Getting started with metacognition

Back in October, I attended a session on metacognition by Professor Daniel Muijs at #TLT17, as part of my Teaching and Learning role. In this session, Professor Muijs got us to think about what we think metacognition is, before presenting us with an overview of his research for the Education Endowment Foundation.

So what is metacognition? Put simply, it is about learning how to learn. 

Dylan William explains metacognition very clearly in this YouTube clip. He explains that we can teach students how to think about, own and manage their learning to use their brain in the most effective way.

The Sutton Trust have found that metacognition approaches have consistently high levels of impact, for minimum cost. This is an extract from their review:

Meta-cognition and self-regulation approaches have consistently high levels of impact, with pupils making an average of eight months’ additional progress. The evidence indicates that teaching these strategies can be particularly effective for low achieving and older pupils.

They make the following points:-

- the strategies are most effective when taught in collaborative groups so students can discuss and share their thinking;

- metacognition can be difficult to achieve because it requires students to develop greater autonomy;

- there is no simple method for embedding metacognitive strategies;

- scaffolding is helpful: teachers provide support when presenting a new concept then gradually withdraw it so learners can manage their learning autonomously. 

The full review can be found here.  

How can we begin to embed metacognitive strategies into our teaching? A useful starting point is the EEF metacognition toolkit, which is quoted from here:-

Before you implement this strategy in your learning environment, consider the following:

1. Teaching approaches which encourage learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning have very high potential, but require careful implementation.

2. Have you taught pupils explicit strategies on how to plan, monitor and evaluate specific aspects of their learning? Have you given them opportunities to use them with support and then independently?

3. Teaching how to plan: Have you asked pupils to identify the different ways that they could plan (general strategies) and then how best to approach a particular task (specific technique)?

4. Teaching how to monitor: Have you asked pupils to consider where the task might go wrong? Have you asked the pupils to identify the key steps for keeping the task on track?

5. Teaching how to evaluate: Have you asked pupils to consider how they would improve their approach to the task if they completed it again?

Another useful starting point is this blogpost from Inner Drive, which suggests 9 key questions that can be asked to help develop metacognitive strategies: (see also poster below, which can be downloaded here.)

Metacognitive strategies can be divided into three sections. These are: helping students plan; monitoring; and evaluating their learning. This ‘before, during and after’ approach is very similar to the ‘Plan-Do-Review’ mantra which is heavily used in elite sport, including by many members of Team GB at London 2012.

Here are nine simple questions that can help develop metacognitive strategies in each of these three stages:

Before a Task - Is this similar to a previous task? What do I want to achieve? What should I do first?

During The Task - Am I on the right track? What can I do differently? Who can I ask for help?

After a Task - What worked well? What could I have done better? Can I apply this to other situations?

Finally, Educrere Online have recently blogged here about how to embed metacognitive strategies. In particular, they looked at the Learning Scientists, who have produced Six Strategies for Effective Learning. The strategies they suggest are:-

retrieval practice;

spaced practice;

dual coding;

interleaving;

concrete examples;

elaboration.

Their resources are freely downloadable from their website and each strategy has is further broken down and presented in a variety of formats, such as posters and stickers.

In conclusion, to be effective, metacognitive skills need to be planned and embedded into lessons over a period of time.

Before beginning, you will therefore need to think about how you are going to scaffold the strategies into your teaching so that students can acquire the thinking skills they need for your subject area. 

Author: AAM