Metacognition and Critical Think Blog Post 2

        I was very interested to look at the metacognitive regulation practices presented in the reading. When I initially looked at the three processes (planning, monitoring, and evaluating) and their descriptions, none of them really looked like things that I often do. However, I have always been a good student.

        I suppose, according to the book definition, I do a lot of planning. I strategize in my studies about what I need to do for each class to get a good grade while not overwhelming myself and while enjoying the class. Often, this means that I do not do everything the teacher recommends. For example, in some of my classes where the teacher covers all of the material in the book in class, I will not do the reading. However, if I need extra help understanding, or if I have an assignment based off the reading, then I will do it.

        I do not too closely monitor or evaluate. These activities happen, but rarely. I think that if a problem began to arise, I would probably turn to them to get my grades and studies back on track.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 1

Module 12 talks about metacognition. This occurs when one thinks about their own thinking. Using this, students can purposefully regulate their thinking to be conducive to learning. To be able to think about thinking, students must first develop a theory of mind. Module 14 talks about critical thinking. It explains that higher-order thinking skills help students process, analyze, apply, and evaluate information. Critical thinking deals specifically with evaluating information. This is encouraged in the classroom as a form of problem solving.

                In a first grade classroom, metacognition would look different than it would at an older age. You may ask students to write down what they are thinking. Later, you may have them look at what they wrote and explain why they thought that. This can help kids begin to think about their thinking.

                Is there a tie between metacognition and critical thinking? I feel like these topics are supposed to be related but am not quite sure how.

                Higher and lower order thinking use different skills. Lower order thinking could be remembering or recognizing information. In higher order thinking, information is considered more deeply. It is not just remembered, but also evaluated, judged, manipulated, or questioned. Lower order is described as reproductive while higher is described as productive.

                This information lines up with what I have seen in my experience. I have seen that when teachers encourage critical thinking, students learn better. When they judge, compare, and create, they are able to connect with information. It gives them a reason to care about and retain information rather than just repeat it.

                I would have kids use critical thinking to solve problems. If there was a rule that the class didn’t like, I would encourage them to analyze the situation and evaluate alternatives. I would even ask them to create a rule that could replace the old one.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 2

In the past, taking notes has been a very effective metacognitive strategy for me. I find it helpful for me to not only hear and see the information, but to also write it down and organize it on a paper. This helps me to remember the information because not only am I storing the information in my brain just from hearing it, but i am also creating memories of the information and I can visualize the notes that I took. It is also an effective method because I can revisit the notes at a later day to review an strengthen the understanding of the material.

Because I only have one blog grade to go off of in this class, it is hard to gauge if I am doing well. I seem to be understanding the material. I have also been keeping up with the homework and readings which has been helping me to grasp the information. I feel that I understand the material because I have been able to explain it to others and also recall it when needed at a later date.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 1

This chapter focuses on metacognition which means thinking about your own thinking processes. Metacognition can be divided into two main categories. The first of these categories is known as metacognitive knowledge which is knowledge about your own knowledge. This category can also be broken down into three smaller groups; Person knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge. Person knowledge is understanding your own capabilities. Task knowledge is how we perceive the difficulty or ease of a task. Strategy knowledge is the capability to use strategies to learn information. The second main category of metacognition is known as metacognitive regulation. It is the purposeful act of trying to regulate and control our own cognition, beliefs, emotions, and values. Another big focus of these chapters is thinking. The chapter discusses the different ways of thinking, such as lower-order thinking and higher-order thinking. Higher-order thinking requires more complex cognitive processes than lower-order thinking. Lower-order thinking only requires shallow cognitive processes, while higher-order thinking will require someone to think harder and come up with new thoughts and ideas and do more than simply recall facts.

Some parts of this chapter focused on learning strategies. It talks about note taking, studying, and other effective strategies. My question is how can you apply these strategies to a younger group of students? Most students don't use studying and note taking as a learning strategy, but is there a way to modify them to fit with a younger classroom?

In an older classroom setting, metacognition can be applied by having weekly self-evaluations. Students can reflect on their behaviors and academics of the week and fill out a self-evaluation form. This is a tool that will help students to take a step back and really look at what they have been doing and forces them to monitor their actions.

Metacognition/critical thinking post 2

In my own learning, I find that listening and taking notes is the best way for me to retain information. I would rather listen to a lesson in class than read a chapter in a book. Though reading material is essential in college, I work the best when I jot notes as I am reading. This helps me remember and make connections further along the readings. 

metacognition/ critical thinking

The modules primary have to do with high order thinking skills. It is important to recognize the different levels to further the development on critical thinking. Metacognition is the ability to think about your own thinking and being in control of both emotions and morals. Metacognition can be put in three different categories, personal knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge. It further discusses how we use each of these at different ages in every day life. Critical thinking is the ability to retain and analyze information to draw connections. Higher order thinking builds on lower order thinking and has the ability to understand and create something to further the analyzes. I would suggest to use higher order and lower order achieving students together in a heterogeneous group to further the understanding of both parties. Would it be hurtful in lower order thinking students not be mixed in students that excel?

Lower order thinking requires students to duplicate information that they have learned. Metacognition or critical thinking skills are not prevalent in lower order thinking. Though higher order thinking requires students not only remember and retain the information but also to create something out of the skills they have developed. Students that are using higher order thinking must analyze, apply, or evaluate along with lower order retaining and replicating.

This reading connects with Piaget’s theory of development. He says that biological maturation regulates development. Though now what I know about lower and higher thinking levels, it is evident that biology is prevalent with aging and the development of higher levels of thinking.

In my classroom, I would give different tasks for students to do in clusters that build up lower to higher order thought. I would provide a journal for my students and have them practice writing not only their thoughts, but I would provide questions to think about regards to learning.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Post 2

The strategy that has worked for me in the past is note taking. I think note is so effective for me because it helps me encode the information by writing it down. When I review the notes I am also storing the information externally and can use them to help recall or trigger the ideas later. I also think that note taking helps me because I only encode the important information and I do it in a way that helps me trigger the details that go along with that information. I usually take my notes in an outline technique which helps me quickly reference and find the information I am looking for in my notes and organizes the information in my head by chunking subtopics of a general idea together.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking

The main concept of metacognition is thinking about your own thinking. Metacognition is made up of two components, metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is ones actual knowledge and their self-evaluations of their knowledge. Metacognitive regulation is the actual planning of tasks and strategies and evaluating those strategies. A real world example of these two things could be learning about state capitals by singing a song. The metacognitive knowledge would be thinking about if you actually learned the capitals. The metacognitive regulation would be if the song helped you learn the knowledge.

Metacognition also includes the theory of mind, which is the understanding of the mind and the mental world. The four characteristics of the theory of mind are false belief, appearance-reality distinctions, visual perspective-taking, and introspection. There are many strategies that teachers can use to help students based on metacognition. Reciprocal teaching is when you structure a conversation to help reading comprehension. Another strategies is PQ4R: preview, question, read, reflect, recite, and review.

Thinking can be higher order or lower order. Higher order thinking involves complex cognitive processes that transform and apply our knowledge, skills, and ideas. This means that you can apply the new knowledge. Lower order thinking involves only being able to recall and recite knowledge. Critical thinking is a process in which the worth or value of learned information is evaluated. Problem solving is the means we use to reach a goal. The goals of critical thinking are to relate the information learned with prior knowledge and be able to use the knowledge in new innovative ways.

One question I have is what are some examples of class projects that help develop critical thinking?

I think that Piaget would say that critical thinking skills develop with the biological process of maturing and developing. He may disagree that critical thinking must be taught. I think he would say, it can be taught after and only after the abstract thinking abilities have been developed in a child.

Blog Post 2

What works best for me is understanding what I did wrong and how I can fix it. I finally am at the point where i understand my own learning style and am abe to evaluate myself on my strengths and weaknesses. To study, I focus on my weaknesses and figure out what I can do to improve them. This is effective because when we are able to understand our own learning we will learn more. for instance when you are able to teach someone else this is when you truly understand the information. For a while, the only grade I had in this glad was one bog post so I could asume I was doing very well. As I get more feedback I understand what I need to improve on. In this class I try to pay attention and take notes to boost my metacognitive knowledge. I think this is a good strategy for me because I am able to reiterate the information to other people and on my blog posts.

Blog Post 1

Metacognition is basically thinking about our own thinking. The three categories of metacognition are person knowledge (understanding our capabilities), task knowledge (the difficulty we perceive the task), and strategy knowledge (how we use strategies to learn). The chapter goes on to discuss how we use metacognition every day. Such as when we think no one understands the way we feel or the situation we are in. Metacognition is effected by our beliefs, motivation, prior knowledge, and prior success. Critical thinking is how we evaluate how accurate the information presented is. We have a problem or information and we try to deconstruct it to its natural origins by thinking of everything that would make this idea true and thinking about how we can apply the information. Asking questions inspires critical thinking because we are able to think about the question in many different ways through spontaneous, exploratory, and issue-specific discussions.  

I would tell a practicing teacher to think of ways that students would think about information and try to relate it to them as much as possible and assure them that if they are having difficulties others students most likely ave the same problems that they do. Also, having class discussions would allow for more critical thinking. 

One question I had about the chapter was how would Piaget relate to this? He based everything off of students being in different stages of development and this is where their learning happened, so would he say that previous knowledge has nothing to do with this? Also, critical thinking can happen with any age students so would he say young students are not developmentally ready for this type of thinking?

Higher order type of thinking has to do more with self evaluation. You are able to understand why you got something wrong and how to correct it. You are also able to connect new information with previous knowledge and form new connections based on what you already know to be true and false. Lower order thinking is just being able to learn the information at hand and not connecting it to anything else.

The reading connects with what I know about development because I think that as we get older we are able to think about things more critically and evaluate the ways that we learn best. I think it is important for us to understand our own learning so that we can be successful. Development and learning are constantly happening and I think that being able to grow and make connections with previous topics and analyze them illustrates a lot of critical thinking and metacognition. 

In my future teaching I could incorporate critical thinking by presenting information to students and having them think about what it means and then having a class discussion. For instance if we were reading and we needed to understand the reading, students would have different ideas of what the reading meant, so by having class discussions we are able to analyze the information and think about the deeper meaning of it.

Module 12 &14 Post 2

In my own learning, I find that I most often use note taking and flash card quizzes to help me remember and retain information.  These might be effective because the flashcards allow me to make connections with other things, in order for me to remember subject better.

In this class, I can tell that I'm doing well or poorly based on if I feel like I understand what I read in the chapter.  If I don't feel like I understand a theory, I know I could not explain it to someone else, therefore, I need to find a way to study it more effectively.

Modules 12 & 14 Post 1

Modules 12 & 14 focus on metacognition and critical thinking.  The big ideas focus around these two topics.  These chapters focus on thinking about thinking and how to advance one's thinking to higher order thinking.  Children with higher order thinking are able to think about others and assess their own thinking and understanding.  Metacognition can be thought of as knowledge and regulation.  Metacognition knowledge is knowledge of the thinking processes one uses.  Metacognition regulation is assessing one's self to see how effective these thinking processes are.  Critical thinking is being able to retain knowledge and make connections based on things that have been previously learned.  Higher order thinking is being able to retain new information, understand it, as well as, make connections to previously learned things, and in turn create new ideas.  Lower order thinking is being able to recall and recount information but not being able to make connections to previously learned things.  Young children are not able to think at a higher level.  To a classroom teacher, I would suggest putting students in heterogeneous groups in order to allow higher achieving students the opportunity to teach lower achieving students, signifying complete understanding.  It also allows lower achieving students to see how some connections were made, that they wouldn't previously have understood.

One question I had concerning critical thinking and metacognition is: can working in homogeneous groups of all students of higher order thinking still be beneficial to said students?

The difference between higher and lower levels of thinking is children who have a higher level of thinking are able to think about their own thinking processes and are able to assess how well their understanding is.  They are also able to make connections with what they have just learned to things they have learned previously.  Lower level thinking does not allow the thinker to be able to assess him/herself, as well as, the thinking of those around them.  They are also not able to make connections to things that have been previously learned.

This reading connects with what I have previously learned about development by showing how aging moves you from one developmental stage to the other.  This connects to Piaget because one has to be of a certain age in order to reach a developmental stage.

In my future classroom, I would facilitate this type of higher thinking by asking open ended questions, as well as, questions that would allow the students to make connections with previous topics.  I would also assign heterogeneous group projects, in order to allow the students to assess themselves by teaching a topic to another student, if they successfully teach the topic, they are sure they understand it fully.

Modules 12&14 Post 2

By creating and keeping a to-do list everyday, I have been able to regulate my own thinking and studying decently well throughout my life. I block out extra time in my day if I have an assignment to do and especially dedicate more time if I know I'm struggling with a task. My to-do list is usually blocked out by hours so I know how many hours I have allotted to a certain task. Since I do this, I'm aware of how competent I am or how much work I need in a certain area. They're effective because I am responsible for my own learning and by writing everything that I have to, I can usually commit my tasks to memory. I am aware of my own ability to learn, but still require guidance to foster my cognitive knowledge.

Modules 12&14 Post 1

Modules 12 and 14 have to do with higher order thinking skills. Module 12 focuses primarily on metacognition, which is the process of thinking about your own thinking. As learners, we develop metacognition knowledge. Cognitive knowledge is having the knowledge of our cognitive processes, or how our brains work. Metacognitive regulation is our ability of being in control of our own thinking, morals and emotions. Children have a problem understanding other people's thoughts, but at the age of 4 they become capable of thinking about other people's thoughts. Adolescents also have a problem thinking about other people's thoughts in the fact that they think everyone is thinking about them. Essentially, metacognition is a challenge for children at these ages. There are teaching strategies that allow students to think about their own thinking, too. Reciprocal teaching is one of the most effective metacognition strategies; the teacher asks the student questions about their reading through summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting. Module 14 has to do with critical thinking which is similar to metacognition. One has to be aware of their own learning to delve into the depth of what they're learning. Steps to critical thinking involve clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth and logic. Without these, a student lacks the proper traits to higher level thinking. Another important sign of higher level critical thinking includes problem solving. How do children who are in the beginning stages of Piaget's phases participate in problem solving, if any at all? Can preschoolers use prior knowledge to solve problems?

Lower order thinking is a type of thinking that essentially requires students to only regurgitate information they've learned. Lower order thinking doesn't require metacognition or critical thinking skills or problem solving. Lower order thinking only requires students to remember what they've learned. Higher order thinking requires students to create something of their own based on what they know. Higher order thinking involves analyzing, applying or evaluating information they've learned.

Information in the reading connects with what I know about Piaget. Piaget says biological maturation pushes development. This is evident with higher level critical thinking. In Module 14, it says that preschoolers aren't able to retrieve information through their memory to solve problems. They're only able to rely on what they are currently learning. This is a biological fact of nature and doesn't change depending on person. Biology has to push the child through development to help them understand how to problem solve. Children at 4 are much different than children at 12 in problem solving because they've moved through Piaget's stages.

I would and will participate in reciprocal teaching in my practice as teacher. This fosters students to think about their own learning with the guidance of my questioning. They're able to summarize what they've learned and then ask questions about it, which go through the taxonomy of metacognition: regurgitation of information to then analyzing it.

Metacognition/ Critical Thining post 2

I like to write down my assignments in a notebook so that I can keep track of what I have to do for each day and each week. I also make sure to pay attention in class and try to connect new information in one class to what I have previously learned or am in the process of learning about in other classes. These connections make me feel like I know the material better. I also like to bounce teaching ideas off of my teaching major friends and roommate. The discussion helps me form opinions of my own that both connect to and conflict with those in the book. If I am studying I like to write down notes more than just look at them. I think the process of writing things down helps highlight the things that are important. Then when I am trying to remember the information in the test setting I think about the placement of notes and the number of bullet points or extra information I add to a heading.

Metacognition/critical thinking post 1

These two chapters focused on how students think and how to accelerate their thinking abilities. Metacognition is thinking about thinking as well as the strategies used to improve one's thinking. Metacognition breaks down further into knowledge and regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about one's own processes and tendencies. Metacognitve regulation involves understanding that one needs to regulate and assess how well the metacognitive processes in use are as effective as they should be. Critical thinking involves thinking about the worth of information and being able to manipulate it and connect it to things that have been learned previously. There higher and lower level ways of thinking about new information. Lower order thinking involves just being able to recall and reproduce information as well as basic understandings about the concepts. Higher order thinking is when children are able to manipulate the information and create new things using the new knowledge. This also includes having a very deep understanding of the material being presented. Metacognition and critical thinking are not skills that young children are able to come up with on their own; these ideas must be taught and nurtured in order for children to even be aware of these kinds of ideas.

The chapters claim that these ways of thinking are not things that children know intuitively, it is something that must be taught and fostered. Does this mean that if it is not taught when they are young they will not be good at the critical thinking required when they reach higher grades?

I think this idea of young children not being capable with thinking about their thinking on their own connects to Vygotsky because they are capable of critical thinking with the scaffolding of a teacher or wording of questions. It also connects to Piaget because children need to be of a certain age before they are capable of this kind of thinking on their own.

To incorporate these ways of thinking in my own classroom I would ask children questions with words that would foster higher thinking such as discuss, analyze, and evaluate. I would also ask children to talk about what goes on in their mind when they come up with certain answers so they understand that they have a thought process and they should be thinking about it.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 2

I always try to sit in the front of the classroom otherwise I will get too distracted in the back.  This has helped me to pay attention to class so much better and for some classes I do not even have to take notes because I am so focused in on the teacher and what we are learning in the class.  Another method that I have used is to make an outline a week in advance before I write a paper and whenever I think of any important points or sentences throughout the week I can add it to the outline so I have a lot of time to think of the topic and makes it easy to write the paper.  Rather than waiting until the very last minute to write the paper.

Usually I can tell if I am doing well in class depending on how well I have grasped the information in class and the grades I receive on assignments.  If I am getting a lot of good grades and I understand everything in class with no need for clarification than I have fully grasped the concepts of that subject matter for that day in class.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 1

Metacognition is thinking about your own thinking processes like study skills, memory capabilities, and the ability to monitor your learning.  This process gets better as a student goes through school.  Around first grade it is harder for a student to be good at metacognition but by the time the students go into middle school they have a better understanding of metacognition.  Some of the factors that affect the development of metacognition are belief about the nature of the task, motivation, prior knowledge about the topic, and prior success using metacognitive skills.  Metacognition will a help a student for reading comprehension, taking notes, and studying.  Critical thinking is the process of evaluating the accuracy and worth of information and lines of reasoning.  Critical thinking allows you to accurately apply writing techniques, hypothesis testing, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning, and argument analysis.  A way to apply this in a first grade class is to allow the students work in groups to solve a hard problem this will allow them to teach each other and in turn critically think about the problem even if they do not get it correct.

The question that I have is can a person still not have developed metacognition fully if they were not taught how to critically look at themselves?

Lower-order thinking is just repeating and going through the motions that the student has been taught and done many times before.  Higher-order thinking is when the student is doing something that they have not been taught but is putting previous knowledge and connecting it to come up with a new way of solving or coming up with an answer.

We have been learning that development is based on biological constraints which this goes along with that because you learn better metacognition skills as you get older, but it has nothing to do with the individual rather than everyone.  This is the same for everyone.

I will assign an assignment that is pretty hard for the students to understand unless they have been taking good notes and been paying attention to the material.  I will ask them what they think they will get on the assignment.  Depending on how well they have been taking notes and paying attention will depend on the grade and if they thought they were going to get a better grade it means they are not doing everything they can in class.  This will give them an understanding on how well they are taking notes and participating in class.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 2

Note taking has truly helped me in the past with regulating my own thinking because I am able to read the material, take notes, review in class with more notes, and then be able to go through these notes again to help me study for an exam or test. I never have gone crazy over note taking and written down every single piece of information, but I have written down the most important facts and the facts that I often forget because by writing this information down, I can remind myself that this is the important information and this is what I normally forget so make sure to go over it and review. Study time involves my notes so I am able to recall the information that I do know and connect it to the knowledge that still needs to be reviewed. I self-test myself as well once notes are taken by making flash cards or taking practice tests that help with higher order of thinking.

In class, I know that I am doing well if I am able to create the project we have written like the development in play project and do it on my own without constantly looking at my notes from class and from the book. Since I was able to do this, I was confident in my knowledge about what I was writing about which was Piaget and play. So far, I have been effective in taking notes and I think that this is shown through my blog posts as well. In order to continue doing well especially for the midterm, I will make a study guide about the most important information and the information that I often forget to help me with thinking accurately for the test.

Metacognition/Critical Thinking Blog Post 1

Metacognition contains two main components, which include metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation. Metacognitive knowledge refers to knowledge about our own cognitive processes. It is spit up into person, task, and strategy knowledge. On the other hand, metacognitive regulation is the act of controlling our own thinking, emotions, and values, which includes planning, monitoring, and evaluation. Both components develop over time and are related to higher thinking and achievement. Children contain a theory of mind, which describes their early understanding of the mental world. There are four characteristics of the theory of mind, which include false-beliefs (understanding that beliefs can be right or wrong), appearance-reality distinction (understanding objects may look one way but be something different), visual perspective taking (ability to understand that a person may visually see something different than you do), and introspection (awareness of thoughts within one's own and other's minds). Metacognition refers to "thinking about your own thinking" or being aware of your own thoughts. Metacognitive skills are influenced by biological factors like brain damage and familial factors like conversations amongst a family about thinking, learning, and knowledge. Teachers can assist students with reading comprehension and writing skills by using reciprocal teaching or the PQ4R strategy because these methods require the use of metacognitive skills like planning, monitoring, and evaluation to improve student's understanding of ideas. Also, another important aspect in the classroom that needs to be encouraged is critical thinking, which is the process of evaluating the accuracy and worth of information and lines of reasoning. During this process, students deconstruct a problem or an issue to identify and consider characteristics like the frames of reference or points of view involved, assumptions, evidence, validity, and implications or consequences that follow a decision. Through critical thinking, students are able to become more skilled in problem solving inside and outside of the classroom.

I can see how Piaget relates to metacognition when discussing egocentrism in younger and older students. Students have false-beliefs that make them think that someone thinks the same things that they think. How can we teach children to not have false-beliefs when thinking about other's thinking or do children developmentally stop having false-beliefs?

The distinction between lower order and higher order types of thinking is that higher order thinking skills reflect an individual's ability to manipulate and change information to solve problems and make decisions. Lower order thinking involves repeating past experiences rather than integrating past experiences and routine application of previously acquired information. Students with lower order of thinking tend to recall information rather than students with higher order of thinking that manipulate information. Students with higher order of thinking analyze and evaluate, while students with lower order of thinking comprehend knowledge.

The information in the reading connects with my knowledge about development because metacognitive skills develop over time just like children develop through the four stages in Piaget's theory and the learning occurs within the stages, which causes them to develop and move on to the next stage. Metacognitive skills and theory of mind that children have that helps them understand the mental world becomes more sophisticated throughout the school-age years, which is a demonstration of development occurs over time with the help of learning through this time.

In my classroom, I see myself as a teacher to provide study time for students to be able to think on their own without outside influences and think about their thinking. I also would provide guided notes so that children can think on their own with the help of the teacher. Students need to have knowledge about the material being learned in class, while taking notes and filling in the answers so they can think about why the answers are what they are and how it connects to the curriculum. The students can use these notes for study time in the future to help them recall information and continue to learn it in an effective way.