Metacognition is thinking about your own thinking. There are two main components of metacognition - metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation. Knowledge is understanding your own processes and knowing how to regulate them, and regulation is trying to control thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc. The theory of mind describes the early understanding that children have of their minds. Examples of this theory are when children realize that people can be incorrect, that something may appear different than it actually is, and awareness of their own thoughts. Egocentricism plays an important role during this time.
Metacognition is important to our classrooms in the future because as teachers, we can't expect our elementary students to just suddenly acquire metacognition. Metacognition is something that teachers have to teach their students. Is there another way that teachers can direct students to be more metacognizant without directly saying "now think about your thought process..."?
Lower and higher order thinking have one main difference - the ability to be cognizant of your own thoughts. For example, lower-order thinking kids have difficulty understanding their own thoughts or the thoughts of others. Higher-order thinking adults can easily focus on their thought processes and those of others.
I think this reading connects to what we have already learned about development because these modules emphasize that metacognition happens naturally over time with help from older and more experienced people (teachers, parents, siblings, etc.)
I can utilize metacognition in my classroom in the future before students prepare for an exam. For example, I can say "when you're studying tonight, make sure you focus on X and Y" because then the students will have to actively think about what they are thinking/studying.
In regards to your question, Ashley, I think one way you could get kids to begin to think about their own thought process would be to give them a task of remembering something for the next day and then see who remembers the information. If a student has then remembered the information you could ask that student how he or she went about remembering the information. For example, I would give students a set of words or numbers that are random and tell the kids to study them and remember them for the next day. On the next day I would ask the students to tell me what was on their list. After this I would then ask the students what they did to remember or attempt to remember. Of the students who remembered I would tell them to continue using that method of studying and of the students who did not remember I would advise them to try another method and also provide them with alternative methods.
ReplyDeleteI really like your description of the chapter. Also, Cheri's suggestion is great!
ReplyDeleteThe point you make here is really important--students don't spontaneously acquire these skills. Even if you don't fit this case, it's not uncommon for students to leave high school without good metacognitive knowledge and/or regulation. They aren't aware of how they study, and definitely not how to judge whether one strategy is better for them than another. It's important to talk to kids about their own minds early!