21st Century Learning and Teaching

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What is metacognition?

Metacognition, a term that was first defined by John H. Flavell in 1979, is basically thinking about thinking. With metacognition, we become aware of our own learning experiences and the activities we involve ourselves in our paths toward personal and professional growth. We are better able to understand ourselves in the whole process of learning and can develop skills to think about, connect with, and evaluate our learning and interactions each day. But how and why is metacognition important in education?

It has been identified as an essential skill for learner success. Therefore, do we need to design specific lessons focused on metacognition for use in our classrooms each day? And if so, how can we make this happen?

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What does this guidance cover?

This guidance report is relevant to the teaching of all students, within any subject area. Most of the examples included are from Key Stages 1 to 4, where the research is strongest. It introduces a simplified framework for self-regulated learning and metacognition.

In due course, we will publish a more detailed research review exploring the subject in more depth; this is an area of academic discussion that may be of interest to some teachers. Here, however, we have simplified the frameworks to allow for ease of understanding and use in real-world settings—we focus on what the evidence says about what teachers can do to develop these skills. Often the research evidence is generic and hard to interpret; by giving specific examples we have tried to bring the work alive for teachers (but this means they are less directly supported by strong evidence).

This guidance draws on a review of the evidence about self-regulated learning and metacognition led by Professor Daniel Muijs and Dr Christian Bokhove (University of Southampton). It is not a new study in itself, but rather is intended as an accessible overview of existing research with clear, actionable guidance. More information about the review and the process is at the end of the review. Some key references are included here; for those wishing to explore the subject in more depth, the forthcoming report will contain a more comprehensive reference section.

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Learning how to think about thinking can help students develop strategies for solving problems and understand tasks at hand.

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

Metacognitive skills enable students to regulate their thinking and to become independent learners who can enhance their school and life experiences. Wherever the ambitions of our youth lead them, they will benefit from being able to solve problems creatively, think analytically, communicate effectively, and collaborate with others. As we conducted research for our latest book, we found that studies simultaneously indicate that metacognition is one of the most important skillsets students need, yet often is not taught.

When students are metacognitive, they can take a step back and observe their thinking. Sometimes this is called the reflective process. When using this approach, they might ask themselves questions like these: What is the problem to be solved? How should I solve the problem? How well am I doing? How well did I do? How can I do it better the next time? The metaphor we developed as a way to help educators teach metacognition to children and youth across grade levels is that of “driving your brain.”

Teaching students to drive their brains and become self-directed learners can be compared to driver’s education, in which students receive explicit instruction on how to guide their thinking, when to slow down, when it’s okay to speed up, and how to avoid wrong turns.

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Metacognition is awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes. The ability to analyze one’s own thoughts that lead to statements like “I don’t know how to do this” and “I can’t do this” allows for students to take better control of the learning and to begin to apply the skills and knowledge they have to the situation. Often times, if we begin to ask the student questions about what he/she does know how to do, what skills he/she has that can be applied, the student is then able to begin to attend to the work. However, what has often happened in the past, is that the student has been unsuccessful in attempting to do something new, gotten a grade that felt “bad” and it has created a sense of anxiousness about being “bad” again and so it is easier to not try it than to be “bad”.

Carol Dweck’s concept of “Not Yet” has helped many educators rethink grading and the concept of grades as either “good” or “bad”. The power of the concept of not yet allows a student to be on a continuum to achieving “good” (learning) without the feeling of being “bad” (I failed again). The idea of allowing for mastery learning teaches students metacognition. Dweck’s focus is on rewarding the process of learning more than the learning itself which allows students to develop metacognition through repeated successful learning experiences.

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

http://globaleducationandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/pkm-personal-professional-knowledge-management/

Strategies that target students’ metacognition—the ability to think about thinking—can close a gap that some students experience between how prepared they feel for a test and how prepared they actually are. In a new study, students in an introductory college statistics class who took a short online survey before each exam asking them to think about how they would prepare for it earned higher grades in the course than their peers—a third of a letter grade higher, on average.

This low-cost intervention helped students gain insight into their study strategies, boosting their metacognitive skills and giving them tools to be more independent learners.

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

http://globaleducationandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/pkm-personal-professional-knowledge-management/

By Juan Domingo Farnós, independent researcher in education technologies, e-Learning and knowledge management.

Text: We are at a moment when, first of all, we need to be clear on how our mind works – and therefore the synergies that are produced at a neuronal level – and, second of all, its correspondence with our…

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

http://globaleducationandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/pkm-personal-professional-knowledge-management/

Thinking about Thinking Optimizes Learning

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; 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.  

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

Perhaps the most important reason for developing metacognition is that it can improve the application of knowledge, skills, and character qualities in realms beyond the immediate context in which they were learned. This can result in the transfer of competencies across disciplines—important for students preparing for real-life situations where clear-cut divisions of disciplines fall away and one must select competencies from the entire gamut of their experience to effectively apply them to the challenges at hand. Even within academic settings, it is valuable—and often necessary—to apply principles and methods across disciplinary lines.

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Four-Dimensional+Education%3A+The+Competencies+Learn