Metacognition: The Key to Independent Learning

Understanding Metacognition

Metacognition is the key to foster indepedening learning outcomes. Metacognition has long been considered “thinking about thinking”, and it is that, but is it also so much more. Cognition is active and passive at the same time, and recognizing the differences is key to learning and retaining new content and skills. Understanding and controlling cognitive functions yield performance results and develop self-reliant learners.

Teaching Metacognition Explicitly

Students at even early developmental stages can be taught strategies to meet their learning needs. Initially, the bridge from the learner to the learner’s understanding about learning is found in the teacher and in teaching methods. Most brains need a guide to teach them the pathway to thinking about thinking. Once a person teaches their brain how to connect to metacognition, the applications of its power grow exponentially.

Metacognition Strategies

Metacognition is an essential function in becoming a self-regulated learner, and it starts with simple questions. What interests you? Why does math feel easier than reading? What is my plan for this research paper? How is this presentation going? These are but a few examples of questions you can ask yourself while you are learning or creating something new.

Start with what you already know about yourself or the task at hand. What do you need to be successful? If you don’t know the answer, ask yourself what resources do you have (including teachers, coaches, and parents) that could help you. Resourcing is an excellent outcome of sound metacognitive practices.

Teachers often build in multiple opportunities to “check for understanding” for their students. These checks can look like formative assessments of pop quizzes and classwork, or can be informal questions during a lesson. As learners, we can develop our own “checks for understanding” as we annotate reading assignments, take notes in class, complete practice problems for math, or even conjugate verbs. Building in these opportunities to think about what we are learning offers two important metacognitive benefits: the first gives us information in real time about what we do not yet understand; and the second benefit is that self-reflection develops self-trust. Recognizing when we need help and asking for it also teaches our brain to trust the learning process. When we can catch our errors and bad habits early, it becomes easier to learn from our mistakes. This self- monitoring is what grows us into self-reliant learners.

Metacognition, when practiced over time, makes a person functionally smarter. When a learner becomes functionally smarter, they can utilize transferable skills across different subject content and skills. Consider the adaptive skills of planning behaviors and graphic organizers like paper outlines or Venn diagrams, pneumonic devices for learning and memory, talking or “think aloud” activities for processing new information, and annotations and notetaking while reading or listening. All of these skills work for a variety of subjects, and each of them requires the brain to think about thinking and to consider the outcome.

Metacognition Beyond Academics

Metacognitive skills work outside academics too. Visualization techniques for athletes is a metacognitive and adaptive skill that requires the thinker to imagine an outcome. A baseball batter can imagine stepping up to the plate, adjusting their stance, raising the bat, focusing on the pitcher, considering the placement of teammates already on bases, etc. All of these thoughts become automatic over time, but in the beginning, they are intentional and necessary cognitive functions to successfully hit the ball. Playbooks for team sports are another example of an adaptive technique used to encourage players to think things through
before acting. Practicing a sport does not just develop physical muscle memory, it offers the brain the opportunity to meet additional learning needs too.

Key Takeaway

Metacognition develops more efficiently when a variety of strategies are implemented. It’s not sufficient to check for understanding only when reading and writing. Try reading your essay out loud and listen for grammatical and word choice errors. This technique develops the ability to self-edit. Consider explaining the process of conducting an experiment to your lab partner or study buddy. Tell your listener why each of the steps are taken and the ways they do or do not support the hypothesis. These process checks also teach the brain important cognitive functions that monitor outcomes and reinforce self-regulated learning. Over time, utilizing strategies to meet individual learning needs helps learners to understand and to control their cognitive functions and to substantially improve performance and achievement.

Written by Angela Moscheo, MA Education