CHAPTER 2

This chapter discusses the important knowledge, concepts, principles and theories
of Metacognition. The chapter provides strategies for learning as a novice or expert
learner.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Understand each theory of learning.
2. Explain the strategies for each theory of facilitating learning. 3.
Recognize the practice of metacognition and the teaching strategies to
develop metacognition
What is metacognition?

Metacognition describes the processes involved when learners plan, monitor, evaluate
and make changes to their own learning behaviours. It is 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.

Metacognition is often considered to have two dimensions: metacognitive knowledge

and metacognitive regulation.

Metacognitive knowledge refers to what learners know about learning. This includes:

- the learner’s knowledge of their own cognitive abilities (e.g. ‘I have trouble
remembering dates in history’)

- the learner’s knowledge of particular tasks (e.g. ‘The ideas in this chapter that I’m
going to read are complex’)

- the learner’s knowledge of different strategies that are available to them and when
they are appropriate to the task (e.g. ‘If I scan the text first it will help me to
understand the overall meaning').

Metacognitive regulation refers to what learners do about learning. It describes how

learners monitor and control their cognitive processes. For example, a learner might
realise that a particular strategy is not achieving the results they want, so they decide to
try a different strategy.

During the planning phase, learners think about the learning goal the teacher has set
and consider how they will approach the task and which strategies they will use. At this
stage, it is helpful for learners to ask themselves:

‘What am I being asked to do?’

‘Which strategies will I use?’
‘Are there any strategies that I have used before that might be useful?’

During the monitoring phase, learners implement their plan and monitor the progress
they are making towards their learning goal.

Students might decide to make changes to the strategies they are using if these are not
working. As students work through the task, it will help them to ask themselves:

‘Is the strategy that I am using working?’

‘Do I need to try something different?’

During the evaluation phase, students determine how successful the strategy they
used was in helping them to achieve their learning goal. To promote evaluation,
students could consider:

‘How well did I do?’

‘What didn’t go well?’ ‘What could I do differently next time?’
‘What went well?’ ‘What other types of problem can I use this strategy for?’

Reflection is a fundamental part of the plan-monitor-evaluate process. Encouraging

learners to self-question throughout the process will support this reflection.
In the rest of this unit, we will look at the basics of metacognition in more detail. We will
discuss the benefits, look at the theory behind metacognition and discover some
practical examples.

10 Metacognitive Strategies to Facilitate Learning

1. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory

There are two processes going on around learning how to learn. Most often students
(and adults) are unware of what they are and what is required to improve them.

1. Knowledge of Cognition (Declarative, Procedural, and Conditional)

A. Awareness of factors that influence your own learning

B. Knowing a collection of strategies to use for learning

C. Choosing the appropriate strategy for the specific learning situation

2. Regulation of Cognition

A. Setting goals and planning

B. Monitoring and controlling learning
C. Evaluating own regulation (assessing if the strategy you are using is
working or not, making adjustments and trying something new)

In 1994, Schraw and Dennison created the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI)
specifically for adult learners to bring awareness of metacognitive knowledge and
metacognitive regulation (which they referred to “Knowledge of Cognition Factor” and
“Regulation of Cognition Factor” respectively).

The MAI consists of 52 questions that cover these two components of cognition. They
found through their research there was strong support for both of these factors and that
they were also related as had been suggested by previous researchers.

Recent research has uncovered a significant correlation between the MAI and some
measures of academic achievement (e.g., GPA, end of course grades etc.) However,
when looking at undergraduate students and graduate students (younger adults and
older adults) it was found that they do not differ in their mean scores on the ‘Knowledge
of Cognition’ areas (similar for both groups), but they do differ in terms of their
regulation strategies and skills.

‘Knowledge of Cognition’ is more easily acquired and improved. ‘Regulation of Cognition’

strategies are not that easy to acquire and most often students won’t improve over time
in their Regulation scores – because they need to learn the strategies and have chances
to practice in and out of classroom experiences. They need their instructors to use some
of the teaching strategies in this booklet to help them build their strategies around
regulation of learning.

2. Pre-assessment (Self-Assessment) of Content

A simple activity such as finding out what students already know about a topic can help
students begin to think about how learning works.
Here are a few ways to conduct a pre-assessment (or a student self-assessment) of new
content.

1. Create a few key questions about the content/topic a week prior to the class.

Questions should ask students what they know already about the topic, possible
identification of any misconceptions they hold on the topic, challenges or successes
they have had with the topic, exploration into past experiences or applications of
the content/topic.

These questions may be in the form of a homework assignment, a set of clicker

questions for in class voting, a short reflective writing piece done in class and
handed in.

2. Have the students individually hand in their responses anonymously. Skim

through the answers after class. Possibly categorize/summarize all responses by
themes.
3. Share responses with students the next class either verbally or a summary of
themes.
4. Have a discussion with students about how asking these questions can help
them in thoughtful planning of how they might approach a new idea or topic or
how they will approach course content and associated studying/learning
strategies.
 3. Self-Assessment of Self-Regulated Learning Skills
Students aren’t going to learn how to be good learners unless we engage them in
activities and discussions about how they perceive themselves as learners – and to see
what approaches are working and not working for their learning.

Here are 21 statements you could pose to students to start them thinking about
how they think and think about how they learn. Ideally we hope to have students
utilizing deep approaches to learn rather than surface approaches. Strategic approaches
are somewhere in between the two but don’t really result in longer term and
meaningful learning.

Surface Approach to Learning Questions

1. I find I have to concentrate on just memorizing a good deal of what I have to

learn.
2. I am not really sure what’s important in lectures, so I try to get down all I can. 3.
I tend to read very little beyond what is actually required to pass. 4. I concentrate on
learning just those bits of information that I have to know to pass.
5. I like to be told precisely what to do in essays or other assignments.
6. I often seem to panic if I get behind in my work.
7. Often I find myself wondering whether the work I am doing here is really
worthwhile.

Strategic Approach to Learning Questions

1. I think I am quite systematic and organized when it comes to studying for exams.
2. I am pretty good at getting down to work whenever I need to.
3. I organize my study time carefully to make the best use of it.
4. Before starting work on an assignment or exam question, I think first how best to
tackle it.
5. I look carefully at my instructor’s comments on course work to see how to get
higher marks the next time.
6. I put a lot of effort into studying because I am determined to do well. 7. When I
have finished a piece of work, I check it through to see if it really meets
requirements.

Deep Approach to Learning Questions

 1. When I am reading I stop from time to time to reflect on what I am trying to learn
from it.
2. When I am working on a new topic, I try to see in my own mind how all the ideas
fit together.
3. Often I find myself questioning things I hear in lectures or read in books. 4. Some
of the ideas I come across on the course I find really gripping. 5. I usually set out to
understand for myself the meaning of what we have to learn. 6. I like to play around
with ideas of my own even if they don’t get me far. 7. It is important for me to be
able to follow the argument, or to see the reason behind things.

All items are to be responded by choosing from “strongly agree”, “somewhat agree”,
“somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree”.
These items come from ASSIST (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students)
designed to evaluate university students’ conceptualizations of learning, approaches to
studying and preferences for different instructional methods (Centre for Research on
Learning and Instruction, University of Edinburgh). The ASSIST tool identifies three main
approaches to studying: deep, strategic and surface. Deep and strategic approaches
usually result in greater success where surface approaches may result in poorer
performance by students.

You may put a few of these statements on a slide or on the whiteboard and ask if
anyone uses that technique, or you may have a discussion around a collection of
statements.

Or you could use the handout on this page and give to students and ask them to check
off their level of agreement with each statement. Once completed, ask the students to
identify the “approach” for each collection of statements and have them fill in the type
of approach used. (Answer: Surface, Strategic and Deep).

4. Think Alouds for Metacognition

As the instructor, you are an expert in your field. It can be almost impossible to
remember a time when you did not think ‘the way you currently do about your
discipline’. At one time you were confused or unsure about studying your discipline. If
you can offer to students examples of your own self-reflective examples of your own
transition into thinking like an expert in your discipline, this can help students a lot. As
researchers and reflective practitioners we are thinking metacognitively all the time
(thinking about your own questions, how your thinking has evolved, how you
incorporate new knowledge into your practice etc.)

Anytime you can talk out loud (‘think aloud’) about how you view a document or a
picture or think about a book, or share your thinking processes with students you are
helping them become more metacognitive in their own approaches to the subject.

Once you have modelled for them how you would solve a problem or interpret a piece of
writing, have students work in pairs to talk out loud as to how they are thinking about
an assignment piece of homework or an assignment.

1. One student talks out loud while the partner records what they are saying (the
strategy going to be used to complete the homework or do the assignment). The
partner also guides them to think through all the steps.
2. Students switch roles and do the same for each other.
3. Now students have thought out the process for completing the assignment or
homework, received some feedback from their partner and possibly have a plan
written down as to how they are going to undertake the task. Debrief briefly with
class as to lessons learned etc

“[I]t 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.” (Weimer, 2012)

5. Concept Mapping and Visual Study Tools

Concept maps were originally developed to enhance meaningful learning in the sciences.
A concept map is a way of representing relationships between ideas, images or words.
Concept maps are a way to develop logical thinking and study skills by revealing
connections to the big ideas or the key concepts you are trying to teach. Concept maps
will also help students see how individual ideas relate to the larger whole or the bigger
picture.

Learning benefits can be derived from instructor-led or student-constructed concept

maps of the connections and key ideas from a course or class. It is best that the
instructor demonstrate how to design a concept map of a class or course before
students are asked to do the same. Show students how the readings, videos,
assignments and activities are connected to the course learning outcomes and other
courses.

Design a brief or detailed concept map of the course or sub-components of the course
and share with students. Then later on in course students can form small groups and
build a concept map as a review activity before a mid-term or as a review of a portion of
the course. Students can do for homework or they can do in class and share with each
other explaining the interrelationships between each component. Ask the students to
draw all the ‘cross-links’ and label them as they see the components connecting fully or
partially.
How to use a Concept Map
Every concept map responds to a focus question, and a good focus question can lead to
a much richer concept map. When learning to construct concept maps, learners tend to
deviate from the focus question and build a concept map that may be related to the
domain, but which does not answer the question. It is often stated that the first step to
learning about something is to ask the right questions. Steps to create a concept map:

1. Construct a Focus Question

2. Identify the Key concepts
∙ Some people rank the concepts by importance as it may help with the
construction of the map
∙ This also helps the map maker sort the ideas and if they see no relevant
connection they do not have to include the concept
3. Construct a Map
∙ If this is the first time you are doing one – do it as a group first

∙ You can use partially completed version with students to help them initially
build
6. Classroom Assessment Tools
There are many short activities you can do during class time that will help promote
metacognitive thinking in your students.

Sometimes these little activities are called “Classroom Assessment Tools – CATS” (term
coined by Angelo and Cross).
 Here is a sampling of a few tools to consider. They often take a few minutes to do and
are easy to implement. CATs give students and faculty immediate feedback on learning.

7. Metacognitive Note Taking Skills

Provide students with guidance and models for how to take good notes during a class.
Here is a suggestion for a format you can replicate or draw on the board and discuss
with students.

Beginning of Class (Plan + Connect)

In this section, encourage students to prepare their notes in an organized fashion. Stop
the class and have them complete the connections questions in their notes. This will
help them start thinking about how this class fits in with what they already know or
want to know more about.

Date: Course Name: Class Learning Outcomes: Connections:

∙ What do I already know about this topic?

∙ How do I feel about this topic? (excited, anxious, curious, nervous) ∙

How does this topic relate to something I already know?
∙ What questions do I have already about this topic?

Middle of Class (Monitoring Learning)

In this section, encourage students to create 2 columns in their notes. In the left column
ask students to record insights, ‘ah-ha’ moments, questions students have about the
content, connections they are making to other classes/topics, and also any feelings or
thoughts they have on the class. In the right column they take traditional notes on what
is being presented. Encourage students to refrain from writing everything. Write key
concepts and headings on the board and indicate to students when you are shifting to a
new section or concept.

Learning Insights Class Notes

End of Class (Reflecting on Learning)
Near the end of class, ask students to draw a line below their notes and write a
summary of the whole class. Just a few sentences is enough to get students thinking
about the key learning that has just happened and what the whole class was about.

You can also write a few prompts on the board to help students with their summary
note (e.g., what were the most important ideas from today’s class? what did I find most
interesting in class today? how did today’s content relate to another class?

8. Reflective Writing
Reflective writing helps students make connections between what they are learning in
their homework/class content and with how they are integrating the content into their
current learning structures. Writing helps students observe themselves before, during
and after their reading, watching and listening experience. Reflective writing can also
take the form of jotting down their affective and other personal reactions to learning the
material. The most popular reflective writing activity is the “minute paper” whereby you
have students respond to prompts that ask them to think about their experiences with
the homework, class activities or recent learning experiences in your class. Here are
some sample prompts to use for your reflective writing activities:

∙ The most important part of the reading, video or class is….

∙ The most useful or valuable thing(s) I learned today was….

∙ The most surprising or unexpected idea I encountered was…

∙ The ideas that stand out the most in my mind are….

 ∙ This helped or hindered my understanding of the reading, video or class ….
∙ Two ideas that I have found confusing are….

∙ “I learned a lot doing this assignment”. I agree (or disagree) because…. ∙ The advice
I’d give myself based on what I know now and if I were starting this assignment
over again would be….
∙ If I were to paraphrase what we have learned today for a high school student it
would look like this….
∙ What I have learned today, I am able to connect to other courses in this way…

Metacognition: Purposefully thinking about one’s own thinking strategies – when

students are able to “learn to think” and “think to learn”

Three critical steps to teaching metacognition:

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

9. Wrappers
A quick and easy tool for monitoring and evaluating metacognitive activity. A wrapper is
an activity that surrounds pre-existing learning or assessment task and fosters students’
metacognition. You can build a self-monitoring wrapper around any pre-existing part of
a course (lecture, homework, or test)

Why Wrappers Work

∙ Time efficient

∙ Students are doing the task anyway

∙ Only add a few minutes to a task

∙ Metacognition practice is built in to the that task

∙ Students are self-monitoring in context

 ∙ Feedback on accuracy can be built in

∙ Feedback is immediate

∙ Support can gradually be faded out

∙ in just 3 lessons most students are successful on their own

∙ Minor
Interventions can significantly change behavior
Course/Lesson Wrapper

1. Before Lesson Begins: Indicate to students that in the last minutes of class
they will be asked to consider the 3 key ideas from the class. Give the students a
few tips on how to actively listen, make effective class notes and engage with
the content and activities (e.g., while listening think of questions they have
about topic, provide headings on board for students to organize notes, ask
students to summarize and repeat back key content to peers in activities etc.).
2. Near End of Lesson: 10 -15 minutes before class ends, ask students to write 3
key ideas from the class. Students can do individually (on own paper, on a stickie
note they paste on board) or do in small groups (on chart paper, on
white/blackboard) and share (individual volunteers, reps from small groups,
teacher summarizing themes from notes on board).
3. Teacher gives his/her list of 3 key ideas for students to self-check. Students
record the differences between their responses and the teacher’s.
4. Debrief: Have a brief discussion around similarities/differences between
students’ and teacher’s 3 key ideas. Summarize class.

Homework Wrapper

1. Instructor creates self-assessment questions that focus on skills students should

be monitoring
2. Students answer questions just before homework
3. Complete homework as usual
4. After homework, answer similar self-assessment questions and draw their own
conclusions

Example
Pre Self-assessment: “This homework is about vector arithmetic… How easily can you
solve problems that involve vector subtraction? How confident are you in being
successful with the homework?”

Post Self-assessment: “Now that you have completed this homework, how easily can
you solve problems around this topic? How confident are you in being successful with
future homework around this topic or a test question?”
Exam/Test Wrapper
Most times instructors hand back exams (tests, quizzes, mid-terms) and focus the
discussion on the exam questions, the areas where students did well or poorly and
rarely engage students in a learning experience around how they prepared, studied or
took the test. An exam wrapper is often a handout with a series of questions students
answer and then discuss. A process might be:

1. Students utilize normal test taking strategies to prepare and take the first exam.
2. The first exam is returned and students complete the exam wrapper either in class
or online within a course management system. (Instructors can either make the
assignment required or award participation points for completion).
3. The instructor collects the exam wrapper and reviews student comments. This
allows the instructor to assess student behavior patterns and determine whether
the teaching staff needs to include additional teaching resources to support
student learning.
4. The exam wrapper is returned to students within a week or two before the next
exam. Students review their comments and then have the opportunity to follow
their own advice for studying

Possible Questions for Exam Wrappers

Preparation for Exam

1. How did you prepare for the exam? Explain your process.
2. What resources did you use in preparing for taking the exam?
3. How does your exam preparation compare to three other peers in the class (ask
them)

Planning

1. What strategies did you use for studying (e.g., study groups, online practice
quizzes, office hours with instructor, review sessions, peer teaching etc.)? 2. How
 much time did you study (and how long over what time period)? 3. What aspects of
the course did you spend more time on (or less time on) based on your current
understanding.
4. What percentage of your exam preparation time was spent on these activities?
(re-reading the textbook section(s)___?; reviewing your own notes (daily)___?,
reviewing your own notes (sporadically)____?; reviewing PowerPoint
presentations from lecture ____?; generating your own exam questions and
answering them____?; studying in groups_____?; other strategies____?

Performance

1. How did your actual grade on this exam compare with the grade you expected?
How do you explain the difference, if any?
2. How do you feel about your exam grade (happy, surprised, disappointed)? 3.
Examine the items on which you lost points and look for patterns. Were you careless
or did you run out of time?

Next Steps

1. What are you going to do differently for your next exam?

2. What might be your goal (e.g., certain percentage)?
3. What study strategies are you going to use next time to enable you to get that
score?

10. Retrospective Post-Assessment

Near the end of a topic or end of the course, ask students to reflect (retrospectively) as
to what they thought about a topic or concept before the course and what they think
about it now. Learning is about change and this activity asks students to reflect on the
changes in their knowledge, skills and attitudes and put that into perspective for moving
forward. This activity engages students in a mechanism to train students to ‘self
question’, “How has my thinking changes (or not changed) over time?”

1. Some instructors record the thoughts of students at the beginning of the course
and keep those responses until the end of the course – and revisit those
responses. Alternatively, after learning has taken place (after a class or near end
of a course) ask students to recall how they were thinking about the topic prior
to the course learning activities and compare that with how they are thinking
 about the same topic now.
2. Possibly write two prompts on the board to help students: “Before this course I
thought X was….” and “Now I think X is….” OR ask them to write three ways in
which their thinking has changed over the time period (a few classes or the
course).
3. Ask students to complete this task on their own on a piece of paper. During the
last class, have a discussion with students as to how much ‘change’ has occurred
in their learning. Students could also discuss their responses in small groups and
share a summary with the class.

What are the benefits of metacognition?

1. Metacognition helps students to become independent learners

Metacognitive practices help learners to monitor their own progress and take
control of their learning as they read, write and solve problems in the classroom.

2. Metacognition has a positive impact on learning

Metacognition makes a unique contribution to learning over and above the
influence of intellectual ability. Learners who use metacognitive strategies are
likely to be able to achieve more. Research shows that improving a learner’s
metacognitive practices may compensate for any cognitive limitations they have.

“Too often, we teach students what to think but not how to think.” - OECD
Insights (2014)

3. Metacognition is useful across a range of ages and subjects

Metacognitive practices are useful for all learners from primary level
upwards. Using metacognition improves students’ academic achievement across
learning domains. Metacognitive skills help students to transfer what they have
learnt from one context to another or from a previous task to a new task. This
includes reading and text comprehension, writing, mathematics, reasoning and
problem-solving, and memorizing.

4. Metacognition is not expensive to implement

Unlike many other educational interventions, implementing metacognition
does not require expensive, specialist equipment or changes to school
infrastructure. The only cost of implementing a metacognitive approach is the
cost of professional development. Later we will look at practical ways you can
introduce metacognition into your school.
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.

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

B. 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.

C. 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.

D. 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?’

E. 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.

F. 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.

NOVICE AND EXPERT LEARNERS

Novice learners are well-intentioned folks who are typically brimming with enthusiasm
while lacking actual knowledge about the subject being taught. They have limited or
nonexistent experience with most of their understanding of the subject based on basic
rules. Because of this, their ability to perform is rather limited.
Experts, on the other hand, know a significant amount about the subject and how it’s
organized meaning they cannot only understand but can add to a lesson. Their abilities
allow them to take in the larger picture and not fixate on minor attributes (as
summarized by Ross, Phillips, Klein, & Cohn, 2005). Expert learners are able to apply
what they learn to create a far more intuitive way of working.

ASSESSMENT

1. Surf the internet and make a collection of metacognitive strategies

that can make learning more effective and efficient.
2. Based on the principles of metacognition, prepare your own
metacognitive game plan on how you can apply metacognition to
improve your study skills.
References

Getting started with Metacognition. Retrieved from https://cambridge

community.org.uk/professional-development/gswmeta/index.html

Metacognition. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub

pages/metacognition/#:~:text=Metacognition%20is%2C%20put%20simply%2C%20thi
nking,as%20a%20thinker%20and%20learner.

10 Metacognitive Strategies to Facilitate learning. Retrieved from

https://ciel.viu.ca/teaching-learning-pedagogy/designing-your-course/how-learning
works/ten-metacognitive-teaching-strategies