What is metacognition?

Metacognition describes the processes involved when learners plan,

monitor, evaluate and make changes to their own learning behaviours.

Metacognition is often considered to have two dimensions:

metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation.

Metacognitive knowledge refers to what learners know about

learning. This includes:

- the learner’s knowledge of their own cognitive abilities (e.g. ‘I have

trouble remembering dates in history’)

- the learner’s knowledge of particular tasks (e.g. ‘The ideas in this

chapter that I’m going to read are complex’)

- the learner’s knowledge of different strategies that are available to

them and when they are appropriate to the task (e.g. ‘If I scan the text
first it will help me to understand the overall meaning').

Metacognitive regulation refers to what learners do about learning. It

describes how learners monitor and control their cognitive processes.
For example, a learner might realise that a particular strategy is not
achieving the results they want, so they decide to try a different strategy.

Page 1 of 5
During the planning phase, learners think about the learning goal the
teacher has set and consider how they will approach the task and
which strategies they will use. At this stage, it is helpful for learners to
ask themselves:

‘What am I being asked to do?’

‘Which strategies will I use?’
‘Are there any strategies that I have used before that might be useful?’

During the monitoring phase, learners implement their plan and

monitor the progress they are making towards their learning goal.

Students might decide to make changes to the strategies they are using
if these are not working. As students work through the task, it will help
them to ask themselves:

Page 2 of 5
‘Is the strategy that I am using working?’
‘Do I need to try something different?’

During the evaluation phase, students determine how successful the

strategy they used was in helping them to achieve their learning goal.
To promote evaluation, students could consider:

‘How well did I do?’

‘What didn’t go well?’ ‘What could I do differently next time?’
‘What went well?’ ‘What other types of problem can I use this strategy
for?’

Reflection is a fundamental part of the plan-monitor-evaluate process.

Encouraging learners to self-question throughout the process will
support this reflection.

What is the research behind metacognition?

Educational psychologists have long promoted the importance of
metacognition for supporting student learning and it continues to be a
rapidly growing field of interdisciplinary research.

American developmental psychologist, John Flavell, is most commonly

recognized for introducing the term 'metacognition' as a result of his
research in the 1970’s which focused on children’s knowledge and
control of their memory processes.

As a result of research into metacognition, we understand that the

effective use of basic cognitive processes is a fundamental part of
learning. These cognitive processes include memory and attention, the
activation of prior knowledge, and the use of cognitive strategies to
solve a problem or complete a task. For a learner to ensure that they
are making the best use of these basic cognitive processes, they need
to have an awareness and an ability to monitor and adapt them.

A key challenge for teachers is being able to recognize how well their
students understand their own learning processes.

Page 3 of 5
David Perkins (1992) defined four levels of metacognitive learners
which provide a useful framework for teachers:

1. Tacit learners are unaware of their metacognitive knowledge.

They do not think about any particular strategies for learning and
merely accept if they know something or not.
2. Aware learners know about some of the kinds of thinking that
they do such as generating ideas, finding evidence etc. However,
thinking is not necessarily deliberate or planned.
3. Strategic learners organize their thinking by using problem-
solving, grouping and classifying, evidence-seeking and decision-
making etc. They know and apply the strategies that help them
learn.
4. Reflective learners are not only strategic about their thinking but
they also reflect upon their learning while it is happening,
considering the success or not of any strategies they are using
and then revising them as appropriate.

Once teachers have identified where their learners are on this

continuum of ‘tacit’ to ‘reflective’ they can plan their support accordingly.

What are the benefits of metacognition?

Metacognition helps students to become independent learners
Metacognitive practices help learners to monitor their own progress and
take control of their learning as they read, write and solve problems in
the classroom.

Metacognition has a positive impact on learning

Metacognition makes a unique contribution to learning over and above

the influence of intellectual ability. Learners who use metacognitive
strategies are likely to be able to achieve more. Research shows that
improving a learner’s metacognitive practices may compensate for any
cognitive limitations they have.

Page 4 of 5
“Too often, we teach students what to think
but not how to think.”
- OECD Insights (2014)

Metacognition is useful across a range of ages and subjects

Metacognitive practices are useful for all learners from primary level
upwards. Using metacognition improves students’ academic
achievement across learning domains. Metacognitive skills help
students to transfer what they have learnt from one context to another
or from a previous task to a new task. This includes reading and text
comprehension, writing, mathematics, reasoning and problem-solving,
and memorizing.

Metacognition can boost your academic performance

It is because in a way what it does is that it develops a teacher within

yourself. So it is like thinking about an inner voice that is able to guide
your thinking and your performance.

Metacognition helps children to become active and independent

learners

Students can use their metacognitive skills and strategies, not just
inside the classroom in front of the teacher, but in any setting.
Source: https://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswmeta/index.html

Page 5 of 5