Metacognition is being aware of one’s own brain processes during learning. It involves thinking about thinking and knowing about knowing. Metacognitive strategies help achieve learning outcomes and improve weaknesses. Teachers and students can use metacognitive conversation to share strategies and skills for goal completion.
Metacognition is a process by which an individual is aware of their brain processes that occur during learning. In other words, metacognition is thinking about thinking. It can also be described as knowing about knowing. The goal of using metacognitive strategies is to make a person’s thinking visible to themselves and to others, as well as to achieve learning outcomes.
Metacognition theory is usually credited to JH Flavell, who first coined the term in 1979. In recent years, metacognition strategies have been increasingly applied in school settings. Through the use of visible thinking, metacognition can assist students and teachers in tackling projects, approaching reading, and completing assignments across the curriculum.
The basic principle of metacognition is that by understanding what the mind is thinking during learning, an individual will be able to focus on his strengths and improve on his weaknesses when tackling a project, task or text. Cognition can be described as an awareness of knowledge, while metacognition is a broader topic involving the use of that knowledge, as well as the application of strategies, when cognitive processes fail to serve the learner in completing a task. task.
Many good students use metacognitive strategies naturally; for others, this is a process that needs to be learned. Students who use metacognitive strategies, such as mindfulness, self-regulation, and refocus, outperform those who don’t.
An important element to the practice of metacognition is the avoidance of distraction. When an individual is aware of the mind’s ability to be easily distracted from a task due to the external environment, he or she can retrain the brain to identify the interruption and then refocus on the task at hand.
Another important part of metacognition is the use of learning strategies such as predicting expected outcomes, fact checking, identifying important components, and proofreading for understanding. This may involve previewing a text or assignment, breaking down the parts of an experiment, searching for unfamiliar terms, or integrating previous knowledge with new information.
One way teachers and students achieve this understanding of the inner workings of the brain is through metacognitive conversation. This implies that both teachers and students are aware of their own thought process and therefore speak aloud about those internal processes. For example, a teacher can act as a model in coping with a particularly difficult text, showing students how she would approach reading using metacognitive strategies. Verbalizing these internal brain operations makes them available to students, who can then apply the strategies to their own learning. In order to create an environment where strategies and skills for goal completion are shared, students can also talk aloud to each other about their metacognitive functions.
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