific or more general by nature, crossing subject domains. A number of studies have shown the benefit of using metacognitive skills in specific domains such as reading or maths problem solving. However, it is unclear how skills learnt in one domain or task transfer to another. Veenman and Spaans (2005) maintain that metacognitive skills initially develop within separate domains and later transfer and generalise across domains. More research is needed to determine how these skills generalise across domains and how this process can be supported in the classroom.

? Many metacognition researchers highlight the conscious, deliberate nature of metacognition. Others believe that less conscious, automatic processes are also metacognitive. For example, a learner checking work for errors as they write, out of habit, with little awareness that they are doing so until an error is identified. The notion of automatic or implicit metacognition may cause further difficulties in distinguishing cognitive from metacognitive processes. However, it has led to more sophisticated models of metacognition, particularly in the area of metacognition in young children (Whitebread et al., 2009).

? In contrast to the view that metacognitive skills emerge at the age of 8 to 10 years old (e.g., Veenman and Spaans, 2005), Whitebread and Pino Pasternak (2010) document a number of studies which indicate evidence of young children’s metacognitive abilities. Findings include children as young as 18 months demonstrating error correction strategies, 5-year-old children showing an awareness of forgetting, and 3 to 5-year-olds exhibiting a wide range of verbal and non-verbal indicators of metacognitive processes in nursery and reception classrooms. These studies demonstrate that although young children may not be able to describe the metacognitive processes they are exhibiting, it does not mean that these processes are not occurring.

Practical tips:

How can schools make the best use of metacognition?

? Ensure professional development in metacognition is prioritised: ongoing, evidence-informed professional development which focuses on practical strategies for teachers to use in the classroom to foster metacognitive practices across the curriculum areas. There should be a focus on both explicit cognitive and metacognitive instruction, and how to create a learning environment that supports the development of metacognitive skills. 

Encourage teachers to work together and share practice that promotes the development of metacognitive abilities in the classroom.

? Support teachers in encouraging metacognitive practices at school. For example, providing templates for exam wrappers (sometimes called cognitive wrappers). Exam wrappers are worksheets that learners complete before and after they receive their test feedback. Before learners receive the test feedback the worksheets may prompt them to reflect on how they prepared for the exam, including the study strategies they used. After receiving the test feedback, the learner may be asked to categorise any errors made and discuss how they might prepare differently for the next assessment.

? Involve the whole school community in promoting metacognitive talk. Monitoring and evaluating performance, and using learning strategies effectively is not only helpful in the classroom, but also in the wider school and beyond. All staff members can emphasise this idea. How can teachers make the best use of metacognition?

? Make learning goals explicit and help students to plan strategies and ways of monitoring their progress towards achieving these goals.

? Encourage cooperative group work where set tasks require children to discuss their understanding, evaluate their own work and the work of the group, and reflect on their learning.

? Use self-assessment in the classroom to promote metacognitive skills. Learners can assess the quality of their work based on learning goals, and make adjustments accordingly. 

Try reciprocal teaching in reading. This is one of the most well-known reading interventions that uses a metacognitive approach (Palincsar and Brown, 1984). This involves teachers working with small groups of learners and modelling the use of four key strategies: summarising, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The students are then asked to teach these strategies to other students.

? Use teacher- and peer-scaffolded interactions to support metacognitive development, and gradually encourage the transition from this external, supported monitoring and control, to more internalised metacognitive processes.

? Focus on developing learners’ awareness of the strategies they use by encouraging the discussion of strategies in class. This could include when to use certain strategies, how they impact on their learning, and why the strategies work.

? Encourage the transfer of strategies across different domains of the school curriculum. For example, which strategies from the previous learning task could you also use for this task?

? Model as teachers the use of metacognitive strategies by thinking aloud. This could be related to metacognitive knowledge, e.g., What do I know about this task? Have I done a task like this before? Which strategies worked in the past on a task like this? Or, metacognitive talk could be related to metacognitive regulation, e.g., the teacher talking aloud while monitoring and evaluating what they are doing.

? Support the learners’ autonomy by allowing them to make choices on the level of difficulty of certain tasks. Avoid giving answers where possible and instead prompt the students to think for themselves and choose an appropriate strategy for the task. 

Metacognition: Nurturing Self-Awareness in the Classroom

When students practice metacognition, the act of thinking about their thinking helps them make greater sense of their life experiences and start achieving at higher levels.

How do children gain a deeper understanding of how they think, feel, and act so that they can improve their learning and develop meaningful relationships? Since antiquity, philosophers have been intrigued with how human beings develop self-awareness -- the ability to examine and understand who we are relative to the world around us. Today, research not only shows that self-awareness evolves during childhood, but also that its development is linked to metacognitive processes of the brain.

Making Sense of Life Experiences

Most teachers know that if students reflect on how they learn, they become better learners. For example, some students may think and process information best in a quiet library, while others may focus better surrounded by familiar noise or music. Learning strategies that work for math may be different from those applied in the study of a foreign language. For some, it takes more time to understand biology than chemistry. With greater awareness of how they acquire knowledge, students learn to regulate their behavior to optimize learning. They begin to see how their strengths and weaknesses affect how they perform. The ability to think about one's thinking is what neuroscientists call metacognition. As students' metacognitive abilities increase, research suggests they also achieve at higher levels.

Metacognition plays an important role in all learning and life experiences. Beyond academic learning, when students gain awareness of their own mental states, they begin to answer important questions:

• How do I live a happy life?
• How do I become a respected human being?
• How do I feel good about myself?

Through these reflections, they also begin to understand other people's perspectives.

At a recent international workshop, philosophers and neuroscientists gathered to discuss self-awareness and how it is linked to metacognition. Scientists believe that self-awareness, associated with the paralimbic network of the brain, serves as a "tool for monitoring and controlling our behavior and adjusting our beliefs of the world, not only within ourselves, but, importantly, between individuals." This higher-order thinking strategy actually changes the structure of the brain, making it more flexible and open to even greater learning.

Self-awareness is part of The Compass Advantage? (a model designed for engaging families, schools, and communities in the principles of positive youth development) because it plays a critical role in how students make sense of life experiences. Linked by research to each of the other Compass abilities, particularly empathy, curiosity, and sociability, self-awareness is one of the 8 Pathways to Every Student's Success.

Self-awareness plays a critical role in improved learning because it helps students become more efficient at focusing on what they still need to learn. The ability to think about one's thinking increases with age. Research shows that most growth of metacognitive ability happens between ages 12 and 15 (PDF, 199KB). When teachers cultivate students' abilities to reflect on, monitor, and evaluate their learning strategies, young people become more self-reliant, flexible, and productive. Students improve their capacity to weigh choices and evaluate options, particularly when answers are not obvious. When students have difficulty understanding, they rely on reflective strategies to recognize their difficulties and attempt to rectify them. Improving metacognitive strategies related to students' schoolwork also provides young people with tools to reflect and grow in their emotional and social lives.

7 Strategies That Improve Metacognition

1. Teach students how their brains are wired for growth.

The beliefs that students adopt about learning and their own brains will affect their performance. Research shows that when students develop a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset, they are more likely to engage in reflective thinking about howthey learn and grow. Teaching kids about the science of metacognition can be an empowering tool, helping students to understand how they can literally grow their own brains.

2. Give students practice recognizing what they don't understand.

The act of being confused and identifying one's lack of understanding is an important part of developing self-awareness. Take time at the end of a challenging class to ask, "What was most confusing about the material we explored today?" This not only jumpstarts metacognitive processing, but also creates a classroom culture that acknowledges confusion as an integral part of learning.

3. Provide opportunities to reflect on coursework.

Higher-order thinking skills are fostered as students learn to recognize their own cognitive growth. Questions that help this process might include:

• Before this course, I thought earthquakes were caused by _______. Now I understand them to be the result of _______.
• How has my thinking about greenhouse gases changed since taking this course?

4. Have students keep learning journals.

One way to help students monitor their own thinking is through the use of personal learning journals. Assign weekly questions that help students reflect on how rather than what they learned. Questions might include:

• What was easiest for me to learn this week? Why?
• What was most challenging for me to learn? Why?
• What study strategies worked well as I prepared for my exam?
• What strategies for exam preparation didn't work well? What will I do differently next time?
• What study habits worked best for me? How?
• What study habit will I try or improve upon next week?

Encourage creative expression through whatever journal formats work best for learners, including mind maps, blogs, wikis, diaries, lists, e-tools, etc.

5. Use a "wrapper" to increase students' monitoring skills.

A "wrapper" is a short intervention that surrounds an existing activity and integrates a metacognitive practice. Before a lecture, for example, give a few tips about active listening. Following the lecture, ask students to write down three key ideas from the lecture. Afterward, share what you believe to be the three key ideas and ask students to self-check how closely theirs matched your intended goals. When used often, this activity not only increases learning, but also improves metacognitive monitoring skills.

6. Consider essay vs. multiple-choice exams.

Research shows that students use lower-level thinking skills to prepare for multiple-choice exams, and higher-level metacognitive skills to prepare for essay exams. While it is less time consuming to grade multiple-choice questions, even the addition of several short essay questions can improve the way students reflect on their learning to prepare for test taking.

7. Facilitate reflexive thinking.

Reflexivity is the metacognitive process of becoming aware of our biases -- prejudices that get in the way of healthy development. Teachers can create a classroom culture for deeper learning and reflexivity by encouraging dialogue that challenges human and societal biases. When students engage in conversations or write essays on biases and moral dilemmas related to politics, wealth, racism, poverty, justice, liberty, etc., they learn to "think about their own thinking." They begin to challenge their own biases and become more flexible and adaptive thinkers.

What other ways do you help students reflect on their thinking in your classroom?

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

etacognitive strategies refers to methods used to help students understand the way they learn; in other words, it means processes designed for students to ‘think’ about their ‘thinking’.

Teachers who use metacognitive strategies can positively impact students who have learning disabilities by helping them to develop an appropriate plan for learning information, which can be memorized and eventually routine. As students become aware of how they learn, they will use these processes to efficiently acquire new information, and consequently, become more of an independent thinker. Below are three metacognitive strategies, which all include related resources, that can be implemented in the classroom:

Think Aloud

Great for reading comprehension and problem solving. Think-alouds help students to consciously monitor and reflect upon what they are learning. This strategy works well when teachers read a story or problem out loud and periodically stop to verbalize their thoughts. This allows students to follow the teacher’s thinking process, which gives them the foundation they need for creating their own strategies and processes that can be useful for understanding what they are trying to comprehend.

Checklist, Rubrics and Organizers

Great for solving word problems. These organizational tools support students in the decision-making process because they serve as an aid for planning and self-evaluation. Typically they ask what students know and need to know to arrive at an answer, and emphasize the need to reread the problem and self-check responses.

Explicit Teacher Modeling

Great for math instruction. Explicit teacher modeling helps students understand what is expected of them through a clear example/model of a skill or concept. When a teacher provides a easy to follow procedure for solving a problem, students have a memorable strategy to use for approaching a problem on their own.

Reading Comprehension

Truly comprehending reading involves students actively engaging with a text and accurately deciphering the layers of meaning. It is very important for students to develop solid reading comprehension skills because statistics show that people who have low reading comprehension ability suffer in academic, professional, and personal pursuits. The resources in this guide from supersummary.com are effective strategies for promoting reading comprehension.

Metacognition: How Thinking About Thinking Can Help Kids

A powerful skill for building resilience

When kids hit difficult problems — the seemingly insurmountable English essay, a math test that takes on epic proportions, social struggles that leave them feeling frustrated — it can be tempting to give up and resort to four words no parent ever wants to hear: “I can’t do it.”

 In order to thrive, kids need to be able to make the transition from the negative “I can’t” to the proactive “How can I?”

To do that, they need to think about why they’re stuck, what’s frustrating them, what they would need to get unstuck. They need to think about their own thinking.

There’s a word for that, and it’s metacognition.

Metacognition is a big word for something most of us do every day without even noticing. Reflecting on our own thoughts is how we gain insight into our feelings, needs, and behaviors — and how we learn, manage, and adapt to new experiences, challenges, and emotional setbacks. It’s the running conversation we have in our heads, mentally sounding ourselves out and making plans. Training kids to use it proactively to overcome obstacles, it turns out, can be a powerful tool.

More and more studies are suggesting that kids who are taught to use metacognitive strategies early on are more resilient and more successful, both in and out of school.

“I view metacognition as a goal,” says Marc Gladstone, a learning specialist. “Getting into the habit of using metacognitive strategies early on helps kids become more independent learners and bolsters self-advocacy skills.”

What is metacognition and how does it work?

“Metacognitive thinking teaches us about ourselves,” says Tamara Rosier, a learning coach who specializes in metacognitive techniques. “Thinking about our thinking creates perspective — perspective that leaves room for change.”

She gives an example: “Instead of saying, ‘Math tests make me anxious,’ we’re asking ourselves, ‘What is it about math tests that makes me feel anxious and what can I do to change that?’ ”

Kids who are taught to think of themselves as being “good” or “bad” at a particular task can have a fixed mindset that makes them passive in approaching a challenge: either they can do it or they can’t, but they aren’t likely to think they can change that outcome.

Teaching kids to become more metacognitive helps them move from a mindset that leaves little room for change to a mindset which promotes self-awareness and resilience.

Help for kids with learning issues

Helping your child learn to work through difficult situations (or homework assignments, as the case may be) without becoming overwhelmed or giving up is especially valuable for kids with learning issues who may need to come up with different strategies than other students in the class.

For example:

• A child with ADHD who struggles to stay on task is likely to feel frustrated and anxious when he’s assigned a long essay. If he’s unable to reflect on why the project upsets him he might think, “Everyone else is having an easy time. I’m just bad at writing.”
• A kid who’s learned to reflect on his own learning process, on the other hand, could look at the situation and say, “I always feel like this when I have to work for a long time. Maybe if I take breaks every hour or so I’ll feel less stressed out.” By taking a metacognitive approach, he’s able to manage his frustration and find a better way to approach big assignments in the future.

Great for self-regulation

Metacognitive skills are not only excellent tools for kids who learn differently, and often find themselves struggling to keep up. They also enable kids to self-regulate when faced with challenges, especially unexpected ones.

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“One of the most powerful byproducts of metacognitive thinking is increased self-regulation,” says Gladstone.

Being able to self-regulate helps kids manage experiences that might otherwise overwhelm them. For example, take two girls who have to audition for a school play, both of whom are struggling with unusually difficult material.

A girl who is regularly told how talented she is and is used to being praised for her performances is likely to get frustrated and overwhelmed at the sheer thought of performing badly.

But a girl who is praised for her ability to work hard and persevere when she’s faced with a challenge can draw on her metacognitive skills to help her manage her nerves and help her figure out a way of rehearsing that works better for her.

Quieting negative self-talk

Fallout from a fixed mindset often takes the form of self-criticism. The negative feelings kids experience when they feel frustrated easily turn into negative self-talk. “If I’m so smart, why did I fail the test? I’m not smart. I’m useless.”

“When you place your value on being ‘smart,’ anything that makes you feel less than smart is devastating,” says Rosier. “A lot of kids develop a negative inner voice, and they develop it in place of metacognition.”

This negative voice is sneaky, she explains, often masquerading as a coach. “You can mistake self-criticism for motivation. What we want to do is get rid of the negative inner voice and replace it with metacognitive thinking that helps your child find new ways to manage her challenges instead of beating herself up about them.”

How to encourage metacognition 

How do you help your child start becoming more meta?” Metacognitive questions, says Rosier, will help your child begin thinking in a more reflective way. Questions should be:

• Open-ended. Give your child some space to reflect on his thinking: Can you tell me more about why you think that?
• Non-blaming. It can be hard to stay open when kids are acting out, but asking them to think about their behavior can help them learn to manage difficult situations in a better way: Why do you think you got so upset when Dad changed the channel?
• Solution-focused. Encourage him to think about how he can use his understanding to change things in the future: How could you handle that differently next time?
• Process-oriented. Ask questions that help your child get a better idea of how his thought process works: How will you know when this drawing is finished?

Be patient

“When you teach kids to think about their behavior differently, they begin to behave differently,” says Rosier. But she warns that it’s important not to expect instant results. Learning to think metacognitively is a process, and parents may have to accept that a lot of the work is happening behind the scenes.

“Of course we want to see progress, but our children — especially teenagers — don’t always share their thinking with us and that’s okay.”

Just asking the questions gets the metacognitive work going internally, even if it’s not visible to the parental eye, Rosier explains. The benefits are the same, she says, even if all you get is a grunt in return.

Learning to learn

Asking questions at home will help kids begin to use metacognitive strategies in their schoolwork, too. For many kids — especially those with learning differences — this can be harder than it sounds. It’s easy to get bogged down by poor study habits, procrastination, homework meltdowns, and test stress.

If your child is struggling to work through a long paper, ask questions that help him use his metacognitive skills to try a different approach.

• What do you think is making it hard for you to work on this paper right now?
• What are some strategies that have helped you do well on similar papers in the past?
• Can you use those insights to help you with the work you’re doing now?

Asking metacognitive questions will help him clarify his process, manage his anxiety, and find a better way to approach his paper, but the benefits don’t end when the assignment is done.

The more your child is able to understand his learning process the easier it will be for him to figure out what strategies and supports work best for him — knowledge that will help him succeed — both now and as he grows up.