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Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities

Unit 6

Metacognition: Thinking About Thinking and Learning

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Learning Intentions

You will:

• know what is meant by ‘metacognition’;

• be aware of a range of strategies for promoting metacognition in the classroom; and

• know how to plan and run an effective plenary session.

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What Is Metacognition?

• ‘thinking about thinking’

• ‘awareness of the process of learning’

• ‘knowing what we know and what we don’t know’

• ‘overseeing learning’

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Knowledge and Control

… of Thinking• Knowledge about

- thinking in general

-own thinking (awareness)

• Control of thinking - planning - adapting - evaluating

How am I going to do it?Is it similar to anything I’ve done before?Is it one of those?

Do I understand it so far?Do I need to ask a question?Am I on the right track?Am I still on task?Is there a better way?

How did I do it?What method/strategy worked?What did I learn?Did my plan work out?Can I learn from my mistakes?Can I do better next time?

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Knowledge and Control

… of Thinking• Knowledge about

- thinking in general

-own thinking (awareness)

• Control of thinking - planning - adapting - evaluating

… of Self

• Commitment - skill with will

• Attitude - positive

• Attention - turning on and tuning

in

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What is Metacognition?

‘It is the ability of the learner to plan, monitor, redirect and evaluate how they think and learn.’

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Activity 1Metacognition in Your Classroom

If metacognition was being prompted and supported in your classroom:• What would you be doing?• What would your pupils be doing?

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• Challenging tasks• Modelling thinking• Thinking diagrams• Language for thinking• Time to think

• Thinking aloud• Sustained dialogue

about thinking• Joint thinking• Making connections

Characteristics of the Metacognitive Classroom

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Talking About Thinking • Have pupils describe what they are thinking.

• Model processes by thinking aloud.

• Share a common language.• Label thinking processes.• Have pairs solve problems.• Use reciprocal teaching.• Use plenaries to debrief

thinking processes.

Strategies for Developing Metacognition

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Pupil Planning and Self-Regulation

• Use open-ended tasks• Involve pupils in monitoring

and self-assessment.

Keep a Learning Log • Use logs to reflect and record strategies, successes and difficulties.

Strategies for Developing Metacognition

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Strategies in Practice

We are learning to: work together to solve problems

Remember to:

• explain the problem to a partner;• try to think of lots of ways to solve the problem; and• talk with others about how to record the answers.

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Strategies in Practice

Strategies in Practice

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Strategies in Practice

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Activity 2Using Plenaries

• What do you consider to be the main purpose of a plenary?• What are the characteristics of an effective plenary?• What are the main challenges/threats to an effective plenary?• What are some solutions to these challenges/threats?

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Key Points

• Promoting metacognition helps pupils take more control of their learning.

• There are a range of strategies that promote metacognition.• Planning plenary sessions is a good starting point for

developing metacognition.• Plenaries are a part of the learning process:

– They occur at strategic moments in the teaching sequence and not just the end.

– They help make the TS&PC explicit.– They introduce and develop a common language to talk about

thinking and learning.– They need to be planned and focused.