Which of the following terms relates to the knowledge that people have about their own thinking processes?

Cambridge International Education
Teaching and Learning Team

Common misconceptions

There are a number of misconceptions surrounding metacognition and the related construct ‘self-regulated learning’.

1. Metacognition is simply ‘thinking about thinking’
Although metacognition does involve thinking about one’s thinking, it is more complex than that. A large part of metacognition is actively monitoring one’s own learning and making changes to one’s own learning behaviours and strategies based on this monitoring.

2. Any strategy used while performing a cognitive task is metacognitive
This is not always the case. For example, using phonics rules to decode an unknown word when reading is a cognitive strategy. Flavell (1981) identified a useful distinction between the two: strategies used to make cognitive progress are ‘cognitive strategies’; strategies used to monitor cognitive progress are ‘metacognitive strategies’.

3. A teacher plays no role in their learners’ metacognitive practice
Although a metacognitive approach typically focuses on allowing the learner to take control of their own learning, the teacher is still required to help in the development of their metacognitive skills. For example, the teacher needs to set clear learning objectives, demonstrate and monitor metacognitive strategies, and prompt and encourage their learners.

4. Metacognition is only applicable to older learners
Some researchers (e.g. Veenman and Spaans 2005) believe that metacognitive skills do not emerge until a child is 8 to 10 years old. However, Whitebread and Pino Pasternak (2010) document a number of studies which indicate evidence of young children’s metacognitive abilities. Findings include children as young as 18 months demonstrating error-correction strategies, 5-year-old children showing an awareness of forgetting, and 3 to 5-year-olds exhibiting a wide range of verbal and non-verbal indicators of metacognitive processes in nursery and reception classrooms. These studies demonstrate that although young children may not be able to describe the metacognitive processes they are exhibiting, it does not mean that these processes are not occurring.

Next steps

Here are two activities designed to encourage metacognition in your classroom.

1. KWL chart

KWL stands for:

What do I know?
What do I want to know?
What did I learn?

The purpose of the chart is to help learners to organise information before during and after a lesson or unit of learning. A KWL chart will help you to engage your learners in a new topic, activate their prior knowledge and support them in monitoring their learning.

Here is an example of a KWL chart for you to use:

1. Set the class a clear and explicit learning objective.

2. Ask your learners to think about ‘What do I know?’

Learners start by thinking about what they already know that could help them respond to the learning objective. They record their thoughts in the left column of the chart. However, learners do not have to be limited to working alone. They could share their ideas with others using techniques such as think-pair-share.

In addition to activating any useful prior knowledge, this first question can highlight any misconceptions in your learners’ current knowledge and understanding.

3. Ask your learners to complete the middle column of the chart with their answers to the second question: ‘What do I want to know?’

Monitor the class carefully. If learners are having difficulty coming up with ideas prompt them to think about questions beginning ‘How…?’, ‘When…?’, ‘Why…?’ etc.

This stage provides a good opportunity for you to see what your learners are interested in and what they already know. You can use this information to shape your future learning activities.

4. During the lesson or unit of learning encourage your learners to monitor their own progress and to adjust the strategies they are using as necessary. Prompt them to ask questions such as: ‘How am I doing?’, ‘What should I do next?’, ‘Should I try a different strategy?’

5. At the end of the lesson or unit of learning, ask your learners to complete the final column ‘What did I learn?’

At the same time ask your learners to reflect on what they wrote in the ‘What do I want to know?’ column. Do they have any questions that remain unanswered. Do they have any questions that they would like to add? Make a note of these unanswered questions and use them to help plan future activities.

6. Reflect on their learning process.

Encourage your learners to reflect on how effectively they discovered the answers to their ‘What do I want to know?' questions. Support their discussions with questions that encourage reflection on their learning process:

What strategies did I plan to use?
What strategies did I actually use?
What didn’t work? What could I do differently next time?
What did work? What should I do the same next time?
Which other strategies could I use?

2. Levels of metacognitive learners
As we saw in ‘What is the theory behind metacognition?’, David Perkins (1992) identified four levels of metacognitive learners which provide a useful framework for teachers.

In the video below, Lee Davis (Deputy Director of Professional Development) discusses each of the levels in more detail.

Transcript

What can you do to identify whether your learners are tacit, aware, strategic or reflective?
What can you do in the classroom to help and encourage your learners to progress to the next level?

Want to know more?
Here is a printable list of interesting books, articles and websites on the topics that we have looked at.

Cognition
The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses.

Exam wrappers
Also called cognitive wrappers. Exam wrappers are worksheets that learners complete before and after they receive their test feedback.

Executive functioning
Describes a variety of cognitive processes that are required to attain a goal, including working memory, inhibitory control, attention control and attention shifting.

Meta
Meta means about, after, or beyond. In terms of metacognition this refers to a higher level of cognition (beyond cognition).

Metacognition
In simple terms, metacognition is being aware of and in control of one’s own mental processes. See above for a more detailed description.

Metacognitive control
Involves the learner making changes and adapting strategies. This will often happen following monitoring, for example, if the monitoring indicates they are not doing so well on a certain task.

Metacognitive knowledge
The learner’s knowledge of tasks, strategies and their own cognitive abilities.

Metacognitive monitoring
Monitoring of one’s own cognitive processes.

Metacognitive regulation
How learners monitor and control their cognitive processes.

Metacognitive talk
Metacognitive talk involves a person saying out loud what they are thinking while they are carrying out a task.

Mnemonics
A memory tool, device, or a technique created for remembering information that is difficult to recall.

Reciprocal teaching
A metacognitive approach to reading that involves teachers working with small groups of learners and modeling the use of four key strategies: summarising, questioning, clarifying and predicting. The learners are then asked to teach these strategies to other learners.

Scaffolding
The teacher provides appropriate guidance and support to enable learners to build on their current level of understanding progressively to acquire confidence and independence in using new knowledge or skills.

Self-regulation
The ability to monitor and control our own thoughts, emotions and behaviour.

Self-regulated learning
A term which describes self-regulation in academic settings.