At Thinking Matters we feel it is too narrow to confine metacognition to reflecting only on our thinking processes. We believe that being metacognitive of our learning behaviours and dispositions fall under the ‘meta’ umbrella. This additionally promotes an understanding of what drives our skills, knowledge and behaviour – our motives.

Metacognitive Learners:

Metacognitive learners are able to regulate their own approach to learning. They are able to evaluate different learning strategies and choose the most effective ones for a particular task. Through understanding their strengths and weaknesses, students can select appropriate approaches to problem-solving, information processing, and knowledge retention. As a result, this enhances a learner’s ability to think critically and to evaluate evidence.  Therefore they can generate solutions to complex problems which not only promotes deeper understanding but also higher-order thinking skills.

Research in Metacognition:

There are numerous studies showing the positive impact of metacognition on academic progress. The highly respected EEF, has recently shown it to be amongst the most powerful and cost effective of interventions, one that adds an additional seven months to learner progress. That translates to an accelerated progress beyond predicted scores.  In this way, if routinely practiced at a whole school level, students are successfully able to rehearse and apply strategies in a wide variety of disciplines. More on the Impact of Thinking Schools.

Therefore, by providing students with the most effective metacognitive tools and strategies and making thinking explicit and ‘visible’, teachers are able to model and develop effective thinking routines for their students. Bascially, for effective learning to take place throughout the curriculum, we must recognise the role of metacognition in enabling students to plan, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their own thinking.  As a result they become not only self-directed, confident and independent learners, but also capable of reaching their full potential.