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Metacognitive Teaching strategies

Metacognition is often referred to as “thinking about thinking.” But that’s just a quick
definition. Metacognition is a regulatory system that helps a person understand and control his or
her own cognitive performance.
Metacognition allows people to take charge of their own learning. It involves awareness of how
they learn, an evaluation of their learning needs, generating strategies to meet these needs and
then implementing the strategies. (Hacker, 2009)

Metacognitive strategies refers to methods used to help students understand the way
they learn; in other words, it means processes designed for students to ‘think’ about their
‘thinking’. Teachers who use metacognitive strategies can positively impact students who have
learning disabilities by helping them to develop an appropriate plan for learning information,
which can be memorized and eventually routine. As students become aware of how they learn,
they will use these processes to efficiently acquire new information, and consequently, become
more of an independent thinker. ‘Metacognitive strategies empower students to think about their
own thinking. Awareness of the learning process enhances control over their own learning. It also
enhances personal capacity for self-regulation and managing one’s own motivation for learning.
Metacognitive activities can include planning how to approach learning tasks, identifying
appropriate strategies to complete a task, evaluating progress, and monitoring comprehension.’

Metacognitive Teachings Strategies:

 Metacognitive Awareness Inventory


 Pre-assessment (Self-Assessment) of Content
 Self- Assessment of Self-Regulated Learning Skills
 Thinks Aloud for Metacognition
 Concept Mapping and Visual Study Tools
 Metacognitive Note Taking Skills
 Reflective Writing
 Wrappers
 Retrospective Post-Assessment

How do you learn?


Metacognitive strategies facilitate learning how to learn. I can incorporate these, as appropriate,
into my own learning strategy.

 Ask Questions. Asking questions allows me to reflect on my own learning processes and
strategies. It also allows for enhance comprehension

 Foster Self-Reflection. Critically analyze my own assumptions and how these


assumptions have influenced my learning.

 Adopt Autonomous Learning. Challenge how I learn information. Is it the most efficient
and effective way of learning.
 Find a Mentor. Many people learn best by interacting with peers who are slightly more
advanced. I look for opportunities to observe the proficient use of a skill by a mentor, ask
questions and learn from their learning experiences.

 Find a Group: Cooperative problem solving can enhance metacognitive strategies by


discussing possible approaches with group members and learning from each other. This
can be an excellent way of testing my knowledge on a given subject.

 Think Aloud. Report my thoughts while performing a difficult task. Discover any
potential errors in thinking to address any sabotaging thoughts or language while learning
new information.

 Self-Explanation. Talking aloud while learning new information can help me to improve
my comprehension of a difficult subject.

 Be ok with Making Errors. We are all given the opportunity to make errors while
learning. So I allow myself to make mistakes as learning is about the process of getting to
know information, not the arrival at knowing information perfect.
Self-Assessment of Content

Assessment refers to the act of determining or estimating the value of something and
making appropriate judgments on issues. It is used interchangeably with words like evaluation,
examination etc. Similarly, self-assessment is the ability to examine yourself to find out how
much progress you have made. It is a skill that helps individuals monitor their own work or
abilities, find out what their weaknesses and strengths are, and self-diagnose relevant solutions
The purpose of self-assessment is to help the individual know the extent of his abilities
and to improve upon them without the need of a performance appraiser. It involves the use of
questions such as; what are my strengths; what are the obstacles, etc.
Self-assessment is part of the formal employee appraisal in some organizations, where the
employee is permitted to provide his own version of his development over the past year.
Although some organizations don’t regard it so much, others value it in high esteem. It is also a
simple activity such as finding out what students already know about a topic can help students
begin to think about how learning works.
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.
Have the students individually hand in their responses anonymously. Skim through the answers
after class. Possibly categorize/summarize all responses by themes.
Share responses with students the next class either verbally or a summary of themes.
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.
Why is it important to assess yourself?

Self-assessment is a reflective process where us students use the criteria to evaluate our
performance and determine how to improve. It is important to distinguish self-assessment from
self-evaluation because it is where students have input on their grades. Self-assessment is meant
to be formative and helps me to improve subsequent performance. It has been demonstrated that
self-assessment is critical for both current and lifelong learning because it enables me to learn
more about myself by identifying the things I want to learn and the process on how I think and
the strategies, skills and approaches that I’ve used in learning. It increases my self-motivation
because as I identify my own strength and abilities have enlightened me to motivate myself more
to do well and encourage me to reach success. Having self-assessment empowers me to take
responsibility for my learning and leads to increases my student learning because the process of
self-assessment increases metacognition, students also become more proficient at evaluating
their progress toward completing a task, a key facet of self-regulated learning.

It is important to assess myself because the most important subject none of us have ever
been taught is how to learn about ourselves. We are never given a process, method, framework or
strategy for learning about ourselves. We learn about ourselves purely through trial and error. It
seems very inefficient, but then again no one has ever been you before in human history.
Learning about yourself takes a lot of time, but it’s well worth the investment. The more you
know about yourself, the better decisions you’ll make about the lifestyle you’ve always wanted
to live. Self-knowledge will enable you to use your energy more efficiently by aligning your
habits with your purpose. The more you know about yourself, the more confidence you’ll have in
your decisions.
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.

Student success is too often challenged by a lack of metacognition and ability to self-
regulate learning. This commentary argues that the use of self-assessment to increase student
metacognition positively impacts student learning and self-regulation. In addition, several
strategies for incorporating self-assessment will be presented.

Self-regulated learners have agency over their learning before, during and after learning
experiences. They are able to effectively evaluate their knowledge and the gaps in their
knowledge, determine the effectiveness of their learning strategies and make changes to increase
effectiveness in future learning experiences. In the long-term, the self-regulated learner becomes
an adaptive expert (Bain 2004)—able to troubleshoot problems, propose creative and innovative
solutions, and able to overcome diversity. These skills will lead to success not only in our
classrooms, but also in STEM fields that rapidly advance and require professionals to constantly
acquire and apply new knowledge.
What approach do you use and how does it help you in learning?

Back then, I use surface approach I tend to find I have to concentrate on just memorizing a
good deal of what I have to learn, I am not really sure what’s important in lectures, so I try to get
down all I can. I tend to read very little beyond what is actually required to pass. I concentrate on
learning just those bits of information that I have to know to pass. I like to be told precisely what
to do in essays or other assignments. I often seem to panic if I get behind in my work. Often I find
myself wondering whether the work I am doing here is really worthwhile but based on my
experienced I realized that it is not effective in terms of my learning and it leads me to have poor
performance.

But now I started to use Deep approach because as I observed it very effective in terms of
my performance it enables me to focus and think wisely the things that I am trying learn and
understand. This approach helps me to think that When I am reading I should stop from time to
time to reflect on what I am trying to learn from it so I can deeply understand the topic and When
I am working on a new topic, I try to see in my own mind how all the ideas fit together. Also I
often find myself questioning things I hear in lectures or read in books to clarify the things that I
don’t understand. Some of the ideas I come across on the course I find really gripping. And I
usually set out to understand for myself the meaning of what we have to learn. Sometimes I like
to play around with ideas of my own even if they don’t get me far because it is important for me
to be able to follow the argument, or to see the reason behind things.
Think Alouds for Metacognition

Think Aloud is among the most effective strategies to use with English language learners.
It is especially helpful for predicting and summarizing. Model this strategy explicitly and
frequently during mini-lessons. Thinking aloud is a meta-cognitive process; by demonstrating
these techniques, teachers encourage self-awareness and show English language learners that
they, too, are ongoing learners as well.

Think Aloud encourages students to describe their individual process for reading and
connecting to the text. Community sharing broadens student understanding that each member of
the classroom community contributes a unique perspective and experience. The Think Aloud
strategy encourages conversations about reading for understanding, giving you insight into how
your students are processing texts. By modeling, turning over responsibility to the student and
observing her think aloud as she reads, you can identify what reading comprehension skills she
has mastered and which she may need to develop. Think Aloud also fosters meta-cognition skills
necessary for students to become successful independent readers.

The think-aloud strategy asks students to say out loud what they are thinking about when
reading, solving math problems, or simply responding to questions posed by teachers or other
students. This resources explains the strategy and provides tips on how to model it for students so
that make it a habit in math, reading, and science classes. This strategy makes an excellent
addition to the learning methods taught in your curriculum. The think-aloud strategy asks
students to say out loud what they are thinking about when reading, solving math problems, or
simply responding to questions posed by teachers or other students. Effective teachers think out
loud on a regular basis to model this process for students. In this way, they demonstrate practical
ways of approaching difficult problems while bringing to the surface the complex thinking
processes that underlie reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving, and other
cognitively demanding tasks.
How would you apply this concept in your learning?

I would apply this concept in my learning by using it as my strategy to learn. For


example, if the teacher used the think aloud strategy I should listen carefully in order for me to
understand what the teacher is talking about. And by using think alouds when I am reading a
book, I should ask questions before, during and after reading the book because the questions will
help me understand what I am reading. And also it helps me to internalize what I am saying.
Think-alouds helps us students learn to monitor our thinking as we listen or read and it improves
our comprehension. Also I should consider to have a clear understanding of the tasks I am
required to accomplish, which would in return enable them to adopt the most appropriate
learning strategy. I should be aware of my learning goals that may hinder my capacity to adopt
the most appropriate learning strategies. If this concept is not applied this will tend to have a
much lower understanding of what they read, which was caused by lack of awareness of exactly
what was to be deduced from a piece of reading.

Think Alouds help me learn to monitor their thinking as I read an assigned passage. I am
directed by a series of questions which I think about and answer aloud while reading. This
process reveals how much I understand a text. As I become more adept at this technique they
learn to generate their own questions to guide comprehension. Because Think Alouds are
practical and relatively easy for teachers to use within the classroom. Teachers are able to model
the Think Aloud technique and discuss how good readers often re-read a sentence, read ahead to
clarify, and/or look for context clues to make sense of what they read. Think alouds slow down
the reading process and allow students to monitor their understanding of a text. As a student, as I
apply this concept this will be very helpful in my learning.
Concept Mapping

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:

Construct a Focus Question


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
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

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