What is metacognition?
Cognition is the set of mental processes we use to think, reason, make decisions, and solve problems. Metacognition is thinking about our own cognition, or ‘thinking about thinking’. It is our awareness of own thoughts and abilities, and the regulation of those thoughts.
Metacognition has two parts
• Knowing and understanding our own thought processes.
• Planning, monitoring, and evaluating our thought processes.
How can metacognition help children learn?
Children use metacognition to reflect on what they have learnt, and to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. It helps them to see where they went wrong, and how they could improve.
When children are aware of their own thoughts and skills, they can tailor their future learning. For example, if they know they’ve forgotten how to solve a type of mathematics problem, they can look back at their notes to revise. Or they might pause and rewind a video they are learning from if they are aware they didn’t digest some information fully. This gives them independence and agency over their own learning.
Children’s metacognition is therefore closely related to how well they learn. The link seems to be present even in the earliest years of schooling. Fostering metacognition from the early years onwards could therefore improve children’s academic outcomes.
Alicia Forsberg, University of Sheffield
How can adults teach metacognitive strategies to children?
Children develop their metacognition throughout childhood and adolescence. But they benefit from being explicitly taught metacognitive strategies by adults. This strengthens these skills, enhancing how well they learn and ultimately improving their attainment. Metacognitive strategies are best taught through real tasks and activities, rather than in an abstract way.
Adults can model metacognition through thinking aloud: explain your reasoning clearly when showing children how to complete a task – that could be a piece of schoolwork or an activity at home like a puzzle. Tell children that it’s best to take a moment to reflect on a task and how to do it, rather than starting immediately.
Adults can also ask children questions that encourage metacognition during different phases of a task. Before starting the task, during the planning phase, ask children questions about the task and what strategy might be best based on their previous work or activities. You can also ask children what they remember about the instructions, which can help them become aware that they may have forgotten something.
While the task is underway, ask questions that help children monitor their progress and make changes to their approach if needed. After the task, ask questions that help children reflect on whether their approach was successful and what might be better next time.
Questions to ask children at each phase of a task to encourage metacognition
• Planning: How does this task relate to previous work? What’s the best way to start this task? How can you achieve your goal? Do you have all the materials you need?
• Monitoring: What strategies are you using? Is this approach working? What could be improved? Are you making good progress?
• Evaluating: Did you reach your goal? How could you do this better next time? What other approaches could you take?
At the end of a school lesson or learning activity, try giving children a quiz or a ‘brain dump’ exercise to write down what they have learned. This can help them understand the limitations of their memory and give them a basis for revision.
Giving children collaborative learning tasks in groups or pairs may further support their metacognition. When working in a group, learners have to reflect on their own thinking and communicate their understanding with others, to make decisions together. This could help children understand their strengths and weaknesses compared to others, so they understand their abilities better.
“Before any activity, one of the key metacognitive strategies is to plan what you’re going to do.”
Gregoire Borst, Université Paris Cité
How do children’s metacognitive skills differ?
Children naturally differ in their metacognitive skills. Some children have poorer working memory, meaning they can hold less information in mind while carrying out a task. These children may also overestimate how much information they can hold in mind. This means different children require different levels of support. For example, these children may need reminding more often to review crucial information.
What’s more, children from high income families may have better metacognitive abilities than their peers. This means that children from lower income families are likely to benefit the most from being taught metacognitive strategies. Fostering metacognition, especially in early education, could help to reduce the learning gap between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Teaching children to think about their thinking could help reduce educational inequalities.
Although there is strong evidence that encouraging children to use their metacognition improves their attainment, children may respond in different ways to the same strategy. What works for one child may not work so well for another. Teaching should therefore be adapted to the needs of individual learners where possible.
Tips to improve children’s metacognition or ‘thinking about thinking’
• Tell children to reflect before starting a task.
• Model your own metacognition by talking through your own problem-solving.
• Ask a series of questions to encourage metacognition during the planning, monitoring, and evaluation phases of learning.
• Remind children that they should double-check instructions and review information they may have forgotten.
• Give children a quiz or ‘brain dump’ exercise to highlight that they may not have remembered everything.
• Assign group or pair work, to give children insight into their own abilities and a chance to communicate that to others.
