Getting Started with Metacognition

What is metacognition?

Metacognition, often described as "thinking about thinking," plays a crucial role in education, particularly for teachers and school leaders. This concept encompasses an individual's awareness and regulation of their cognitive processes, which includes skills such as planning, monitoring, and evaluating one's own learning and understanding. Enhanced learning through self-awareness and reflective teaching practices can significantly improve educational outcomes for students.

For teachers, understanding and employing metacognitive strategies can lead to more effective instruction. By promoting metacognitive awareness, school leaders can create an environment that supports continuous improvement in education. Students, on the other hand, benefit greatly from developing metacognitive skills, as these skills help them become more self-regulated learners, capable of setting goals, reflecting on their progress, and adjusting their strategies for better outcomes.

Reflection is a key component of metacognition. When students engage in reflective practices, they enhance their cognitive processes and deepen their understanding of the material. Teachers who integrate reflection into their instructional strategies can foster a more insightful and purposeful learning experience for their students. This approach not only aids instruction but also encourages students to take ownership of their learning journey.

Strategic planning for student success involves using metacognitive strategies to guide instruction and support students in developing their self-regulation skills. Goal-oriented learning and teaching can transform the educational experience, making it more engaging and effective. Educational researchers have shown that students who are aware of their cognitive processes and actively reflect on their learning are more likely to achieve academic success.

To summarise, metacognition is a powerful tool in education that benefits teachers, school leaders, and students alike. By fostering awareness, reflection, and self-regulation, educators can create a supportive learning environment that promotes continuous improvement and academic excellence. Understanding metacognition and its applications can significantly enhance teaching practices and lead to better learning outcomes for students.

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Self-Regulated Learning and Metacognition

Self-regulation and metacognition are often used interchangeably but it is important to understand the difference between them. 

Self-regulation refers to the ability to control thoughts, behaviours, and feelings when working towards a learning goal. 

Metacognition plays a critical role in determining whether someone can become a self-regulated learner; it is essential to accurately plan, monitor, and evaluate our own learning if we want to regulate our behaviours appropriately to achieve our goals. 

The other key strategies that contribute to self-regulation are:

• Cognitive Strategies: being able to select and carry out the most appropriate cognitive activity to meet the demands of the task.  The includes rehearsal, reviewing, retrieval practice, and spacing.
• Social-Emotional Strategies: being self-motivated and in control of emotions, forming positive relationships, and knowing when to seek help.  

Self-regulated learners will have the pedagogical knowledge and self-awareness to develop good study habits.  When completing assignments, it is likely that they will identify similar tasks that they have completed in the past, adopt the techniques that were successful for those tasks, and meet self-imposed deadlines.  

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Metacognitive Strategies

Each of the metacognitive processes (planning, monitoring, and evaluating) is associated with a different set of metacognitive strategies. 

Planning

In the planning stage, metacognitive learners will set themselves goals before completing the learning task, identify priorities and organise their resources. 

They will use the metacognitive knowledge they have developed during previous learning experiences to determine the most appropriate plan for the task they are faced with. 

For example, they may have learnt that reading before class is an effective strategy for them to absorb new material during the lesson. 

As the teacher is talking, they may start to form a mental model of the new topic and make associations with previous learning.  In turn, this helps them to identify which techniques may be most useful to them during the lesson based on what techniques worked well when they were learning the related topics.  

If the subject matter is especially challenging they are likely to employ metacognitive questioning before constructing a plan.  Metacognitive learners will often ask themselves: 

• What do I already know about this topic?
• What has worked well for me in the past?
• What steps will I need to take to complete this task?

This type of questioning helps students to identify the priorities for the activity and plan how to use their time most effectively.   

When completing extended writing tasks, metacognitive learners will set themselves deadlines for each section (e.g. introduction, literature review, conclusion). 

They will also have the self-awareness to know what time of the day they work most efficiently and utilise this knowledge to make the most effective use of their time. 

For memory tasks, metacognitive learners will draw upon their knowledge of cognitive processes and are more likely to use retrieval practice techniques than rereading or highlighting when learning new vocabulary.  

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Monitoring

While students are completing a learning task they will continually monitor their performance with the intention of adapting their approach if they are not on track to achieve their learning goals.  They will use the following metacognitive strategies to monitor their performance:

• Self-assessment to ensure they have understood the material correctly and can accurately answer questions related to the new subject matter.
• Tracking progress against their devised plan and the learning objectives.
• Self-questioning to check understanding, draw connections with previous learning and to prompt deeper thinking.
• Seeking feedback from peers and their teacher to check the accuracy of their self-assessment. 

In response to the ongoing monitoring, students are likely to revisit and modify their plan quite regularly.  They may decide to change the cognitive processes they are using or adjust the time limit assigned to each stage of their plan. 

If they were working independently, they may realise that they need a period of explicit instruction from their teacher before they can move forward in their learning.  When students have the metacognitive knowledge to identify when they need additional help, they will feel empowered in their learning even when they are finding it difficult.  

Evaluating

Once a learning task, assignment or assessment is complete, metacognitive learners will reflect on their performance. 

Most importantly, they will reflect on the mental processes and study strategies they used as well as what the overall outcome was. 

As part of this reflection, they will make a plan for how they will approach similar tasks in the future and may choose to write this down in a learning journal to provide quick access to their new plan when they need it. 

Students will add to their metacognitive knowledge by identifying the strengths and weaknesses to the approach they used and consider whether these would apply to different learning contexts. 

For example, they will want to determine whether the same strategy would have the same strengths with different subject matter.   

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Research Support for Metacognition

The study strategies of metacognitive learners have been shown to significantly increase academic achievement by as much as one full GCSE grade (Hattie, 2016). 

Veenman and Beishuizen (2004) reported that metacognitive regulation, having the self-control to carry out metacognitive processes, accounts for 17% of students' cognitive achievement.  This is significantly higher than the 10% that is attributed to students' innate cognitive ability. 

Daniel et al. (2016) also advocates the use of metacognitive strategies to improve attainment; they concluded that the skills of planning, monitoring, and evaluating play a critical role in determining academic performance and the ability to become successful lifelong learners.  

Bond and Ellis (2013) showed that student learning significantly improves when teachers respond to the metacognitive knowledge generated by students during the evaluation phase of learning.  Students were provided with the following metacognitive prompts at the end of each lesson:

• Today, I learnt...
• I can now apply... to solve...
• I understand... but I still don't understand...

Compared to a control group who were given a lesson summary in place of the metacognitive prompts, the experimental group performed significantly higher on the two subsequent assessments that tested the knowledge learnt during the experiment. 

The importance of teacher feedback to enhance the attainment of metacognitive learners has also been shown by Guo and Wei (2019).  They found that students' metacognitive processes increased when teachers provided regular verification feedback (telling students if their answers were right or wrong), scaffolding (breaking complex tasks into small and manageable steps), and praise.  

It has been necessary to develop reliable measures of metacognition to support researchers like those described above. 

Pintrich and De Groot (1990) designed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) which is still widely used today to measure students' metacognitive abilities. 

Jackson (2018) recently reviewed the validity of the questionnaire and concluded that it still provides an accurate measurement of students' metacognitive awareness.  The questionnaire consists of 55 statements which students indicate their agreement to using a Likert scale, including:

• "Even when I do poorly on a test, I try to learn from my mistakes."
• "I use what I have learned from old homework assignments and the textbook to do new assignments."
• "I ask myself questions to make sure I know the material I have been studying."

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Benefits of Metacognition in Educational Settings 

Students who develop metacognitive practices experience improved learning and problem-solving abilities and greater academic achievement. 

They are better at making decisions, managing stress during learning, and using their time effectively.  These skills persist outside of their educational settings and support the students to become lifelong learners.  

Mastering a range of metacognitive approaches also gives students greater ownership over their learning and empowers them to make changes to their learning environment. 

When schools provide students with opportunities to share their opinions about learning, student metacognition can have an even greater impact on the cognitive achievement of metacognitive learners and their peers.  

Student Voice and Metacognition

Student voice refers to any opportunity that students are given to express their opinions.  This could be done formally through a school council, focus group, plenary activity or questionnaire, or informally by giving feedback to teachers during a lesson or at the end of a series of lessons.  

Metacognitive learners find it easier to engage with student voice initiatives because they are familiar with the reflective thinking required to give constructive feedback about the learning task and the impact it has had on their cognitive achievement. 

Students are often able to provide valuable insights to teachers about student learning, which allows teachers to adapt their teaching to best meet the needs of their students.  

Conversely, by encouraging students to engage with student voice opportunities, teachers can support students to develop their metacognitive thinking and range of metacognitive activities. 

Asking students to reflect on a lesson, describe their mental model of how a new topic fits in with previous learning, or which activities had the greatest impact on their understanding provides teachers with useful feedback and also increases students' metacognitive awareness.

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Metacognition and Professional Development

Bond and Ellis showed that students' metacognitive approaches can be used to influence teachers' practice, while Guo and Wei showed how teachers' feedback can encourage student metacognition and enhance the learning process.

These research findings, along with many others, highlight the importance of including the role of metacognition in teachers' professional development programmes.

It is important for teachers to be educated about metacognition, including what it is and how to support students to develop the skills of planning, monitoring and evaluating their own learning. 

The nature of these skills is determined by the subject matter and learning context, which means that subject specialists are best suited to teach students the cognitive tasks associated with their subject.

Research has shown that when teachers develop and use metacognitive skills in their teaching, their students' academic achievement improves. 

This is partly because teachers begin modelling metacognitive strategies to their students, but also because they become more reflective about their own practice and more confident adapting their teaching during a lesson as they monitor its effectiveness.  

Strategies to Improve Metacognition

As mentioned above, metacognition can be taught implicitly during lessons by teachers modelling planning, monitoring and evaluating as part of the teaching process.  The simplest way to do this is for teachers to verbalise their thought process to the class:

• This problem looks like something I have done before.
• What strategies did I use before that might be useful now?
• Am I on track to finish in the time I have available? 
• Is there a quicker way that I could have done that?
• What can I learn from this to make it easier next time?

Alternatively, metacognitive thinking can be taught explicitly by subject specialists.  In this case, teachers would introduce the concept of metacognition to their students and explain how each of the three strategies can be applied to their subject. 

The learning context is very important; planning an essay in English will require very different skills to planning the answer to exam question in Mathematics.  

To complement the explicit teaching of metacognitive activities, students may be encouraged to keep a learning journal, complete an exam wrapper, or use metacognitive prompts at key points during a lesson.

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Learning Journal

A document for students to record their thoughts and reflections following a lesson or series of lessons. 

It is normally used to reflect on the process of learning rather than specific learning outcomes, but it may be useful to highlight links between topics or to draw parallels between the current tasks and ones they have completed before. 

Students should also identify their strengths and weaknesses and what they would do the same or differently for a similar task in the future.

Exam Wrapper

A set of questions that can be completed before and after an assessment to reflect on the revision strategies (before) and the outcome of the assessment (after). 

The purpose of an exam wrapper is to help students identify which revision techniques were most helpful to them and whether their exam technique was effective. 

If a student struggled with time-management during the exam, they would record this on the wrapper and formulate a plan to help manage their time better in future assessments.  

Metacognitive Prompts

These are questions or question starters that are designed to help students improve their metacognitive awareness.  The purpose of the prompts is to teach students to spontaneously question themselves before, during, and after completing a learning task.  The following examples can be applied to most lesson and learning contexts.

1. Planning:

How much time should I spend on this task?  

How can I ensure that I stay on track?

Have I completed a task like this before?  

What do I know that will help me do this task?

2. Monitoring:

Am I on track to complete the task on time?

Have I understood what is required?  How can I be sure?

Is there a more effective way for me to complete this task?

3. Evaluating:

Did I achieve what I wanted to achieve?

What approach will I take if I need to do a similar task in the future?

What do I want to learn more about?

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Further Reading on Metacognition

Here are five studies on metacognition and their implications, accompanied by a 50-word summary for each. Whilst this is not an extensive list, these studies should be useful for teachers who are doing research in the area of metacognition.

1. Perry, J., Lundie, D., & Golder, G. (2018). Metacognition in schools: what does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools? Educational Review, 71, 483-500.

Summary: The study provides strong evidence that effective teaching of metacognition in schools has a positive impact on student outcomes, including academic performance and well-being.

2. Kuhn, D., & Dean, Jr., D. (2004). Metacognition: A Bridge Between Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice. Theory Into Practice, 43, 268-273.

Summary: This study proposes that metacognition serves as a bridge between cognitive psychology and educational practice, particularly in the development of skilled thinking.

3. Gunstone, R., & Northfield, J. (1994). Metacognition and learning to teach. International Journal of Science Education, 16, 523-537.

Summary: The authors argue for an approach where developing greater metacognition is central to changes appropriate for teacher development.

4. Wall, K., & Hall, E. (2016). Teachers as metacognitive role models. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39, 403-418.

Summary: The study shows a catalytic relationship between the pedagogies used by teachers to develop their students’ metacognition and the teachers’ own learning and metacognitive knowledge.

5. Lippmann Kung, R., & Linder, C. (2007). Metacognitive activity in the physics student laboratory: is increased metacognition necessarily better? Metacognition and Learning, 2, 41-56.

Summary: The study suggests that merely increasing the amount of metacognition does not improve students' success; what matters is whether the metacognition leads to a change in behavior.

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