Most parents and teachers out there know that dealing with children who tend to repeat the same mistakes can be incredibly frustrating. The extra assistance you provide after class or at home and the thoughtful comments you write in their copybook/foolscap margins just don’t seem to make a difference.
Nevertheless, there are things we can do to assist children in this regard. In fact, one of the goals of this blog is to provide suggestions for overcoming typical difficulties just like this, which arise throughout the learning process. However, we can only do so much, and students must eventually develop the ability to learn from their failures themselves. The notion of “metacognition,” which we view as a “big” word, is helpful in this situation.
What is metacognition?
Simply explained, metacognition is the act of thinking about one’s own thinking. It relates more specifically to the procedures used to organise, keep track of, and evaluate a person’s understanding and performance. A critical awareness of one’s thinking and learning, as well as of oneself as a thinker and learner, is a component of metacognition (Chick, 2013). When you understand that concept A is more difficult for you to acquire than concept B, for instance, or when you realise that one strategy to tackling an issue isn’t working and choose to try another, you are engaging in metacognition.
Knowing oneself as a learner – that is, being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses – is another aspect of metacognition. You are metacognitively aware, for instance, if you can identify your areas of strength in academic writing, exam taking, or other academic duties.
Why teach metacognition?
Metacognition is one of the most effective tools we can provide our children with for overcoming challenges and adapting to change. All disciplines and situations can benefit from using metacognitive processes to learning and thinking. These abilities should be taught and discussed with students, both at home and in the classroom, since they are crucial for lifelong learning.
Children with metacognitive skills are able to better regulate their emotions and boost their self-esteem. Self-regulation strategies help students to be better equipped to deal with circumstances that could otherwise overwhelm them. When children are frustrated, their negative emotions are quickly transformed into self-deprecating thoughts, such as “If I failed the test, it implies I’m not smart.” Children who are taught to view themselves as either “good” or “poor” at a certain subject may develop a fixed mindset that causes them to remain inactive when faced with a problem related to that skill. By contrast, children who use metacognitive thinking may think things out and stop criticising themselves, instead responding to poor test results by saying things like, “I didn’t prepare and that’s why I failed. How can I prepare myself better the next time?”.
However, children face other types of difficulties – such as disagreements with friends, for example – and they must be able to go from “I can’t” to “How can I?”, if they are to succeed in any of these. The development of a mentality that allows for greater opportunity for growth and adaptation, as well as self-awareness and resilience, is facilitated by training children to be more metacognitive. According to research (Weil et al., 2013), students reach greater levels of accomplishment as their metacognitive skills develop. In saying this, to help children succeed in school and in life, metacognition can (and should be) taught from an early age.
Parents may also teach their children how to think metacognitively. You could start by posing open-ended questions that provide children time for reflection; for instance, “Can you elaborate on why you think that?” Children should be assisted in thinking through situations before acting out or becoming irritated. They can improve their ability to handle challenging situations by reflecting on their conduct. For example, “What made you angry when your school friend took away your toy?”
How can metacognition be encouraged?
Tamara Rosier, an expert researcher in metacognitive skills and founder of the ADHD Centre of West Michigan, proposes the following to encourage metacognition with our students:
Teach children how their brains are wired for growth and productivity.
Your child’s learning performance will be significantly impacted by how they approach learning. Research demonstrates that students are more likely to engage in reflective thinking about how they might learn and progress when they are able to build a growth mindset (as opposed to a fixed mentality), which acts as motivation to do so.
Give them opportunities to consider what they have learnt.
Higher-order thinking abilities may be encouraged when pupils are aware of their own cognitive development. This way of thinking encourages the thought that they have learnt some new information or a new ability, which makes them more eager to continue learning and developing. A very simple approach to do this would be to encourage students to keep an education diary in which they record things like the assignments they found most challenging, the chores they found easiest, and the new things they learnt as a consequence of their study.
Simple interactions in the classroom can promote metacognition.
Metacognition may be enhanced even by the way educators engage with their pupils. An educator might provide some pointers on how to actively listen and learn before a lesson. The teacher can ask the pupils to list three takeaways from the lesson after class. Then, after sharing what they see as the class’s three most important takeaways, the children could compare their own responses to their teacher’s. As a result of this practice, both active listening and metacognitive monitoring abilities can be enhanced.
Making the most of “teachable moments” everywhere (at home, in the classroom, while running errands, etc.).
You can model metacognition by talking through problems. Children can learn a lot from listening to their parents or teachers use higher-order thinking strategies (or metacognitive thinking) out loud. Taking advantage of “teachable moments” like this can allow children to see metacognitive thinking in action and promote the idea that everyone makes mistakes, and the best way to correct those mistakes is to work them through and think about it as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Another idea originated from Tamara Rosier concerns ‘knowledge ratings’ for older students. This method urges students to pay attention to how much or little they know throughout a class about a certain topic. Ask students to score their understanding of the subject on a scale of 0 to 3, with 0 denoting little knowledge and 3 denoting extensive knowledge. Inform them that the objective is for everyone to get a 3 at the conclusion of that class time. Take a break midway through the lesson and have the students re-evaluate their knowledge scores. Repeat the activity at the conclusion of class, stressing that students should try to get a 3 before starting their homework or reading for the evening.
Marsha Lovett, a teaching professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, is largely credited with the useful study technique known as ’exam wrappers.’ These are brief questionnaires that students receive along with their graded exams, which ask them to evaluate their performance in the given papers. All of the questions listed are of a metacognitive character, such as, ‘How did you get ready for the test?’, ‘Where on the test did you make mistakes?’, or ‘What might you change for the future?’ The questionnaire is completed by the students, who then send it back to the teacher. In this manner, you may review their responses and evaluate how well they did. You can come across knowledge that enables you to modify your future methodology. The exam questionnaires are also returned to the students as they start to get ready for upcoming tests or projects, with the goal being for them to reflect on their remarks and adjust their techniques, as required. Tests are transformed into valuable teaching tools through the use of exam questionnaires as the semester progresses.
Concluding thoughts
These different metacognitive strategies make students consider their own methods of learning. Making children aware of their own behaviour is the objective here in order to help them develop greater control over it.
We make the mistake of assuming that kids are self-aware enough to change for the better just by following our advice and remarks. But not all students have the capacity for self-awareness and self-reflection, not to mention effective study techniques. Our jobs as educators may thus be greatly facilitated by encouraging these skills in the classroom. We could all use a bit more thought about how to encourage kids to reflect on their own ideas.
Watch out for vlogs on metacognition and refer to the attached for more information on this aspect of educational neuroscience.
References
Chick, N. (2013). Metacognition. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/.
Weil, L.G., Fleming, S. M., Dumontheil, I. Kilford, E., Weil, R. S., Rees, G., Dolan, R. J. & Blakemore, S.J. (2013). The Development of Metacogntiive Ability in Adolescence. Consciousness and Cognition, 22(1), pp. 264 – 271.