Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 1

Promoting Metacognition, Self-Assessment, and Reflection for Young Learners in Grades K–3

Samah Qi'dan

Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario

GRADEDUC 9491 650 - Capstone Course

Dr. Mi Song Kim

August 4th , 2022

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 2

Abstract

Improving standard educational quality could occur if teachers can operate effectively in the

classroom. Previous research clarifies that assessment has played an important role in

educational quality. Assessment for learning or Formative assessment appears to be an essential

factor in driving better learning, as it plays a double role in improving students learning and

teacher instruction. Students can understand their purposes clearly, where they are, where to go

next, and how to reach the target. Allowing students to self-assessment and reflect on their own

learning will make them more responsible and give them ownership of their learning, positively

affecting lifelong learning skills. For teachers, self and reflective assessment will help identify

students who may need additional services. This paper is aimed to study the impact of student

self-assessment, reflection and metacognition strategies for young learners and suggest tools and

strategies for the teacher that can be useful in applying an adequate assessment for K-3

classrooms. This paper is supplemented with a website that provides teachers with

supplementary resources that can help to adapt more self-assessment, reflection and

metacognition skills with their young learners.

Keywords: Formative assessment, metacognition, self-assessment,self-reflection.

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 3

Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................4

Literature Review /Formative Assessment…………………………. ............................................5

Assessment for Young Learner......................................................................................................10

Methodology..................................................................................................................................11

Formative Assessment: What Teacher Needs to Know................................................................12

Formative Assessment Definition..................................................................................................12

Formative Assessment Framework................................................................................................13

Formative Assessment Strategy……………………………………...…………………..............15

Elements of the Formative Assessment Process...........................................................................16

What is Students Self Assessment?..............................................................................................18

What is Self-Reflection?................................................................................................................19

Information from Brain Research……………………………………..........................................20

Metacognition skills………………………………………………………………......................22

Metacognition for Young Learners……………………………………………………………...24

Metacognition Impact on the Assessment and Learning Processes……………………………..27

Limitations of the Study................................................................................................................30

Conclusions………………………………....................................................................................31

Reference.......................................................................................................................................32
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 4

Introduction

To improve student achievement, education systems must emphasize teaching and

learning processes more than educational standards and objectives. Educational reform can

happen when all the effort is focused on what is happening inside the classroom, where teachers,

students, and curricula are the leading players. According to Black and William (1998), teaching

and learning must be interactive—teachers need to know about their student's progress and

learning difficulties to adapt their work to meet the student's needs. Through observation and

discussion, teachers can find out what they need to know in various ways. We use the general

term assessment to refer to all those activities undertaken by teachers—and their assessment

becomes formative when it is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs. In

another study, learning outcomes were shown to be impacted by evaluation throughout learning,

with an effect size of 0.32 (William D. et al., 2004).

Assessment tools can be characterized as formative or summative. Formative assessment

is often used to monitor student learning and give continuous feedback. This strategy enables

teachers to improve their teaching by clearly seeing what students do not comprehend. It also

allows students to enhance their learning by recognizing their strengths and limitations. By

tracking progress, instructors may identify and address students' struggling areas. Summative

assessment evaluates student learning at the end of a unit of study, often against a benchmark.

Alternative or authentic assessments are often characterized as formative assessments since they

involve in-process evaluations of students' comprehension, learning needs, and academic

progress. Summative assessments include tests and examinations used to evaluate student

learning at the end of an instructional period (OECD, 2008).

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 5

Formative assessment, or Assessment for Learning (AFL), is considered the most critical

factor in improving students' learning outcomes. Formative assessment has been found to affect

students' lifelong learning goals, including higher levels of student achievement, more significant

equity of student outcomes, and improved learning to learn skills. The formative assessment

might be used more consistently throughout educational systems, which could aid stakeholders

in overcoming the obstacles preventing its increased usage in classrooms (OECD, 2008).

In this paper, I will try to answer the following question:

1)How important is it to implement strategies to teach young students to be self-reflective and

self-assessing? And how does it affect academic and social success?

2)How can we incorporate reflection and self-assessment into the curriculum for young learners?

What are the best strategies to teach them?

Literature Review /Formative Assessment

The assessment phase of the educational process is crucial. Summative evaluations are

the most noticeable since they quantify what students have learned and establish student

responsibility for success via testing that evaluates the students' learning and gives them a

definitive rank or a grade. However, all of the promises to reform the educational system and

bring about the long-awaited revolution in education rely on formative assessment. Regular,

interactive evaluations of student knowledge also play a crucial formative role in identifying

learning gaps and modifying instruction to fit the variety of the modern classroom.

Over the last few decades, there has been a worldwide emphasis on formative assessment

in various aspects of the educational system. The notion of "formative evaluation" was

introduced by Scriven (1967) in an article titled "The Methodology of Evaluation." He

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 6

suggested that it had been helpful to differentiate between two forms of curriculum evaluation

processes. In the first, he said evaluation "may have a role in the ongoing improvement of the

curriculum" (p. 41). In the second, he said the evaluation process "may serve to enable

administrators to decide whether the entire finished curriculum, refined by the use of the

evaluation process in its first role, represents a sufficiently significant advance on the available

alternatives to justify the expense of adoption by a school system." (pg. 41-42) Additionally, he

said that it would be beneficial "to employ the phrases' formative' and summative, which are

opposites to one another, and to characterize evaluation in these positions." For Scriven,

formative evaluation provides data that permits successive adaptations of a new programme

during its development and implementation phases.

During the 1960s, Benjamin S. Bloom started a series of inventions in order to adapt the

most powerful and influential aspects of teaching and individualized instruction for improving

student learning in a group-based class. Bloom proposed a specific teaching-learning strategy

known as 'Learning for Mastery,' Later, it was condensed to simply 'Mastery Learning.

According to Bloom's mastery learning approach, the materials and concepts are divided into

smaller units with predetermined objectives. Then the instructional process begins with learning

a unit by adopting appropriate teaching methods. After teaching the said unit, students'

performance is assessed by giving a quiz to provide information or feedback on their learning.

Students must exhibit and achieve mastery of the unit before moving on to the next unit.

Students who fail to achieve mastery receive remediation through additional sources like

tutoring, textbooks, alternative materials, peer monitoring, study guides, learner-centred

activities or additional assignment ( Hussain & Suleman, n.d.). According to Wiliam (2006),

Benjamin Bloom claimed that "quite, in contrast, is the use of "formative evaluation" to provide
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 7

feedback and correctives at each stage in the teaching-learning process. By formative evaluation,

we mean evaluation by brief tests used by teachers and students as aids in the learning process.

While such tests may be graded and used as part of the judging and classificatory functions of

evaluation, we see much more effective use of formative evaluation if it is separated from the

grading process and used primarily as an aid to teaching " (Wiliam, 2006).

According to Crooks (1988), too much emphasis has been focused on the assessment

function known as grading, or 'evaluation,' while not enough attention has been paid to how to

help students learn. In other words, formative assessment was largely ignored in the early work

on evaluation and assessment, which was mostly focused on summative assessment.

Crooks(1988) claimed, "Classroom evaluation affects students in many different ways. For

instance, it guides their judgment of what is important to learn, affects their motivation and self-

perceptions of competence, structures their approaches to and timing of personal study (e.g.,

spaced practice), consolidates learning, and affects the development of enduring learning

strategies and skills".(p.467) Black and Wiliam (2003) trace in their research, "In Praise of

Educational Research," the development of the King's Formative Assessment Programme from

its origins in diagnostic testing in the 1970s, through the graded assessment movement in the

early 1990s, and the fluctuations in formative assessment in that era.

The crossroads article by Black and Wiliam (1998), "Inside the Black Box: Raising

Standards Through Classroom Assessment," demonstrates how formative assessment is one of

the most effective strategies for promoting student learning and enabling students to master

course content while also significantly boosting their scores on external achievement tests.

Furthermore, Black and Wiliam (1998) addressed the three essential questions in their article: (1)

"Is there evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards?" (2) "Is there evidence
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 8

that there is room for improvement?" (3) "Is there evidence about how to improve formative

assessment?"Furthermore, they proved their finding by reporting the significantly positive

student learning gains from applying effective formative assessment; "An effect size of 0.4

would mean that the average pupil involved in innovation would record the same achievement as

a pupil in the top 35% of those not so involved... An effect size gain of 0.7 in the recent

international comparative studies in mathematics would have raised the score of a nation in the

middle of the pack of 41 countries (e.g., the U.S.) to one of the top five " (Wiliam and Black,

1998). In 2000, Sheperd developed a "social constructivist" conceptual framework, borrowing

from cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural theories. she explained that skills required to put

into practise a revised curriculum and classroom assessment are daunting. Teachers need in-

depth topic knowledge to ask the correct questions at the right time, foresee conceptual

problems, and be prepared with a repertory of assignments that will help pupils go forward.

Teachers will need to have a philosophy of motivation and know how to create a culture in the

classroom that puts learning first.

Figure 1

Shared principles of curriculum theories, psychological theories and assessment theories

characterize an emergent, constructivist paradigm

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 9

All the researchers listed above agree that formative assessment is essential in the

learning process, but there is still a missing link between implementing that in the classroom.

Where the explanation came in 2004 when Black and his colleagues published "Teachers

developing assessment for learning: impact on student achievement," research and they Insisted

first on the first effect of the formative assessment: "we believe that the results presented here

provide firm evidence that improving formative assessment does produce tangible benefits in

terms of externally mandated assessments." (p.7). Next, they explain, " While these

improvements might sound small, if replicated across a whole school, they would raise the

performance of a school at the 25th percentile of achievement nationally into the upper half."

(p.7) This means an effective formative assessment can be placed in each classroom, even with

the younger learners, as it can enhance the learning quality and promote the results. "At the very

least, these data suggest that teachers do not, as is sometimes reported, have to choose between

teaching well and getting good results." (p.7)

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 10

In 2006, Popham stated that the closer formative assessments are to the actual

instructional events in a classroom, the more likely their positive impact will be on student

learning. People generally are inclined to do with more enthusiasm what they choose to do, not

what they are required to do. A practical formative assessment should be crafted with a

reasonably straightforward, task-analytically based answer to "What should I do?" Also, he

said, "Teachers who volitionally choose to make formative assessments an integral, ongoing

component of their instructional activities will be more inclined to make warranted adjustments

in their instruction based on the results of such assessments than they would have been if they

had been forced by superordinates to formatively assess their students ."(p.8) That means

teachers need to embed formative assessment in the learning process and do it freely without

stressing students or teachers. Students' participation is a crucial element in the effectiveness of

the formative assessment. In 2009, Black and Wiliam explained, "Traditionally, the teacher has

been regarded as responsible for each of these three, (Establishing where the learners are in

their learning, establishing where they are going, establishing what needs to be done to get

them there) but it is also necessary to take account of the role that the learners themselves, and

their peers, play in them. The teacher is responsible for designing and implementing an

effective learning environment, and the learner is responsible for the learning within that

environment.

Furthermore, since the responsibility for learning rests with both the teacher and the

learner, it is incumbent on each to do all they can to mitigate the impact of any failures of the

other in the language of partnership law, teachers and learners are jointly and severally liable "

(p.7).
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 11

Assessment for Young Learners

There is some discussion over young learners' assessment, which is characterized by

debate concerning the aim of assessment, student's age, when it should be performed, and the

most effective evaluation methods. For example, the age at which children are expected to learn

to read and write varies between cultures, as do literacy pedagogies and regulations. However,

there is general consensus within the assessment debate that assessment is an essential aspect of

the early childhood curriculum.

"Assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting information that accurately

reflects the child's demonstration of learning in relation to the knowledge and skills outlined

in the overall expectations of The Kindergarten Program. The primary purpose of

assessment is to improve learning and to help children become self-regulating, autonomous

learners" (Growing Success,2016). Assessment has a significant role in education because it

facilitates student learning, informs improvement in teaching practices, and contributes to

planning for future learning. Shaaban (2001) In all academic settings, assessment is closely

related to instruction. The success of any assessment depends on the effective selection and

use of appropriate tools and procedures and the proper interpretation of students'

performance. In addition to being essential for evaluating students' progress and

achievement, assessment tools and methods also help evaluate the suitability and

effectiveness of the curriculum, the teaching methodology, and the instructional materials.

He also adds that, in the past, assessment tools and procedures were chosen at the level of

the Ministry of Education, school district, or program coordinator.

However, with the advent of learner-centred and communicative teaching

methodologies, in many settings, "control over the collection and interpretation of

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 12

assessment information has shifted from centralized authority towards the

classrooms"(p.35). This shift gives the classroom teacher a decisive role in assessing

students and makes it necessary for the teacher to look for new assessment techniques to

evaluate students' achievement and progress (Shaaban, 2001). This perspective puts the

teacher at the heart of the assessment process and empowers them to decide and choose what

suit their learners.

Assessment is carried out to provide proof of learning to other stakeholders like head

teachers, school authorities, and parents. Meanwhile, it is also the children's right to know how

they are doing; offer a clear indication of progress accomplished; help improve one's

metacognition or understanding of one's strengths and flaws; give any potential ideas for

improvement. ( Growing Success, 2016) The assessment also allows teachers to identify the

needs for differentiating instruction and adapt any classroom's diverse learners' needs and

readiness.

Methodology

This paper tries to clarify the value of formative assessment for young learners,

emphasizing self-evaluation and self-reflection procedures and how they may support students'

growth in metacognitive abilities to improve learning and performance. A website with a

selection of practical educational resource materials for K–3 instructors was provided to arm

teachers with the information and resources they need to succeed in the classroom. A literature

review was conducted to gather researchers' work about formative assessment and highlight K–3

learners. The objectives of this paper are:

The objectives of this paper are:

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 13

1. To provide teachers with a clear understanding of the importance of formative assessment as

a part of the class routine.

2. Identifying self-evaluation and reflection for young learners.

3. To increase student-centred learning, students must be engaged in their own learning and

assessment process.

4. Use existing research and literature to learn about the importance of metacognition knowledge

for young learners.

Formative Assessment: What Teacher Needs to Know

Formative Assessment Definition

In 2018, the Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers (FAST) State

Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS) defined formative assessment as:

A planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit

and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary

learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.

Furthermore, they outline the five strategies required for a successful formative assessment:

1) clarify learning goals and success criteria within a broader progression of learning;

2) elicit and analyze evidence of student thinking;

3) engage in self-assessment and peer feedback;

4) provide actionable feedback;

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 14

5) use evidence and feedback to move learning forward by adjusting learning strategies,

goals, or next instructional steps. This means that formative assessment is integrated and

embedded in the classroom instructions inside the classroom. The teacher's role is to clarify the

lesson's objectives and outcomes. Students have the space to reflect metacognitively on their

learning through self and peer assessment.

Formative Assessment Framework

The vision for the modern K–3 classroom needs a clear understanding of what formative

assessment is and how to implement it. To gain a theoretical understanding, teachers need to

study the framework that can incorporate formative assessment into the classroom. Wiliam and

Thompson (2007) utilized Ramaprasad's (1983) three key instructional processes: (1)

Establishing where the learners are in their learning. (2) Establishing where they are going. (3)

determining what steps must be taken to get them there; To build a framework for formative

assessment, or assessment for learning (AfL), consisting of five key strategies:

1. Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success, the teacher, peers, and

students must identify what they want to know. What will they be able to do? How can we apply

this new knowledge? This is not the same as writing a lesson objective on the board at the start

of every lesson. Teachers discuss with their students the target knowledge, participate in setting

those goals, and check during class if students reach that goal. This will increase their

metacognition skills and allow them to start planning and monitoring their progress toward

learning goals. Knowing the learning intentions very well is essential for that process to work.

2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions, and learning tasks; Interactive

discussion between the teacher and students allows students to reflect on how well they are
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 15

retrieving and using what they have learned. The challenge for teachers is to involve as many

students as possible, giving them options about how they like to share. Some students love to

write, draw, or talk.

3. Providing feedback that moves learners forward;

The goal of effective feedback is to help students become better learners.

They must identify and correct their own errors. Young learners must learn how to connect their

work to the success criteria and provide their own continual self-correcting feedback since this

relates formative assessment to metacognition and self-assessment.

4. Activating students as instructional resources for one another; Teachers will create a learning

environment where students support each other's learning. This routine will ensure that each

student is involved in meaningful dialogues with others. Using a think peer share strategy and

collaborative work.

5. Activating students as the owners of their own learning. Setting learning objectives, making

plans, keeping track of progress, and assessing results are all related to self-regulation and

metacognition. Teachers may assist students in understanding where they are on the educational

journey and where they are headed—giving performance examples up to high/exceptional levels

so students may assess their own work against a scale and determine where they are and what

short-term learning objectives could be reachable to advance. Young learners will increase their

growth mindset and self-regulation, which feeds even greater success if they are aware of what

they need to do to develop and experience success by putting effort toward these self-determined

goals.
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 16

Figure. 2

The five key strategies of formative assessment

Formative Assessment Strategy

According to Heritage (2007), the formative assessment may be categorized into three

broad types:

• "On the fly," in the sense that the teacher modifies the lesson plan in the middle of the lesson to

correct misunderstandings before proceeding with the planned teaching sequence. For example, a

teacher listening to group discussions hears students expressing misconceptions about the science

concept she has been teaching. She then changes the direction of her lesson to provide a quick

"pop-up" lesson. 5 The pop-up lesson lets the teacher clear things up the misconceptions before

proceeding with her plans instructional sequence (p.141).

• "planned-for interaction," in which the instructor determines in advance how to elicit students'

thoughts during instruction. For example, teachers plan the questions they will ask during the
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 17

lesson in order to enable students to explore ideas, and these questions can elicit valuable

assessment information. (p.141)

• "curriculum-embedded," which refers to integrating tools and activities into the current

curriculum to obtain feedback at crucial junctures in the learning process. Student mathematical

representations created during lessons can function as formative assessments, as can students'

science notebooks that they are also part of the students' regular classroom activity. (p.141)

K-3 teachers always need to check the students' previous knowledge, then try to connect it with

the new one. These formative assessment types are specially designed to gather learning data,

which benefits the young learners' teachers to know their needs. They can be embedded as a normal

part of the educational activity, which gives immediate feedback to improve the next lesson.

Elements of the Formative Assessment Process

Several researchers ( Black & Wiliam,1998; Margaret Heritage 2007) have identified

essential elements of formative assessment. These include (1) identifying the gap, (2) feedback,

(3), learning progressions, and (4) student involvement

Identifying the gap: Formative assessment is designed to identify the gap between a student's

current status in learning and some desired educational goals. Heritage ( 2007) explained that the

―"just right gap" has been defined in the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The zone of

proximal development is defined as the distance between what the child can accomplish during

independent problem solving and the level of problem-solving that can be accomplished under

the guidance of an adult or in collaboration with a more expert peer. Through these processes,

cognitive growth occurs as the child internalizes problem-solving processes.

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 18

Heritage (2007) emphasizes the teacher's task as to" identify and build on immature but

maturing structures and, through collaboration and guidance, to facilitate cognitive growth. In

the process, the child internalizes the resources required for solving a particular problem, and

these resources become part of the child's independent developmental achievement...effective

formative assessment should identify what a student might achieve in his or her ZPD and enable

teachers to adapt teaching to close the gap between the student's current state of learning and the

desired state." (p.142). In other words, effective formative assessments will guide the teachers to

identify their young learner's position on the ZPD, from what they already know to do to what

they can do next.

Feedback: Shute (2008) states that feedback aims to increase student knowledge, skills,

and understanding in some content areas or general skills. (p.156)She defined formative

feedback as information communicated to the learner intended to modify his or her thinking or

behaviour to improve learning. Where Heritage (2007) identifies the teacher's role, " the teacher

takes steps to close the gap between the student's current learning and the goal by modifying the

teacher's instruction, assessing again to give further information about learning, modifying

instruction again, and so on. In formative assessment, learners must be able to use feedback to

improve their learning. Another critical aspect of the relationship between feedback and learning

is that feedback has a strong effect on student's motivation and their sense of self-efficacy —

how they feel about their various abilities — both of which are major influences on learning."

(p.142)

Learning Progressions: The teacher uses learning progressions to divide a learning objective into

smaller, more attainable sub-goals. The teacher determines where a student is on the learning

continuum. And collaborates with the young learner to establish goals and several lesser
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 19

objectives. Heratig(2007) explained the sub-goals that students and teachers need to place as "

short-term goals, " derived from the learning progression and described in terms of success

criteria. Success criteria guide learning while the student is engaged in the learning tasks."(p.142

The active participation of students in their own assessment is essential for enhancing

learning through formative assessment. During the formative assessment, young learners develop

self-and peer assessment skills to collaborate with their teachers to create a shared understanding

of their current learning status and what they need. Enabling students to assess their peers or

their own work consider a learning skill instead of spending time on quizzes or waiting for the

teacher's feedback. By doing this, they are using metacognitive techniques as they think about

their own thinking. There is a profound influence on student motivation and self-regulation when

students are involved in self-assessments and understand how to improve.

What is Students Self-Assessment?

Black and Wiliam (1998) answered their third question, "How Can We Improve

Formative Assessment?" by" Self-assessment by pupils. Many successful innovations have

developed self- and peer-assessment by pupils as ways of enhancing formative assessment, and

such work has achieved some success with pupils from age five upward. This link of formative

assessment to self-assessment is not an accident; indeed, it is inevitable "(1998).

More studies have demonstrated the significance of self-assessment as a valuable part of

formative assessment and how it increases students' involvement in their own learning. Logan

(2009) investigated how to improve teaching and learning effectiveness through peer and self-

assessment. According to Logan, self- and peer-assessment can improve students' learning by

developing their critical and reflective thinking skills, as well as their self-confidence as learners.
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 20

Therefore, self-and peer assessment instructs students on how to learn, which should be a core

component of higher educational programmes (p. 30). Bourke & Mentis (2011) defined self-

assessment as a process where "Students are directed to assess their performance against

predetermined standard criteria [and] involves the students in goal setting and more informal,

dynamic self-regulation and self-reflection" (P.859). With self-assessment, students can define

their learning goals at various stages of their learning process, which gives them a deep

understanding of what they can expect. Reassessing their performance may help determine

whether or not their learning goals have been met, so students can focus on where they are and

where they want to go to become more self-monitoring learners.

What is Self-Reflection?
One of the goals of formative assessment is to help students develop as independent

learners who can monitor and regulate their own learning. When learners actively assess their

work within clear criteria and check their performance, they can find the gaps in their

understanding and use the feedback to improve. The feedback from their teachers, peers, or even

themself will help them understand their own level of achievement and result in deeper learning.

Joseph A. Raelin (2002) stresses the importance of reflective practice and describes

reflective as "the practice of periodically stepping back to ponder the meaning of what has

recently transpired to ourselves and to others in our immediate environment" (P.3). He describes

it as a public and associated with learning dialogues, With an open process in which an

individual's perceptions, judgements, and assumptions are shared submitted to peer review to

avoid bias and erroneous views of reality. Amulya(2004) defined reflection as "an active process

of witnessing one's own experience in order to take a closer look at it, sometimes to direct

attention to it briefly, but often to explore it in greater depth." (P.1) She emphasizes the process
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 21

in general rather than whether it is an individual or community experience. She claims that the

goal of reflection is to learn from experiences. Amulya adds, "By becoming more purposeful

about our learning through reflection on practise, we become more purposeful in our work and

our lives" (P.2).

Self-reflection aids students by allowing them to better understand themselves by

articulating their thoughts and experiences in a concentrated and disciplined manner, which

improves their future learning efforts and aids both students and instructors in recognizing

learning needs.

Information from Brain Research

A closer look at young learners' brain development from "The Science of Early

Childhood Development."

1) Brains are built over time, from the bottom up. The brain's basic architecture is constructed

through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Early

experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile

foundation for all of the learning, health and behaviour that follow.

2) The interactive influences of genes and experience shape the developing brain. Scientists now

know a significant ingredient in this developmental process is the "serve and return" relationship

between children and their parents and other caregivers in the family or community.

3) The brain's capacity for change decreases with age. The brain is most flexible, or "plastic,"

early in life to accommodate a wide range of environments and interactions. Still, as the

maturing brain becomes more specialized to assume more complex functions, it is less capable of

reorganizing and adapting to new or unexpected challenges.

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 22

4) Cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are inextricably intertwined throughout life. The

emotional and physical health, social skills, and cognitive-linguistic capacities that emerge in the

early years are all important prerequisites for success in school and later in the workplace and

community.

5)Toxic stress damages developing brain architecture, leading to lifelong learning, behaviour,

and physical and mental health problems. Scientists now know that chronic, unrelenting early

childhood stress caused by extreme poverty, repeated abuse, or severe maternal depression, for

example, can be toxic to the developing brain. Positive stress (moderate, short-lived

physiological responses to uncomfortable experiences) is essential to healthy development. (

INBRIEF: The Science of Early Childhood Development,n.d).

Children develop cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically; these requirements must be

recognized since they might impact motivation and concentration spans for a particular activity.

As young learners, they are prone to stress, failure, and criticism, and so require special attention

from educators.

Figure 3

Human Brain Development

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 23

Metacognition skills
John Flavell introduced the term metacognition in the late 1970s to mean "cognition

about cognitive phenomena," or more simply, "thinking about thinking" (p. 906). He also

connected it to education, and how it affects student development by claiming; "Investigators

have recently concluded that metacognition plays an important role in oral communication of

information, oral persuasion, oral comprehension, reading comprehension, writing, language

acquisition, attention, memory, problem-solving, social cognition, and various types of self-

control and self-instruction; there are also clear indications that ideas about metacognition are

beginning to make contact with similar ideas in the areas of social learning theory, cognitive

behaviour modification, personality development, and education." (p.906).

Figure 4
The components of metacognition( according to Flavell, 1979; Brown,1987;Lee et al., 2009;
Bryce & Whitebread,2012; Marulis, 2014; Robson,2016).
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 24

John Flavell was influenced by Jean Piaget's constructivist psychology, which details

how children's cognitive growth is organized. Cognitive growth entails adjustments to cognitive

functions and processes. A child's cognitive growth involves more than simply knowledge

acquisition; they also have to create or develop a mental picture of the world. According to

Piaget, early cognitive development starts with action-based methods. Eventually, it leads to

changes in how the mind works. Cognitive growth occurs through innate capacities and

environmental events, and children pass through several stages. (Baken, 2004).

According to Schraw (1998), metacognition is a multidimensional set of abilities that are

teachable and more broadly applicable than domain-specific. These abilities, which empirically

differ from general intelligence, may even be used to make up for deficiencies in general

intelligence and/or prior knowledge of a subject while addressing problems. Metacognition has

two main parts: knowledge about cognition and monitoring of cognition ( Flavell, 1979; Schraw

& Moshman, 1995; Schraw, 1998; ).

For example, Schraw (1998) stated that knowledge of cognition refers to what individuals

know about their own cognition strengths and limitations. It includes at least three different kinds

of metacognitive awareness: declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge. The other

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 25

component of metacognition is the regulation of cognition, "which refers to a set of activities that

help students control their learning. Research supports the assumption that metacognitive

regulation improves performance in a number of ways, including better use of attentional

resources, better use of existing strategies, and a greater awareness of comprehension

breakdowns. " (p.114). Researchers have explained the relationship between cognitive

knowledge and cognitive monitoring or regulation. For example, Flavell (1979) argues that

metacognitive experiences that allow one to monitor and regulate one's cognition plays a major

role in the growth and improvement of metacognitive knowledge. In turn, Schraw (1998) cited

that cognitive knowledge facilitates cognitive regulation.

Metacognition for Young Learners

This section reviews the research on young learners' metacognitive abilities and explains

how raising students' metacognitive awareness and control might enhance learning. In Piaget's

work, young children are not capable of formal operations, which are necessary for abstract

thought. On the other hand, studies show that metacognition is a late-development skill(Flavell,

1979; Schraw & Moshman, 1995; Whitebread et al., 2009). Schraw and Moshman(1995) explain

that" Researchers agree that regulatory competence improves performance in a number of ways,

including better use of cognitive resources such as attention, better use of strategies, and a

greater awareness of comprehension breakdowns. A number of studies report significant

improvement in learning when regulatory skills and an understanding of how to use these skills

are included as part of classroom instruction."(p.355)

Metacognitive abilities start to develop very early in life and continue to grow throughout

the years. For instance, it has been demonstrated that toddlers as young as 12 and 18 months old

are already able to reflect on their judgments, assess their correctness, and modify their
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 26

subsequent behaviours. As a result, they continue their behaviour more often when they make the

right choice than when they do not. Developing the accuracy of simple decisions, keeping track

of mistakes, and using these metacognitive evaluations to regulate subsequent behaviour are all

skills that infants demonstrate through their behaviour in the first year of life, even though more

complex forms of metacognition and verbal expression do not develop until later in childhood.

Other research has revealed that youngsters as young as 18 months old already employ intuitive

ways to fix their errors while completing problems. Children can monitor their problem-solving

behaviour when they are 3 years old and use metacognitive processing in puzzle tasks when they

are 4 years old. Accordingly, several studies demonstrate that children's metacognitive abilities

significantly improve between the ages of 3 and 5, especially. Children are capable of finding

solutions to their issues. They demonstrate many methods of planning, monitoring, and

evaluating behaviour to do this, including comments made to themselves, checking behaviours

and error detection, repetition of behaviour to confirm the accuracy of the result, and the use of

gestures to support their activity (including assessment of performance quality itself and

evaluation when the task has been completed). In summary, scientific research supports the idea

that early planning, monitoring, and assessment are evident in children's behaviour throughout

the first year of life and the preschool years.(Escolano-Pérez et a.,l 2019) Planning also appears

to be a late-developing skill, with dramatic improvements in the ability to select appropriate

strategies and allocate resources not appearing until 10-14 years of age. This is also accepted that

children typically do not develop metacognitive skills before 8-10 years of age (Whitebread et

al., 2009).

Chatzipanteli et al.'s (2013) study on the development and evaluation of metacognition in

early childhood shows how the development of metacognitive skills helps young children
 Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 27

become thoughtful. These activities could guide young students to reflect on their learning.

Metacognition refers to a high level of thinking that involves active control over the students

who use metacognitive abilities and learn and remember more than others.

According to Chatzipanteli et al. (2013), many researchers have investigated strategies to

improve metacognition in learning. Metacognitive awareness can be promoted by modelling

metacognitive activities that seem to develop metacognitive activities. Chatzipanteli et al. (2013)

explain that the development of metacognitive abilities in the early years is vital because their

thinking and the ability to use simple metacognitive strategies like planning, Metacognitive

teaching strategies such as "reciprocal teaching" can encourage the virtues in young children

(aged three to five years) to emerge in learning activities as they Peer tutoring can also promote

metacognitive activities such as monitoring. 1.2.3 Activities to encourage metacognition in early

childhood Educators could improve young children's metacognition in activities where children.

Adopting such activities is the best way to promote metacognition at this age when children can

employ rudimentary forms of metacognitive skills. Metacognition is a fundamental concept

concerning the acquisition of learning skills. Chatzipanteli et al. (2013) found that young

children learn through metacognitive abilities and behaviours. So, teachers need to help children

develop metacognitive awareness from the early stages of metacognition. Educators could assist

their students and even promote children's metacognition since children prefer to learn through

movement styles, which could help young students enhance metacognitive strategies such as

monitoring. (Chatzipanteli et al., 2013).

Metacognition Impact on the Assessment and Learning Processes

Substantial evidence is that raising students' metacognitive awareness and control can enhance

learning researchers have noted a bidirectional relationship between metacognition and learning.
 Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 28

Instead, it is more plausible that increases in metacognition lead to advancement in learning, leading

to even more advancements in metacognition. The learner might be empowered by tools called

metacognitive skills. Educating students about their ability to manage and improve their thinking,

study, organize and reflect on their work, and reject the notion that intelligence is innate or a

product of birth. This shows that learning is a process that involves active participation and

encourages students to take charge of their education. I constantly remind my students that our brain

is like muscles that must be exercised to expand.

Vicki McCoy (2020) said, "One of the best ways to bring metacognition to the

classroom is through the practice of formative assessment (F.A.)." When educators create and

use F.A., they increase awareness of their own work and show students how to think in a way

that supports learning. The classroom culture changes when those routines for teaching and

learning get ingrained with those habits. F.A. techniques in the classroom are associated with

some of the highest achievement gains for students among teaching strategies. For students

whose backgrounds have not included modelling patterns and structures, F.A. can add

transparency to what might seem to them like a game with hidden rules. When teachers give

voice to steps in the learning process and invite students to co-own them, students can see how

the game is played and better understand their role. (McCoy, 2020).

Lester (1994) adds in his research, "Musings about Mathematical Problem-Solving

Research: 1970-1994," that metacognitive actions are seen as "driving forces" in problem-

solving, influencing cognitive behaviour at all phases of problem-solving. Lester offers the

following advice to educators who are striving to integrate metacognitive techniques:

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 29

1. Effective metacognitive activity during problem-solving requires knowing not only what and

when to monitor but also how to monitor. Moreover, teaching students how to monitor their

behaviour is a difficult task.

2. Teaching students to be more aware of their cognitions and better monitor their problem-

solving actions should take place in the context of learning specific mathematics concepts and

techniques (general metacognition instruction is likely to be less effective).

3. The development of healthy metacognitive skills is difficult and often requires "unlearning"

inappropriate metacognitive behaviours developed through previous experience (Lester, 1994).

Limitations of the Study

There are two significant limitations in this study that could be addressed in future

research. First, the study did not answer the second research question about the formative

assessment in the current curriculum for k–3 learners because of time constraints. Second, all the

research papers used were concentrated in the U.K. and USA only.

Results and Findings

As we have acknowledged, assessment has played a crucial role in enhancing student

results and the learning experience, so the success of improving educational quality might occur

if instructors can function successfully in the classroom. The formative assessment appears to be

the most critical aspect in order to promote more significant learning and provide all students

with an equal chance to learn. The following are some suggestions based on the research.
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 30

(1)Teachers must assess students' progress, show them their improvements, and boost

motivation. Young learners receive concrete proof of their growth through assessment scores.

(2) There are three purposes for educational assessments: •formative: promoting learning•.

Summative: recognizing individuals' accomplishments or potential; • evaluating the quality of

educational programs or schools.

(3) Formative assessment becomes an effective formative assessment when the evidence is used

to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs.

(4) The formative assessment procedure decreases the stress of the assessment on students,

teachers, and parents

(5) Student engagement in assessment keeps the kids more involved in classroom activities,

which will lower the amount of disruptive behaviour that takes place there.

(6) young learners can learn metacognition skills.

(7)Self-assessment requires students to engage in reflection, metacognition, and goal-setting.

(8) Development of metacognitive abilities: Students become more adept at modifying their

actions to improve the quality of their output.

(9) Formative assessments assist teachers in differentiating their instructions.

(10) To serve a formative purpose, assessment needs to provide actionable feedback information

for teachers and students.

Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 31

Conclusion

Formative assessment, also known as assessment for learning, is intended to provide K-3

teachers with knowledge so they may modify and differentiate their teaching and learning

strategies. Teachers must carefully plan their assessments to utilize the data to assess students'

knowledge as well as how, when, and whether they applied it. Teachers use this data to simplify

and influence instruction, resource selection, modelling, and goal setting to ensure active

participation from their young students in order to assist them in developing their learning and

skills. Formative assessment can be embedded in the learning activities. Teachers can learn about

students' interests and dispositions as well as their preparedness to learn new knowledge and

skills. This data sets the foundation for new learning and aids teachers in developing

differentiated learning assignments and evaluations that consider students' needs, interests, and

preferred learning methods. Instructors and students use this knowledge to establish suitable

learning objectives.

Numerous studies on education have supported the idea of an active learning approach, in

which students actively participate in the learning and assessment processes through self-

assessment and reflection. With the right and suitable metacognition skills, K–3 learners become

more independent and prepared for the next level in their educational journey.
Metacognition and Self-Assessment for K-3 32

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