Meta-Cognition
Meta-cognition, is thinking about one's thinking . It is about being aware of the progress one's learning has made over a topic or unit of study (Adler, n.d.). Meta-cognition takes place when students are able to connect their prior knowledge, with new information to make new meaning. It is effective in helping students comprehend material, and helps to make reflective learners (Beal, Bolick, and Martorella, 2009). When students use meta-cognition, they become better learners (Livingston, 1997). Meta-cognition involves being aware of yourself, developing a plan, monitoring that plan, and last evaluate your plan.
Benefits
Examples of Meta-Cognition (Metacognition? - Exploring How Students Learn, n.d.)
Lesson use:
Benefits
- Students become more reflective
- Students develop critical thinking skills that are associated with intelligence (Livingston, 1997)
- Helps student monitor and manage their learning
- Students evaluate their learning and make adjustments
Examples of Meta-Cognition (Metacognition? - Exploring How Students Learn, n.d.)
- Students identify where they are seeing difficulty in reading and adjust their pace, or re-read the passage
- Awareness of lack of understanding about a concept and so reviewing that before the test
- Realizing you failed to recall the name of something you know
Lesson use:
- Before students have a test, and after you have done a review game with them, ask students a few questions. Did you have difficulty with the review? Identify 3 topics, where you could use some more study time. These are helpful for them to make adjustments for the test.
- Have students create pre- and post- Word Cloud or concept map of a unit. Then have students compare and contrast the two.
Meta-Cognitive StrategiesThis video includes a plethora of examples to get students to think about their thinking. There are a lot of questions to use from this to help guide students to become more reflective learners. Some examples from the video that involve meta-cognition: being aware of how much time is needed to study for a test and setting aside that time to do it; and being aware of how you study or learn best.
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MetacognitionThis is a great video for students to watch to be aware of what meta-cognition is. It also has several great leading questions to get students to think about the results they want, and how to adjust to get there, which is a big part of meta-cognition.
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References
Adler, C. R. (n.d.). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479
Beal, C., Bolick, C. M., & Martorella, P. H. (2009). Comprehending, Communicating, and Remembering Subject Matter. Teaching social studies in middle and secondary schools(5th ed., ). Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson.
Cheung, M. (2013, November 19). Metacognition. YouTube. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_sfNC5WPUU
kasiagonska. (2008, May 21). Metacognitive Strategies. . Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKUcRwLCWA
Livingston, J. (1997). Metacognition: An Overview. Metacognition: An Overview. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm
Metacognition? - Exploring How Students Learn. (n.d.). Metacognition? - Exploring How Students Learn. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from https://sites.google.com/a/uwlax.edu/exploring-how-students-learn/what-s-all-the-fuss-about-metacognition