Metacognition: Thinking About Thinking PDF

Lesson 5 - METACOGNITION: THINKING ABOUT THINKING Metacognition Defined The term metacognition is attributed to Flavell. He described it as "one's knowledge concerning one's cognitive processes and products or anything related to them, e.g., the learning-relevant properties of information...

Lesson 5 - METACOGNITION: THINKING ABOUT THINKING Metacognition Defined The term metacognition is attributed to Flavell. He described it as "one's knowledge concerning one's cognitive processes and products or anything related to them, e.g., the learning-relevant properties of information and data." Furthermore, he referred to it as "the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes concerning the cognitive objects or data on which they bear, usually in the service of some concrete goal or objective" Flavell (1976). Simply stated, metacognition is "knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena” (Flavell, 1979). The meaning metamorphosed into “thinking about thinking,” “knowing about knowing,” and “cognition about cognition.” Components of Metacognition The elements of metacognition are metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation (Flavell, 2004). These two elements are interrelated; the presence of the first one enhances the second element. Metacognitive knowledge (also called knowledge of cognition) refers to "what individuals know about their cognition or cognition in general" (Schraw, 2002). It involves three kinds of metacognitive awareness, namely: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge (Fig. 1). Declarative Procedural Conditional Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge about things Knowledge on how to Knowledge when and do things why to apply cognitive acts Knowledge about own abilities Knowledge how to execute skills Knowledge when a strategy is appropriate Knowledge about factors affecting own performance  Fig. 1. Components of Metacognitive Knowledge. Declarative knowledge or personal knowledge is the learner's knowledge about things. It also refers to the learner's understanding of own abilities, the knowledge about oneself as a learner and of the factors that moderate one's performance. This type of knowledge is not always accurate as the learner's evaluation of its capabilities may be unreliable. For instance, that Manila is the capital of the Philippines and that the word “oases” is the plural form of oasis are examples of declarative knowledge. That a learner has limited information as to the semantic rules is also a declarative knowledge. Procedural knowledge or task knowledge involves the knowledge of how to do things, how skills or competencies are executed. The assessment on the learner’s task knowledge includes what knowledge is needed (content) and the space available to communicate what is known (length). A learner given a problem-solving task, for instance, knows that the prerequisite information and prior skills are necessary to be recalled and readily executed at the given time to solve the problem. Such knowledge gives confidence in working with the problem. Conditional knowledge or strategy knowledge refers to the ability to know when and why to apply various cognitive acts. It involves using strategies to learn information (knowing how to know) as well as adapting them to novel contexts (knowing when a strategy is appropriate). This knowledge is evident in a learner’s seeking help from the school nurse to make a report on the communicable diseases prevalent in the community as well as the learner’s knowledge that the best way to gather the information is to interview a nurse and to go over the health records of the Municipal Health Office of the town. Metacognitive knowledge is the result of an individual’s metacognitive experiences. Flavell (1979) explained them as experiences "an individual has through which knowledge is attained, or through regulation occurs." A learner who obtained low scores in knowledge and skills tests becomes aware that he or she has low declarative and procedural knowledge. In contrast, a learner who has always scored highest in both the content and skills tests has strong confidence in his adequacy of knowledge in the subject. Similarly, metacognitive knowledge depends so much on the learner’s metamemory, the knowledge of what memory is, how it works, and how to remember things. Through instruction and individual effort, metamemory develops over time. For instance, a learner who has been taught how to organize information and use rehearsal strategies has a richer metamemory. They can retrieve declarative, procedural, and condition knowledge when required by the task. Metacognitive Regulation Metacognitive regulation is the second element of metacognition. While metacognitive knowledge refers to the learners’ knowledge or beliefs about the factors that affect cognitive skills, metacognitive regulation pertains to their ability to keep track of (monitor) and assess their knowledge or learning. It includes their ability to know as to what, when, and how to use a particular skill to a given task. In this manner, they can control their learning. Self-regulation is essential in metacognition. To illustrate metacognitive regulation, as a student in a Speech class knows when a word is mispronounced as it sounds unpleasant to hear, thus, he or she consults an electronic dictionary to listen to how the word should be pronounced. Following the model, the pronunciation is improved. Metacognitive regulation involves three processes: setting goals and planning; monitoring and controlling learning and evaluating own regulation (Fig.2). PLANNING Metacognitive Experiences Metamemory MONITORING Metacognitive Experiences Metamemory EVALUATING Metacognitive Experiences Metamemory Fig. 2. Metacognitive Regulation and Control Processes. Planning involves the selection of appropriate strategies and the allocation of resources that affect performance (Schraw, 2002). Together with setting goals, planning is considered a central part of students' ability to control their learning processes and to learn outcomes through deliberate self-regulatory decisions and actions. Goals are dichotomized as mastery goals and performance goals (Paulson & Bauer, 2011). Mastery goals are related to process, learning, and development. In contrast, performance goals are usually associated with product orientations and demonstrating competence or social comparisons to the peer group. For example, a student who desires to get high grade (performance goal) in a Science class portfolio determines how best to make all entries in the portfolio exemplary in all criteria as described in the scoring rubric (performance goal). At this point of metacognitive regulation, the learner’s questions include: What am I asked to learn or do here? What do I already know about this lesson or task? What should be my pacing to be able to complete this task? What should I focus on when learning or solving this task? Monitoring refers to one's on-going awareness of comprehension and task performance (Schraw, 2002). Referred to as metacognitive monitoring and controlling learning, it also involves the monitoring of a person's thinking processes and the current state of knowledge. Given a task, it involves the awareness of the person that the prerequisite knowledge and process to manage the task is sufficient to succeed in it. It also involves the ability to consider the accuracy of the knowledge and procedure to solve the task. If ever inadequacy is felt, the person can control the processes undertaken to be able to still succeed in the resolution of the task. A student who solves a word problem in Mathematics is aware of the steps to follow to solve the task. In the process, the person monitors from metamemory if procedural knowledge is adequate and could be executed. Along the way, the person monitors his or her thinking and then revises the process if found ineffective in solving the problem. At this stage, some questions asked by the learners include: Do I have adequate knowledge to solve the problem? Are my prior knowledge and skills appropriate for this task? Are my strategies appropriate for this task? What can I do to get additional information for this task? The last step is evaluating, assessing knowledge or learning. It refers to appraising the products and efficiency of one's learning (Schraw, 2002). It involves the person's ability to evaluate how well strategies used to lead to the solution of the problem or completion of the task. It tells whether or not the procedure resulted in the correct answer or a different answer. In the Mathematics word problem-solving task situation above, the person comes to a realization that the equation formulated to solve what is asked in the problem was indeed correct based on the cross-checking process done. If the answer is wrong, the learner surmises what went wrong along the way. Sample questions asked by the learner in this phase of metacognitive regulation are: What new learning was achieved? What universal understanding should I remember? Was the correct answer obtained? Were the goals set achieved? How could I have done to make my work better? What should I do next time I encounter a similar situation later? Principles of Metacognitive Instruction Developing metacognitive thinking among students needs the creativity of the teacher. Using metacognitive strategies facilitates learners on how to learn. Research has proven that metacognitive teaching practices enhance the learners’ capabilities to transfer their competencies in learning new tasks in new contexts (Palinscar & Brown, 1984; and Schoenfeld, 1991). Moreover, metacognitive teaching practices make learners aware of their strengths and weaknesses as they learn. Knowing their strengths give them the confidence to pursue a task. Knowing their weaknesses lead them to strategies on how to overcome their limited knowledge and how to source out the needed information for the task. To effectively develop metacognitive skills among learners, Veenman et al. (2012) recommend three fundamental principles (Fig. 3). Metacognitive instruction should be embedded in the context of the task at hand in order to allow for connecting task-specific condition knowledge (the IF-side) to the procedural knowledge of “How” the skill is applied in the context of the task (the THEN-side of 1 production rules). Learners should be informed about the benefit of applying metacognitive skills in order to make them exert the initial extra effort. 2 Instruction and training should be stretched over time, thus allowing for the formation of production rules and ensuring the smooth and maintained application of metacognitive 3 skills. Fig. 3. Principles for Effective Metacognitive Instruction. Activities: 1. Use the Frayer vocabulary definition model to define the three metacognitive knowledge. With this as a guide, explain in TWO sentences the meaning of each of the graphic organizer. Definition: Characteristics: Declarative Examples: Knowledge Non-examples: Definition: Characteristics: Procedural Examples: Knowledge Non-examples: Definition: Characteristics: Conditional Examples: Knowledge Non-examples: 2. Why is metacognition important to a teacher and a learner? Cite at least two points in your explanation. 3. Is prior knowledge essential in developing metacognitive knowledge? Justify your answer. 4. What is the importance of metacognitive experiences and metamemory in metacognitive regulation and control?  5. Using your search tools, read about the differences between novice and expert learners? With this knowledge, identify facilitating strategies to scaffold the novice and struggling learners? QUIZ Set A Directions: Identify if the following thoughts are more a declarative, procedural, or conditional knowledge. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper. 1. The context of this problem is not suited to the theory I know. 2. There are three ways to solve this problem. 3. This fact is essential to recall for the situation presented. 4. ROYGBIV makes it easy to remember the colors of the rainbow. 5. This is an irregular verb, thus, adding -ed to the word to make it past tense does not apply. Set B Directions: Classify the following questions/statements if the learner is engaged in planning, monitoring, or evaluating metacognitive regulation and control phases. Write your answer on a separate sheet. 1. Is this strategy leading me to the correct answer? 2. My answer does not meet the standards in this scoring rubric. 3. What strategy is best for this type of problem? 4. What does this task expect me to produce? 5. The teacher is nodding as I speak. I am right in organizing my answer.