Application and Implications for the Classroom
One of a number of things that makes us humans distinctly human — aside from communicating with words, visually representing ideas in pictures, and building complex machines that can mimic to an extent how we think — is the ability to think about our own thoughts. Majority of the articles, studies, and book chapters on our cognitive abilities in this area involve either older children, teenagers or adults — very few actually deal with metacognition in children. So far, those I have come across have only validated what was my suspicion all along — that very young children can think about their own thinking. Wing Kei (2012) studied metacognition in children as young as 3 -6 years old and found that they already have “a certain sense of metacognition”. In a more recent study, Lewis (2018) reports that meta-analysis indicates that helping children think more explicitly about their own learning can impact on their educational progress by as much as eight months ((Hattie, 2012); (Higgins, 2014)). From her own study of children 4.6–6.6 years old, using video-stimulated reflective dialogues (VSRD) she found that children’s understanding of thinking changed over time and VSRD discussions also reflected a change in children’s awareness of metacognitive behaviours.
Furthermore, Lewis observed that by the end of the study she conducted, the range of these behaviours and the frequency with which they occurred increased, stating that the behaviours happened increasingly independently. She says her findings support Robson’s (Robson, 2016, p. 192, cited in Lewis, 2018) suggestion that the type of talk that goes on in reflective dialogue may be ‘particularly supportive of young children’s self-regulation and metacognition’. Teachers therefore should take note that if they intend to support children’s metacognition and metacognitive behaviours then they must purpose to engage children in more reflective dialogue. Parents can do the same by conversing with their children in reflective ways — not just about homework, but also with life experiences they share particularly memorable events and persons they encounter whether personally or in a book or virtually or even in their imaginations.
Metacognition or “thinking about thinking” was introduced as a concept by John Flavell, generally credited to be the founding scholar of the field. He said that metacognition is the knowledge you have of your own cognitive (thinking) processes (Flavell, 1979). It involves one’s ability to control thinking processes through various strategies including: organizing, monitoring, and adapting. It also refers to your ability to reflect upon the tasks or processes you undertake, to select and utilise the appropriate strategies necessary in your intercultural interactions. Moreover, metacognition is considered a critical component of successful learning. It involves self-regulation and self-reflection of strengths, weaknesses, and the types of strategies you create (cited in saylordotorg.github.io).
With all of the important cognitive processes metacognition encompasses — it should be purposely developed and supported in young children’s learning. Sadly, it is not formally embedded in the basic education curriculums of most developing nations.
Research shows that metacognitive skills can be taught to students to improve their learning (Nietfeld & Shraw, 2002; Thiede, Anderson, & Therriault, 2003 as cited in lincs.ed.gov, n.d.). However, there is very little done to incorporate this in instruction and learning activities of especially disadvantaged children in poorer countries. Today, research not only shows that self-awareness evolves during childhood, but also that its development is linked to metacognitive processes of the brain. With greater awareness of how they acquire knowledge, students learn to regulate their behaviour to optimise learning. They begin to see how their strengths and weaknesses affect how they perform. Thus, when students reflect on how they best learn, they become better at it and improve their abilities to learn. As their metacognitive abilities increase, research suggests that they also achieve at higher levels — especially during adolescence (Mitchell, 2015).
Based on a metacognition write up from a U.S. government education support website (lincs.ed.gov, n.d.) metacognitive strategies can be taught (Halpern, 1996), and they are associated with successful learning (Borkowski, Carr, & Pressley, 1987). Successful learners have a repertoire of strategies to select from and can transfer them to new settings (Pressley, Borkowski, & Schneider, 1987).
Metacognition is important in decision-making (Weil, Fleming, Dumontheil, Kilford, Weil, Rees, Dolan, & Blakemore, 2013). It also plays an important role in all learning and life experiences. According to Mitchell (2015), beyond academic learning, when students gain awareness of their own mental states, they begin to answer important questions:
- How do I live a happy life?
- How do I become a respected human being?
- How do I feel good about myself?
Through these reflections, Mitchell explain that students also begin to understand other people’s perspectives. Cognitive awareness, intentionality, purposiveness, and strategic intent in decision-making, as well as deeper understanding of other people’s thoughts and ways of thinking are undoubtedly important skills and capabilities any individual needs to thrive, actualise, and be successful, not just in academia but throughout life in general.
In her blog (https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchell) Mitchell (2015) offers 7 strategies to improve metacognition in students (par. 7–13):
- Teach students how their brains are wired for growth — help them understand how they can literally grow their own brains;
- Give students practice recognising what they don’t understand (ask what was most confusing among their lessons for the day);
- Provide opportunities to reflect on class work;
- Have students keep learning journals — Assign weekly questions that help students reflect on how rather than what they learned. Questions might include:
- What was easiest for me to learn this week? Why?
- What was most challenging for me to learn? Why?
- What study habits worked best for me? How?
- What study habit will I try or improve upon next week?;
5. Use a ‘wrapper’* to increase students’ monitoring skills- where teachers can ask students to write down three key ideas they learned from a topic discussed. Afterward teachers share what those three key ideas are then ask students to self-check how closely theirs matched her intended goals. (*a short intervention that surrounds an existing activity and integrates a metacognitive practice);
6. Consider essay vs. multiple choice exams — essay exams engage higher-level metacognitive skills more;
7. Facilitate reflexive thinking — Teachers can create a classroom culture for deeper learning and reflexivity by encouraging dialogue that challenges human and societal biases.
These strategies are more applicable to older children and adolescent learners, however young children can also be taught to think about how they are thinking so the above strategies can be readily adapted to suit them. The first 4 strategies can be easily applied even with children as young as 3–4 years old, with the teacher doing the recording of responses to reflective questions posed. Children can dictate thoughts to teachers who then record on a child-decorated/ designed journal or notebook. With regard to ‘wrappers’, teachers can focus on one key idea that the child thinks he/ she has learned during an activity, for example a storytelling, a cooking activity, or even a music and movement one. Teachers ask children for key ideas, then immediately feedback whether that idea is indeed a major one and is relevant to the objectives she has for engaging the children in that activity.
Instead of exams and to be age-appropriate, most young children are assessed based on their developmental skill levels and according to what are expected in terms of cognitive understanding or abilities for their age. Teachers of young children can help them practice articulating or expressing their understanding of the world around them through a variety of formats such as dictated text (lists, stories, poems, etc) , drawings and pictures (visuals), songs (music), actions or performances such as mime or dance (physical), experiments (logico-math and scientific), etc. and strategising/planning how to present these best, make choices based on research, reflection, and collaboration, and then evaluate what they have created/ done either individually, or in teams, or both. These encourage children to engage in reflexivity and to collaborate, thus extending understanding and awareness of not only their own thoughts, but the thoughts and perspectives of others as well.
For the teacher, metacognition or purposefully thinking about one’s own thinking and providing these strategies — where students are able to “learn to think” and “think to learn” there are three critical steps to teaching metacognition (cited in ciel.viu.ca):
1. Teaching students that their ability to learn is mutable;
2. Teaching planning and goal-setting;
3. Giving students ample opportunities to practice monitoring their learning and adapting as necessary.
In her book, Learner-Centered Teaching: Five key changes to practice (2012) Weimer points out the gravity of extending students’ self-awareness as learners:
It is terribly important that in explicit and concerted ways we make students aware of themselves as learners. We must regularly ask, not only ‘What are you learning?’ but ‘How are you learning?’ We must confront them with the effectiveness (more often ineffectiveness) of their approaches. We must offer alternatives and then challenge students to test the efficacy of those approaches.”
If we as educators are intent on ensuring student success and shifting them to higher levels of cognition, then it is necessary for us to embed metacognition practices within our curriculum and re-orient our teaching so that we make our students more introspective, reflective and aware of their own thinking. The greatest implication is that we ourselves as teachers/ educators should be engaging in this consistently in our own learning, planning, and delivery of content. If we do not reflect on our own thoughts and fail to strategise our own life-long and life-wide learning, how can we hope to bring our students to higher levels of cognition and be more successful learners?… Remember this will impact other dimensions of their being and that for the rest of their lives.
References:
www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchell
Lewis, H. (2018). Developing metacognition in young children: the impact of talking about thinking using video reflection as a stimulus. Retrieved from: https://impact.chartered.college/article/lewis-developing-metacognition-young-children/
www.lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/metacognitive
www.saylordotorg.github.io/text_leading-with-cultural-intelligence/s06-02-what-is-metacognition.html
Weimer, M. (2012). Learner-centred teaching: Five key changes to practice. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco
