Metacognition: Teach Me How to Learn!

When I was a new student, purchase I would sit in amazement as my classmates expounded arguments or wrote excellent essays. I was embarrassed by my inability to understand the material. When I asked my professors, online they would just explain the content again.

Thankfully, unhealthy a compassionate teaching assistant understood what I needed: he led me through his own reading of an essay, describing what he was doing and thinking. He said, “Before I even start to read, I guess from the title what the argument will be and what kind of evidence might be used. I wonder why the question might be important. Then I read the introduction very carefully to see if I can answer any of my preliminary questions; then I begin to read the whole argument. When I am finished, I try to identify the heart of the argument: the thesis, the type of evidence, and the key terms and concepts. I ask myself questions and check my answers…”

This TA was teaching me how to learn not what to learn. He was engaging metacognition.

Metacognition:  Teaching How to Learn

The longer I teach, the more I realize that this is the skill I want to pass on to my students: to become effective and autonomous learners. Let me share what I have learned about teaching students “How to Learn” in Four Steps:

1. Motivate—When we design learning opportunities, we need to understand—and communicate—why something must be learned. We might consider, for example, how this learning will contribute to their success in life, potential careers, or relationships. (See my previous blog on Meta-questions.) If students want to be ministers, for example, they will be motivated to learn how to write a sermon. Or we might explain to students why they need to learn one thing before they can approach the next. When we make these goals explicit to students, they will see why a particular learning activity is relevant and be more motivated to learn how to learn.
2. Plan—The second step is to help students learn how to plan their own learning. To know where to start, we might say, “This is what you will need to learn. What do you know about it already? What have you already learned that might be similar to this?” Then ask, “How will you plan to learn this new thing?” Depending on the type of learning task, they might say they will read, discuss it, make flash cards, create a chart, act it out, or draw pictures. In this way, they will see that there are multiple ways to learn; when one way doesn’t work, they can try another. When students learn how to plan, they will take more responsibility for their own learning.
3. Monitor—The third step in metacognition asks students to monitor their own learning. Where do they get distracted? Why? Where do they stop understanding? What question do they need to answer before they can proceed? Have they captured the main concept? How will they know? Teachers can help students do this informally, such as reading with them and asking them to explain their thinking, or more formally, by asking them to describe their thinking in comments inserted in the margins of an essay. They might encourage students to create better conditions for learning: focused time on task, minimal distractions, and the proper balance of nutrition, rest, and exercise. (See Brain Rules by John Medina.) When students monitor their own learning, they start to adopt more efficient strategies.
4. Evaluate—The fourth step asks students to evaluate their learning. For example, students can see if they can answer the questions at the end of the textbook chapter, attempt to pass an on-line self-quiz, write out the thesis of an article in their own words, or check understanding with a classmate. They might test themselves at different intervals to check retention. Teachers can use these techniques as part of their course design, and also challenge students to expand their higher-order thinking (see Bloom’s Taxonomy). For example, they might ask students to recount the story of David and Goliath, and then to compare this story with another, to analyze its purpose and bias, or to apply the core principle to a new context. As students evaluate their own learning, they will become more autonomous learners.

 My Practice of Metacognition

As I have been experimenting with this over the years, I would like to offer a few more suggestions for the classroom that I have found to make the biggest difference.

• Consider making metacognition central in your course objectives. Examples:

o        “Students can identify the steps of problem-solving.”

o        “Students can identify ways in which they have become more self-reliant, flexible, and productive learners.”

o        “Students know what type of learning to use in different contexts.”

• Be explicit about learning to learn in your classroom activities.

o        “Did you do as well as you thought you did on this test? What will you do differently when you prepare for the next test? Write it down.”

o        “How would you solve this problem in science? Can you use the same skill here?”

o        “Last week we saw how this idea worked in this context. Today, we are going to see how the same idea works in a new context. What’s different? Why?”

Metacognition:  Being Conscious About Learning

When we shift our task as educators from those who deliver content to those who help students learn how to learn, we see that they still learn the content that we cherish, but they have also developed skills that will take them far into the future with success. And as we become more conscious of students’ learning, we will become more attuned to their needs, enabling us to intervene in just the right place at just the right time, as that excellent TA had done for me.

Photo Credit: “BRAIN POWER!” by Sarah  – CC by 2.0

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