Understanding Metacognition

• Metacognition is about thinking about thinking
• It involves being aware of what one knows and doesn't know.
• It includes the ability to understand, control, and manipulate one's cognitive processes.
• Metacognition refers to higher-order thinking
• Active awareness and control are required over cognitive processes engaged in learning.
• Metacognition enables the use of prior knowledge to plan how to approach a learning task.
• Involves taking necessary steps to solve problems.
• Involves reflection and evaluation of results.
• Involves modification of one's approach as needed.

Aspects of Metacognition

• Metacognitive Knowledge
• Metacognitive Experiences
• Metacognitive Regulation

Metacognitive Knowledge

• It is knowledge about your own cognition.
• It is knowledge about thought processes in general.
• It is knowledge about your own cognitive strengths and weaknesses in particular.
• Simply possessing knowledge about one's cognitive strengths, weaknesses and nature of the task is not metacognitive.
• A student may use this knowledge in planning how to approach a math exam.
• The student may have difficulty with word problems, so they will answer the computational problems first and save the word problems last.

Elements of Metacognitive Knowledge

• Person Variable: Recognizing one's strengths and weaknesses in learning and processing information.
• Task Variable: Knowing about the nature of a task and the processing demands required to complete it.
• Strategy Variables: Having strategies "at the ready" to apply in a flexible way to successfully accomplish a task.
• Example of all 3 variables - "The history exam covers multiple chapters of content with a lot of dates, names, and events, but you know that you struggle with long blocks of text, thus, you decide to use flashcards to test your memory on key dates and events.

Metacognitive Regulation

• Involves how one controls their thinking to facilitate learning.
• It is what learners do about learning.
• It describes how learners monitor and control their cognitive processes.
• Planning + Setting Goals: Selection of appropriate strategies and the allocation of resources that affect performance.
• Goal Setting: Mastery and Performance Goals
• Monitoring: Monitoring of person's thinking processes and current state of knowledge.
• Monitoring : Ability to consider the accuracy of knowledge and procedure to solve the task.
• Example Monitoring: "Do I need to try something different?"
• Evaluating: Appraising the products and efficiency of one's learning.
• Example Evaluation: "What could I do differently next time?"
• Example planning: "Are there any strategies that I have used before that might be useful?”

Metacognitive Experiences

• Subjective, dynamic "feelings" while thinking or learning.
• May involve a sense of: Confidence, Emotions, Biases, Fluency, Clarity.
• It refers to an individual's subjective awareness and reflection on their own cognitive processes during a particular task or learning activity.

Principles of Effective Metacognitive Instruction

• Metacognitive instruction should be embedded in the context of the task at hand.
• Instruction allows for connecting task-specific conditions (IF-side) to the procedure of "how" the skill is applied in the context of the task (THEN-side) of production rules.
• Learners should be informed about the benefit of applying metacognitive skills in order to make them exert the initial extra effort
• Instruction and training should be stretched over time.
• Instruction allows for the formation of production rules and ensures the smooth and maintained application of metacognitive skills

Metacognitive Teaching Strategies

• Graphic Organizers: Visual illustrations displaying the relationships between facts, information, ideas, or concepts.

• Learners are guided in their thinking as they fill in the needed information.

• Types of Graphic Organizers include T-Chart, Venn Diagram, Sequence Chart, Main Idea Web, Concept Map.

• Different graphic organizers can be selected based on the learning task, for example: To compare and contrast, determine the steps in a process or sequence, show the stages of human development, show the cause and effect relationships, history or characteristics of a subject matter etc

• Think Aloud: Individuals verbalize their thoughts as they engage in a task, problem-solving, or decision-making process.

• Sometimes with the aid of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

• Journalizing: Learners write what was in their mind when they selected an answer and the reasons for their reasoning and choice.

• Error Analysis: Students engage deeply with their errors and the errors of others, to understand them not as failings but as opportunities for growth and learning.

• Students try to correct the error.

• Wrapper: A method where a brief activity is placed both before and after a main learning activity like a lecture, assignment, or test.

• Peer Mentoring: Learners learn best when studying with peers who are more informed and skilled than them.

• Self-Questioning: Teachers present divergent questions for students to answer, or encourage the students to generate their own questions.

• KWL Chart: Enables students to capture what they know, what they want to learn and what they did learn.

• PQ4R : Assists students to process a lot of information in a short amount of time.

  • Preview: Get a general picture of the material before you begin.
  • Question: Change headings into questions.
  • Read: Look for the answers to your questions as you read.
  • Reflect: Try to relate the material to past learning or to personal experience.
  • Recite: Speak the answers to your questions aloud to solidify the information in your mind.
  • Review: Review the material regularly.

Explore metacognition: thinking about thinking, awareness of knowledge, and cognitive process control. Learn about metacognitive knowledge, experiences, and regulation. Discover how to leverage cognitive strengths and address weaknesses for effective learning.