Metacognition

//**Metacognition**// is often defined as "thinking about thinking" which just means taking time to consider how you are thinking through something and the process you take when solving a problem or working through a lesson.



This involves students knowing general learning strategies, how they learn themelves, and also recognizing which tasks require which types of thinking.

Ways to incorporate teaching metacognition:
 * Conduct think-alouds while reading a passage or learning a new topic
 * Have students write down their perceptions of their own learning styles and activley apply these strategies in a conscious way to new materials
 * Constantly set goals and plans to get towards that goal, then have students monitor what they do along the way in order to acheive stated goals.
 * Use the questions and suggestions below taken from Educational Psychology Interactive's website (Huitt, 1997):
 * For Students:
 * What do I know about this subject, topic, issue?
 * Do I know what do I need to know?
 * Do I know where I can go to get some information, knowledge?
 * How much time will I need to learn this?
 * What are some strategies and tactics that I can use to learn this?
 * Did I understand what I just heard, read or saw?
 * How will I know if I am learning at an appropriate rate?
 * How can I spot an error if I make one?
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">How should I revise my plan if it is not working to my expectations/satisfaction?
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">For Teaching Strategies:
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Have students monitor their own learning and thinking (Example: have student monitor a peer's learning/thinking/behaving in dyad)
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Have students learn study strategies
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Have students make predictions about information to be presented next based on what they have read
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Have students relate ideas to existing knowledge structures (Important to have relevant knowledge structures well learned)
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Have students develop questions; ask questions of themselves, about what's going on around them (Have you asked a good question today?)
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Help students to know when to ask for help (must be able to self-monitor; require students to show how they have attempted to deal with the problem of their own)
 * <span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Show students how to transfer knowledge, attitudes, values, skills to other situations or tasks

<span style="color: #26924b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Back to the Home Page