METACOGNITION

Tristan Russell T. Arcangel

If you teach a person what to learn, you
are preparing that person for the past. If
you teach a person how to learn, you are
preparing that person for the future.
-Cyril Houle
When you sense that you are experiencing some
difficulty with a topic you are studying, and you
try out different strategies to learn better, you
are practicing
Metacognition includes the ability to
ask and answer the following questions:
• What do I know about this subject, topic, issue?
• Do I know what I need to know?
• Do I know where I can go get some information
knowledge?
• How much time will I need to learn this?
• What are some strategies and tactics that I can
use to learn this?
• Do I understand what I just heard, read, saw?
-Huitt
METACOGNITION
Refers to higher order
thinking which involves
active awareness and
control over the cognitive
processes engaged in
learning.

-John Flavell
to further understand…
A person is engaging in metacognition if he
notices that he is having more trouble learning A
than B, or if it strikes him that he should double
check C before accepting it is a fact.

-John Flavell
Elements of Metacognition
• Person Variables
• Task Variables
• Strategy Variables
Person Variables
What one recognizes about his or her strengths
and weaknesses in learning and processing
information.
Task Variables
What one knows or can figure out about the
nature of the task and the processing demands
required to complete the task.
Strategy Variables
The strategies a person has “at the ready” to
apply in a flexible way to successfully accomplish
a task.
Meta-attention
-is the awareness of
specific strategies so that Meta-memory
you can keep your -is your awareness of memory
attention focused on the strategies that work best for you.
topic or task at hand.
I know that I have difficulty with word problems,
so I will answer the computational problems
first and save the word problems for last.
-Livingston (1997)

Person Variable Task Variable

Strategy Variable
 I know that I have more difficulty with my
science assignments than English and find
Araling Panlipunan easier, so I will do my
homework in science first, then Language Arts,
then Araling Panlipunan.
-Lucas & Corpuz

Person Variable Task Variable

Strategy Variable
When do we practice Metacognition?
• Knowing the limits of one’s own learning and
memory capacities
• Knowing what learning tasks one can
realistically accomplish within a certain amount
of time
• Knowing what learning strategies are effective
and which are not
• Planning an approach to a learning task that is
likely to be successful
When do we practice Metacognition?
• Using effective learning strategies to process and
learn new material
• Monitoring one’s own knowledge and
comprehension
• Using effective strategies for retrieval of
previously stored information
• Knowledge is said to be metacognitive if it is
keenly used in a purposeful manner to ensure
that a goal is met.
-Omrod
Teaching Strategies
• Have students monitor their own learning and
thinking.
• Teach students study or learning strategies.
Examples:
TQLR – for younger students
PQ4R – for older students
• Have students make predictions about
information to be presented next based on what
they have read.
Teaching Strategies
• Have students relate ideas to existing
knowledge structures.
• Have students develop questions.
• Help students to know when to ask for help.
• Show students how to transfer knowledge,
attitudes, values, skills to other situations or
tasks.
-Lucas & Corpuz
Recommended instructional starategy
• Develop a plan before approaching a learning
task.
• Monitor their understanding.
• Evaluate their thinking after completing the
task.
-Fogarty (1994)
9 Questions to Improve Metacognition
Before
• Is this similar to a previous task?
• What do I want to achieve?
• What should I do first?

During
Am I on the right track?
What can I do differently?
Who can I ask for help?
9 Questions to Improve Metacognition
After
• What worked well?
• What could have I done better?
• Can I apply this to other situation?
-glnner_Drive
Education is not the learning of facts, but
the training of the mind to think.
-Albert Einstein