Metacognition

Metacognition refers to a learner's awareness and understanding of their own learning processes. This cognitive theory emphasizes the importance of self-regulation and reflection in learning, enabling individuals to monitor, evaluate, and adapt their strategies for better comprehension and problem-solving. Originating in the 1970s and rooted in constructivist theory, metacognition includes components such as metacognitive knowledge—understanding oneself and the tasks at hand—and metacognitive experiences, which encompass thoughts and feelings before, during, and after learning activities.

Effective metacognition is essential for learners, particularly for novices and those with learning disabilities, who may struggle to assess their understanding and adjust their methods. Educators play a crucial role in cultivating metacognitive skills through instructional strategies like modeling, self-questioning, and the use of graphic organizers. Additionally, formative assessment is highlighted as a vital tool for enhancing metacognitive awareness, as it encourages learners to reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement. Overall, fostering metacognition helps students become more independent and effective learners who can navigate their educational journeys with greater confidence and capability.

Published in: 2021

By: Smith, Tricia

Metacognition

Metacognition is a cognitive theory defined as a learner's awareness of his or her own learning process. Metacognition is grounded in constructivist theory and gained widespread prominence in the 1970's. The term metacognition evolved from Flavell's (1985) term metamemory. Several components of metacognition include metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences. Students learn to control their learning through the use of metacognitive strategies. Teachers are critical in this process, as they can identify those learners who are novice or learning disabled and are unable to monitor their own process. Research suggests that intervention is critical in the development of students' awareness of how to learn more effectively.

Keywords Cognition; Cognitive Process; Cognitive Theory; Collaborative Learning; Constructivist Theory; Learning Strategies; Metacognition; Metacognitive Experience; Metacognitive Knowledge; Metamemory; Novice Learners; Prior Knowledge; Summative Assessment

Teaching Methods > Metacognition

Overview

Metacognition is an important concept in cognitive theory that is defined as a learner's awareness of his or her own learning process. Learners who are aware of their own learning process are able to monitor their learning progress and make changes to their process. They are able to adapt new strategies if they are not learning as well as they expect they should be learning. They also monitor, evaluate, and make plans for their learning, as they develop a self-awareness of their learning process and progress (Winn & Snyder, 1998). They are honest about their self-assessment, as they "think about their thinking" (Flavell, 1979; Kuhn & Dean, 2004; Hanna, 2007). Learners who possess the ability to control their own cognitive processes are more likely to be efficient and active in their learning experiences. Bonds and Bonds (1992) present two basic behaviors that are involved in effective use of metacognition. The learner:

• Possesses knowledge pertinent to progressing toward the learning task, evident as the learner talks about mental processes used during learning.

• Knows the nature of the learning task and what is required to learn or understand the material being read or studied, evident through the application of certain skills such as checking, planning, selecting/monitoring, self-questioning, introspection, or monitoring (Bonds & Bonds, 1992, p. 2).

Metacognition is grounded in constructivist theory and gained widespread prominence in the 1970's. Constructivist learning is described as "a dynamic, active, problem-solving process in which existing knowledge is modified, added to, or reconstructed" (Sheets, 1994, p. 1; Stahl, 1992). Theories of metacognition are also found in Piagetian developmental theory, with its focus on cognitive knowledge, metacognitive awareness, and conscious access to knowledge (Garner, 1994). The term metacognition evolved from Flavell's (1985) term metamemory. Flavell (1976) defines metacognition as "one's knowledge concerning one's own cognitive processes and products…[and] the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes" (p. 232). As researchers began to study learners' thinking processes and problem solving skills, they began to view metacognition as an important performance-based mental activity that expert learners complete, as they "plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking processes more often and more efficiently than poor or novice learners" (Goldberg, 2003). Most recently, metacognition has emerged into the mainstream of cognitive psychology.

Components of Metacognition

Metacognition has several components. One such component is metacognitive knowledge, or the ability to know and use strategies that learners need to effectively comprehend text. Metacognitive knowledge is further defined as knowledge of learners' selves, the kinds of tasks learners engage in, and the strategies learners use while engaged in these tasks (Baker & Brown, 1984; Garner, 1994). According to Dimino (2007), there are three elements to metacognitive knowledge: declarative, procedural and conditional.

• Declarative metacognitive knowledge includes facts, rules, concepts and strategies that are stored in a learner's long-term memory.

• Procedural knowledge relates to how learners' declarative knowledge is applied, or how learners can produce a product or activate a strategy.

• Learners tap into conditional knowledge when they identify when and under what conditions they need certain strategies for optimal learning (Dimino, 2007).

Another component of metacognition is metacognitive experiences. Metacognitive experiences occur before, during and after reading. For example, these experiences could be experiences with a certain type of text, experiences in school, or experiences with the demands of completing certain tasks (Garner, 1994).

Metacognitive Strategies

Students learn to control their learning through the use of metacognitive learning strategies. Using metacognitive strategies indicates that learners are aware that learning is a process and that they are also aware that they may need to learn a certain strategy so that they can accomplish learning more effectively (Vaidya, 1999). According to Smith, Rook and Smith (2007), teachers are responsible for identifying those learners who can benefit most from use of metacognitive strategies. Teachers can arm learners with ways to develop metacognitive questioning, an important executive function of the brain that helps students become productive learners, as they become more responsible for their own learning. Teachers can enhance metacognitive knowledge by:

• Embedding metacognitive strategies within the usual content-driven lesson across the curriculum;

• Teaching explicitly to learners through modeling and providing examples; and,

• Assessing informally (Ediger, 1999).

As Galucci (2006) states, teaching is not just to provide content, but that "the heart of teaching is providing students with the tools to make them more effective learners" (p. 19). Teachers can assess the progress of the application of these learning tools by providing learning goals and assessing learner progress toward the achievement of these goals. They can also model both general and content-specific metacognitive strategies by the way they articulate information knowledge from their content area, through use and employment of strategies, conduct discussions, share ideas; organize the classroom, and structure the learning experience (Duplass, 2006). Teachers also model how they think. Duplass explains that there are several ways that teachers can implement metacognitive modeling:

• In decision-making and problem-solving, as they model how to think during the process of working through the sequence of steps;

• In reading, as teachers ask rhetorical questions or makes comments to demonstrate the kinds of questions and thoughts that learners should process while reading; and,

• In questioning, as teachers ask questions and then explain how to answer them, sharing the thinking process and not necessarily the answers (Duplass, 2006, p. 205).

Examples of Metacognitive Strategies

Other strategies to promote metacognition include the use of case studies. Case studies provide students with an avenue for real-life experiences as they use problem-solving strategies to engage in questioning and monitoring their own approaches and learning, while developing a solution to the case. Comprehension monitoring also promotes metacognition, as readers of text evaluate their understanding of what is being read. The materials must make sense when readers reread to see if they may have misread words or the author's intended message. Comprehension monitoring can take place by using such metacognitive strategies as think-alouds. In think-aloud protocols, teachers provide a model of how readers monitor, question and recall what they have just read. As teachers model think-alouds, they raise questions or problems, then "think" out loud to the class as they demonstrate how a problem is resolved or how comprehension of materials occur (Duplass, 2006). Other useful metacognitive strategies include self-questioning generation as a way to develop questioning skills and the use graphic organizers to promote concrete visible models to enhance learning. Metacognitive journals also monitor learner awareness of students' learning and thinking processes.

Teachers can develop and present their own metacognitive strategies for use in the classroom, as they plan the strategy to be learned, model the strategy, use guided practice while monitoring the learners and provide feedback to the learners (Spring, 1985). Lock, Babkie, and Provost (2002) suggest certain steps that teachers can take to promote metacognitive strategy instruction. Teachers can:

• Study research about metacognition and update their own knowledge base;

• Determine areas of academic and social behaviors that are problematic for their learners;

• Determine if any published materials are available for insights into new strategies that are ready for use in the classroom;

• Determine their rationale for using certain strategies;

• Pretest learners to see what they already know about how to perform a task;

• Select and customize a strategy they think will help their students;

• Write their own strategies so that they can target specific areas for remediation;

• Model prompt and practice techniques with their students;

• Use strategies that promote teaching at mastery or above;

• Model strategies for learners after the basics have been taught;

• Use role playing, as teachers become "the student" and students become "the teacher;"

• Reinforce and repeat strategies to assure mastery;

• Post the strategy in their classroom for easy reference and reminder;

• Point to the strategy when learners need it;

• Make cue cards that outline a strategy that can be used at the learners' desks;

• Prompt learners to use a specific strategy;

• Target one strategy at a time; and,

• Train other faculty in use of metacognitive strategies (pp. 173-174).

Benefits for Novice Learners

Research shows that the teaching of metacognitive strategies works best for students who are novice learners. Halter (2007) defines novice learners as those students who "do not stop to evaluate their comprehension of material; who do not examine the quality of their work or stop to make revisions; [and] do not make connections or see the relevance of material in their lives" (p. 1). Novice learners lack the essential metacognitive monitoring, assessing and decision-making skills that are needed for successful problem-solving and learning. Schoenfeld (1985) states that these learners need to be explicitly trained to monitor their cognitive processes during problem-solving tasks.

Children with learning disabilities are also less likely to use effective metacognitive strategies, as they have difficulty developing their own methods for problem-solving. These learners can best benefit from explicit instruction, as comprehension of materials improves with such instruction (Eilers & Rogers, 2006). Smolkin and Donovan (2001) suggest that metacognitive strategies should begin earlier than have been traditionally presented in a learner's education. They suggest that first graders can benefit from explicit metacognitive strategies instruction in reading comprehension at the same time the readers are learning to decode words. However, use of age-appropriate and well-taught metacognitive strategies can be used as early as the kindergarten years (Lock, Babkie & Provost, 2002). In theory it is assumed that the development of metacognitive knowledge begins highly domain and situation-specific and becomes more flexible and domain-transcending with practice and experience (Neuenhaus et al., 2011).

Assessment

Metacognition is most effectively assessed in students through formative assessment. Harlen (2001) defines formative assessment as "gathering information about children's ongoing development of ideas and skills and using this in modifying activities and the teacher's interventions to meet the children's needs" . Formative assessment is ongoing and cyclical. It offers information about what learners know or do not know and how they decide what they need to know. Used as a technique to monitor students’ development during the learning session, formative assessment will reflect the school’s performance (Satayu, Boonchom & Yannapat, 2013). Information of this type can be used to improve instruction as well as advance student learning (Lee & Abell, 2007). Formative assessment is important in improving learners' metacognition because this form of feedback engages learners in thinking about their learning and progress (Harlen, 2001). When teachers provide formative assessment feedback, learners can begin to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and how they can raise their level of learning and performance to expectations (Sadler, 1989).

Applications

Use of Case Studies

Case studies provide students with an avenue for real-life experiences as they use problem-solving strategies to engage in questioning and monitoring their own approaches and learning while developing a solution to the case. Smith and Murphy (1998) state that there is metacognitive value in promoting the use of case studies in the classroom. Case studies provide:

• Awareness of and progress toward learning goals;

• Real-life experiences whereby learners must make decisions based on their understandings;

• Real-time discussion about real-life experiences;

• Application of concepts; and,

• An increase in understanding improving reasoning skills.

Self-Questioning

Self-questioning generation is the process of asking questions that enhance comprehension of material. By questioning, the reader concentrates on the material while checking his or her understanding of the material. Types of questions should be developed that incorporate cognitive processes such as: memory, convergence, divergence, and evaluation (Ciardiello, 1998).

Bonds and Bonds (1992) state that this metacognitive strategy develops questioning skills that learners can ask themselves when reading a passage. Learners can ask themselves such questions as:

• What is the main idea of this selection?

• How many supporting details are there?

• What are the supporting details?

• Are there examples to help clarify the main idea?

• What are the important dates, places, names or terminology they should recall? (p. 3)

Research shows that the use of self-questioning strategies is the most effective monitoring and regulating of learning of all the various metacognitive strategies available to learners (King, 1994; Rosenshine, Meister & Chapman, 1996). Best practice includes demonstrating questioning behaviors, as teachers model their own questioning skills through vocalizing their thoughts (King, 1992).

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are concrete, visual models that represent the skills or content that learners need to learn. Organizers provide a means for learners to organize content information and show visual relationships (Spring, 1985). Graphic organizers use various arrangements of lines, arrows, and text boxes to represent relations between concepts described in texts. These organizers can provide learners with a meaningful framework for relating prior knowledge to new information and enable them to make connections among new concepts (Hall et al., 2013).

Explicit Instruction

Yuill and Joscelyne (1988) state that learners who are less skilled in reading comprehension benefit from explicit instruction. Explicit instruction is the direct teaching of metacognitive strategies. Three specific metacognitive strategies that can be taught explicitly focus on prior knowledge, predicting and sequencing. Prior knowledge looks at text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections while reading. Predicting involves using context clues to make predictions. Sequencing involves readers distinguishing between important and less important details, as well as placing important events in correct order in which they occur in the text (Eilers & Rogers, 2006). Certain components are important in explicit instruction, such as proper pacing of a lesson, time for student responses, and feedback (Hill, 2002).

Lang and Evans (2006) outline the major features of explicit instruction:

• Teach in small steps;

• Provide guidance during initial practice;

• Provide time for students to practice after each step; and,

• Ensure a high level of success.

Metacognitive Journals

Metacognitive journals are journals that are used by learners to record their awareness of learning over time. Tasks that promote metacognitive awareness include:

• Monitoring incoming data (which includes rereading, questioning, restating, and summarizing);

• Formulating possible scenarios which involve predicting and hypothesizing;

• Bringing self to the text; and,

• Judging, evaluating, calling up prior knowledge, inferring and imaging (Schmitt, 1990).

Garner (1994) outlines procedures for promoting learning in metacognitive journals, such as making ten entries of the metacognitive strategies used while reading materials, particularly self-selected materials. These entries should include detailed processes that learners use and how these processes helped them comprehend their reading.

Think-Aloud

Think-aloud protocols provide a model of how readers monitor, question and recall what they have just read. As teachers model think alouds, they raise questions or problems, then "think" out loud to the class as they demonstrate how a problem is resolved or how comprehension of materials occur. Baumann, Jones, and Seifert-Kessell (1992) describe think-alouds as "the overt, verbal expression of the normally covert mental processes readers engage in when constructing meaning from a text" (p.144). Students think aloud about their understanding of material. Garner (1994) states that "think-aloud strategies include: making judgmental or evaluative comments, questioning; predicting, activating schema, monitoring, connecting text information to prior knowledge, and making inferences based on prior knowledge" (p. 72).

Reciprocal/Cooperative Learning

Reciprocal/cooperative learning is a form of cooperative learning in which learners assist one another in learning by exchanging roles during such tasks as asking and answering questions, giving and taking tests, and giving and following directions. Reciprocal/cooperative learning is "more effective in promoting the development of metacognitive strategies than learners working independently" (King, 1991, p. 333). Through this type of cooperative effort, learners provide mutual support, shared expertise and models of strategies they use to promote learning (Brown & Palincsar, 1988).

Viewpoints

Use of Formative Assessment

While summative assessment is important in monitoring learner progress, formative assessment is said to be the most optimal form of assessment for understanding what the students understand about how to learn. Harlen (2001) defines formative assessment as "gathering information about children's ongoing development of ideas and skills and using this in modifying activities and the teacher's interventions to meet the children's needs" (p. 64). Formative assessment is important in improving learners' metacognition because this form of feedback engages learners in thinking about their learning and progress (Harlen, 2001). When teachers provide formative assessment feedback, learners can begin to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and how they can raise their level of learning and performance to expectations (Sadler, 1989).

Harlen (2001) suggests ways in which formative assessment can foster metacognition. Teachers can:

• Figure out the most important ideas they want their students to learn, inform them of the purpose for the lesson, and plan ways to reveal what they know as the lesson progresses;

• Carefully listen to and observe the ways students develop and display their understandings; and,

• Make applications across the curriculum.

Terms & Concepts

Cognition: Cognition is the mental process of knowing, including awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

Cognitive Process: Cognitive process is the performance of some composite cognitive activity or operation that affects mental activity. "the process of thinking"; "the cognitive operation of remembering" This process is defined as "the process of thinking" and includes the higher mental processes of reasoning, planning, and problem solving.

Collaborative Learning: Collaborative learning is the grouping and pairing of students for the purpose of achieving an academic goal. In addition, the success of one student helps other students to be successful.

Constructivist Theory: Constructivist learning is described as "a dynamic, active, problem-solving process in which existing knowledge is modified, added to, or reconstructed" (Sheets, 1994, p. 1; Stahl, 1992).

Learning Strategies: Learning strategies are procedures that are undertaken by the learner. They are systematically thought out approaches, which enable learners to get from one point of learning to another. Vaidya (1999) states that the goal of learning strategies is to teach students how to become purposeful, effective, and independent learners (p. 2). These strategies may be most prominent in the early stages of learning and may become more automatic as learners become more aware of their needs in learning. There are three types of learning strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, and social/effective strategies (Zhi-Hong, 2007). Students who have learning disabilities must be taught strategies directly. Learning disabled students, as well as novice learners, may have inadequate prior knowledge, poor study skills, problems with maintaining sustained attention, cultural differences, or language differences that can be addressed through the teaching of strategies (Vaidya, 1999).

Novice Learners: Halter (2007) defines novice learners as those students who "do not stop to evaluate their comprehension of material…who do not examine the quality of their work or stop to make revisions….[and] do not make connections or see the relevance of material in their lives" . Novice learners lack the essential metacognitive monitoring, assessing and decision-making skills that are needed for successful problem-solving and learning. Schoenfeld (1985) states that these learners need to be explicitly trained to monitor their cognitive processes during problem.

Prior Knowledge: Prior knowledge is defined as the learner's preexisting knowledge, attitudes, and experiences.

Summative Assessment: Summative assessment is used to check the level of learning at the end of the lesson.

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Metacognition

On this Page

Subject Terms

Metacognition

Teaching Methods > Metacognition

Overview

Components of Metacognition

Metacognitive Strategies

Examples of Metacognitive Strategies

Benefits for Novice Learners

Assessment

Applications

Use of Case Studies

Self-Questioning

Graphic Organizers

Explicit Instruction

Metacognitive Journals

Think-Aloud

Reciprocal/Cooperative Learning

Viewpoints

Use of Formative Assessment

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading