Metacognition In Education: Everything You Need to Know
Educators should be reflective so that they can grow while improving the skills of their learners. It is essential to use the same model for your learners to build metacognition skills. Metacognition allows you to see who you are, what you know, what you want to learn, and how to achieve your goal.
Metacognition
In 1979, John H. Flavell defined the term “metacognition.” Metacognition allows you to become aware of your learning experiences, enhancing your personal and professional growth. It will enable you to understand yourself and develop new skills. Every day, you can revise your learning experience to evaluate the outcome. To ensure a learner’s success, metacognition is a necessary skill.
Metacognition Starts With Educators
Educators need to begin developing metacognition by identifying their weaknesses and strengths. Think about your strengths and weaknesses to provide your learners with an optimal experience. Once you understand the idea of metacognition, you can teach your learners to practice metacognitive skills.
Learners need skills that are valuable beyond high school. They should be able to assess their learning requirements, strengths, and weaknesses and work on them. In the modern world, learners identify their goals, solve issues, and analyze the goals. Metacognition has three phases, including:
- Planning
- Monitoring
- Evaluating
Metacognition In the Classroom
How do you apply the idea of metacognition in the classroom? Imagine that you are teaching a class, and a few learners try to avoid questions by asking you to call on someone else or saying they don’t know the answer. When they avoid the questions, they are avoiding the learning process.
This happens due to a lack of confidence or an abundance of self-doubt. Being a teacher, you need to improve their confidence and make them answer questions.
Using the metacognitive approach, you can think and put yourself in the place of your learners. You can relate to your learners and help them improve their confidence levels.
How To Promote Metacognition
Loud thinking is one of the best methods to promote metacognition. Sit with one of your learners and ask them to share whatever they know. This allows them to think about the question and develop their strategies.
Supportive relationships also promote metacognition. You need to create a space where learners don’t mind making mistakes and feel free to share their thoughts.
To make learners question their learning process, you need to share learning strategies. Examine how they learn swiftly and the best strategies to improve the learning process. When you help learners identify their learning styles, they will gain confidence and learn easily.
Concluding Thoughts
Metacognition is the process of thinking about thinking. When you become aware of your learning experiences, you are better positioned to help your learners. You begin understanding yourself better, and you develop skills to understand your learners.