24 Nurturing students’ metacognition

Metacognition refers to being critically aware of one’s own thoughts and cognitive processes, and it is usually defined as “thinking about thinking.” In teaching and learning, metacognitive awareness helps students plan, monitor, and assess their understanding and reflect on their performance. Developing metacognition as part of the learning experience increases students’ academic performance, self-assessment skills, ability to transfer and apply their knowledge to new learning contexts, creativity, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 12; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Schoenfeld, 1983, 1985, 1991; McGuire, 2015; Tanner, 2012).

The previous chapter discussed classroom assessment techniques (CATs) such as minute paper activities, the muddiest point, and entry and exit tickets. These activities can increase students’ metacognitive awareness and help them identify and refine their cognitive processes. Here are some additional evidence-based strategies that nurture metacognition:

• Encourage students to investigate and explore their background knowledge, preexisting assumptions, and current thinking before introducing new material.
• Ask reflective questions. An example of a reflective question is “What knowledge and skills related to the new topic could guide my learning?”
• Use the KWL (Know, Want to Know, and Learned) activity, where students fill out a chart with three sections: What I know about the topic, what I want to know, and what I have learned. Students fill out the first two columns before being introduced to the new material, and they complete the last one about what they have learned at the end of the class.
• Incorporate self-assessment and reflection practices into credited work. Exam or assignment “wrappers” are brief forms that students fill out along with exams that prompt them to reflect on their learning. These writing tools guide students’ reflection on assignments in connection to future learning (Lovett, 2008). You can facilitate pre-reflection on the exam through prompts like “What strategies did you use to prepare for the exam?” or “Could you describe your performing goals and what you hope to achieve through this exam?” After students receive their graded work, the post-exam wrapper asks questions like “Now that you have looked over your exam, what kinds of errors did you make, and what could you do differently next time? Describe your next steps and major takeaways.” Answering these questions can increase students’ self-assessment skills; help them become aware of how they approach assignments, problem sets, and projects; and allow them to identify effective learning strategies along with areas for improvement.
• Create an ICON discussion forum in which students can monitor, discuss, and share their cognitive processes, strategies for notetaking and preparing for exams, designing projects, study goals, teamwork, and questions about studying or potential learning opportunities.
• Make your pedagogical decisions, disciplinary behaviors, and reflective processes transparent and visible to your students. To model thinking in your field, use rationales in your instruction and lesson planning and think aloud as you share new material with students, solve a problem, analyze a text, etc. Explain the steps you take in your thinking processes.

💡 Please reflect: