Metacognition is the action in which one thinks about their own cognitive processes. The first component is cognitive knowledge, which is the knowledge of our own cognitive processes. This knowledge is divided into three sections: person, task, and strategy knowledge. Once we have the knowledge, then we can regulate, or control, our own thinking, emotions, and values. There are four characteristics of theory of mind, which is a child's understanding of the mental world. They are false-beliefs, appearance-reality distinctions, visual perspective-talking, and introspection. False-beliefs is the understand that beliefs are not always true. Appearance-reality distinction is the understanding that sometimes objects look different than what they actually are. Visual perspective-talking is the ability to understanding that different individuals see different objects in other ways. Introspection is an awareness of thoughts in your own mind and others' minds.
Metacognition can be seen in the classroom in many ways. First, it can be seen when discussing different books. The teacher could ask her students whether or not they liked the book and why. This causes them to formulate their own ideas and hear the ideas of others. Also, a teacher could ask them how a certain character felt in a certain situation. This could cause them to put themselves in the shoes of the character and decide how they would feel in that situation.
One question that I have is how early do children start developing these ideas? Do they develop on their own, or does someone need to teach them these ideas before they can expand on them?
Lower order thinking refers to the processes of remembering information. This is the memorization, not necessarily the understanding, of information. For example, if a student memorized all of the states and their capitals, this is lower order thinking. Higher order thinking is when the student takes information and understands it enough to analyze and evaluate it. This is shown with the questions that ask students why something happened, rather than simply what happened.
This can be related to Piaget's ideas about development. With metacognition, time is needed for it to develop. This is what Piaget thinks about our brains, that development proceeds learning.
In my classroom, I see myself providing guided notes for the children to fill out. This helps them because they can be learning the information while trying to think of what will fit in the blanks. They need to think about what they know about the material to be able to take notes on it. Then, these notes can be used as study guides later for the tests.
I really like your suggestions here on practicing perspective taking!
ReplyDeleteThe research pretty consistently shows that children just aren't capable of this kind of thought before about 3 or 4. It appears it requires some biological maturation. After that point, however, though children are capable of it, many don't get practice or explicit instruction of how to think about others' thinking, or their own. That's the point (after 4 or 5) when these activities would be so important. They'll carry those skills to the future as well.