"Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner."
Scooped by Beth Dichter |
How can we work with out students to they learn about their thinking and learn, and view themselves as thinkers and learners?
This post provides an overview of metacognition, beginning with studies of young children. Additional research is shared that discusses of metacognative practices and there is an excellent section Putting Metacognition into Practice where a number of resources are provided.
Four assignments for explicit instruction are shared (and the brief version is below and quoted from the post):
* Preassessments—Encouraging Students to Examine Their Current Thinking
* The Muddiest Point—Giving Students Practice in Identifying Confusions
* Retrospective Postassessments—Pushing Students to Recognize Conceptual Change
* Reflective Journals—Providing a Forum in Which Students Monitor Their Own Thinking
This is followed by a section on "recommendations for developing a classroom culture grounded in metacognition."
The post offers links to three tables that assist with this. The tables focus on:
* Questions for students to ask themselves
* Prompts for integrating metacognition
* Questions to help faculty metacognitively assess their own teaching
The post continues to discuss these topic and provides access to additional tools, resources and examples. It provides a wealth of information and resources about metacognition and the tables of questions and prompts (linked to above) are worth checking out if one of your goals is to help your students understand what it means to be a thinker and learner.
Being a man, I'm very poor at reflection, but by breaking it into metacognitive practices helped me think about my thinking.
To facilitate these activities, she also offers three useful tables:
Questions for students to ask themselves as they plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking within four learning contexts—in class, assignments, quizzes/exams, and the course as a whole (p. 115)Prompts for integrating metacognition into discussions of pairs during clicker activities, assignments, and quiz or exam preparation (p. 117)Question"Metacognition is one of the hardest aspects of student's learning to get from them. Children find it difficult to communicate about their thinking and teacher's find it difficult to teach these skills. This is well worth a read to help develop our own understanding of metacognition.