Metacognition
Excerpts from the Approaches to learning and teaching series, courtesy of Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment International Education: cambridge.org/approachestolearning
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What is metacognition?
Metacognition describes the processes involved when learners plan, monitor, evaluate and make changes to their own learning behaviours. These processes help learners to think about their own learning more explicitly and ensure that they are able to meet a learning goal that they have identified themselves or that we, as teachers, have set. Metacognitive learners recognise what they find easy or difficult. They understand the demands of a particular learning task and are able to identify different approaches they could use to tackle a problem. Metacognitive learners are also able to make adjustments to their learning as they monitor their progress towards a particular learning goal. The following diagram shows a helpful way to think about the phases involved in metacognition. During the planning phase, learners think about the explicit learning goal we have set and what we are asking them to do. As teachers, we need to make clear to learners what success looks like in any given task before they embark on it. Learners build on their prior knowledge, reflect on strategies they have used before and consider how they will approach the new task. As learners put their plan into action, they are constantly monitoring the progress they are making towards their learning goal. If the strategies they had decided to use are not working, they may decide to try something different. Once they have completed the task, learners determine how successful the strategy they used was in helping them to achieve their learning goal. During this evaluation phase, learners think about what went well and what didn’t go as well to help them decide what they could do differently next time. They may also think about what other types of problems they could solve using the same strategy. Reflection is a fundamental part of the plan–monitor–evaluate process and there are various ways in which we can support our learners to reflect on their learning process. In order to apply a metacognitive approach, learners need access to a set of strategies that they can use and a classroom environment that encourages them to explore and develop their metacognitive skills.
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Why teach metacognitive skills?
Research evidence suggests that the use of metacognitive skills plays an important role in successful learning. Metacognitive practices help learners to monitor their own progress and take control of their learning. Metacognitive learners think about and learn from their mistakes and modify their learning strategies accordingly. Learners who use metacognitive techniques find it improves their academic achievement across subjects, as it helps them transfer what they have learnt from one context to another context or from a previous task to a new task.
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What are the challenges of developing learners’ metacognitive skills?
For metacognition to be commonplace in the classroom, we need to encourage learners to take time to think about and learn from their mistakes. Many learners are afraid to make mistakes, meaning that they
are less likely to take risks, explore new ways of thinking or tackle unfamiliar problems. We, as teachers, are instrumental in shaping the culture of learning in a classroom. For metacognitive practices to thrive,
learners need to feel confident enough to make mistakes, to discuss their mistakes and ultimately to view them as valuable, and often necessary, learning opportunities.
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