1. Metacognition for the Classroom and beyond
Dr. Sarah McElwee
University of Oxford
Mercy Mounthawk School, Tralee
14th Sept 2009

2. Overview What is metacognition & why is it important?
How can metacognition help learners with SEN and exceptionally able pupils?
A look at strategies to promote metacognition and higher-order thinking:
General approaches
Bloom’s Taxonomy
SQ4R reading strategy
KWL charts
PMI
Concept maps
Self-evaluation techniques

3. What is metacognition? “thinking about thinking”
Knowledge and understanding of what we know and how we think, including the ability to regulate our thinking as we work on a task
What is cognition?
Cognition is the scientific term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving.
What is metacognition?
Metacognition is knowledge and understanding of our own cognitive processes and abilities and those of others, as well as regulation of these processes. It is the ability to make your thinking visible.

4. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge that we hold about our own thinking, and the thinking of other people. We are usually able to report metacognitive knowledge if we are asked about our own thinking and it includes things like:
Understanding that having a strategy might help you to solve a problem more efficiently, or that having an essay plan may help to keep your argument on track,
Knowing that it is more difficult to concentrate in a room that is noisy than one which is quiet,
Knowing that you are good at remembering people’s faces but not their names, while your friend is good with names, not faces.
There are three types of metacognitive knowledge that each play a role in learning and problem-solving:
Declarative knowledge: “knowing what” – knowledge of one’s own learning processes, and about strategies for learning
Procedural knowledge: “knowing how” – knowing what skills and strategies to use
Conditional knowledge: “knowing when” – knowledge about why and when various learning strategies should be used
Self-regulation on the other hand, refers to a set of activities that help learners to control their learning. Research has shown that metacognitive regulation supports performance in a number of ways, including understanding where to direct attention, using strategies more reliably and efficiently, and developing awareness of difficulties with comprehension. At the heart of self-regulation are three essential skills:
Planning,
Monitoring
Evaluation.
Planning involves working out how a task might be approached before you do it. For example you might make predictions before reading, select a strategy before tackling a problem, or allocate time or other resources before commencing work.
Monitoring refers to the pupil’s on-task awareness of progress, comprehension and overall performance. Stopping every so often to self-test and check for understanding is a good example of monitoring. Monitoring ability is slow to develop and even adults find it difficult but it can be improved with training and practice.
Evaluation requires the student to review the outcomes and efficiency of the learning experience. Evaluation includes revisiting goals and conclusions, deciding how to improve next time, and examining learning from another person’s perspective to diagnose problems.

5. Why is metacognition important?
...if it happens of its own accord anyway?
Shapes active rather than passive learners
Gives pupils sense of control over learning
Learning how to learn.
Helps to promote “deep learning”
Why is metacognition important in general??
Sums up – Metacognitively able students are aware of a range of strategies to help them to learn, know that they can direct their thinking & essentially are active rather than passive learners (at least some of the time!) – engage with material that is to be learned, with stimulating situations, actively question and plan 5 5

6. Metacognition – turning pupils into experts
Novice problem-solvers Experts
Pupils who are novices and have poor metacognitive skills tend to use one of 2 strategies to solve a problem. They either pick a problem and stick with it til the bitter end OR they quickly abandon strategy after strategy without really trying to stop and see where it is they are going wrong.
Expert hadn’t done this type of maths problem in a long time. Expert spends a lot more time thinking – once has that all sorted out, the actual working out doesn’t take long at all. Triangles indicate all the places where the solvers pulled themselves up short, stopped, reassessed and moved to a new step.
An army bus holds 36 soldiers. If 1128 soldiers are being bussed to their training site, how many buses are needed. 18% said 31, 29% 31 remainder 12, 23% said 32 (correct) – Pupils disconnected from the “real world” application of their mathematics

7. Why is metacognition important?
Learning how to learn.
Helps to promote “deep learning”
A key component of Assessment for Learning
emphasises the child’s active role in his/her own learning, in that the teacher and child agree what the outcomes of the learning should be and the criteria for judging to what extent the outcomes have been achieved…This level of involvement in shaping their own learning can heighten children’s awareness of themselves as learners and encourage them to take more personal responsibility for, and pride in, their learning
NCCA, 2007
Why is metacognition important in general??
Sums up – Metacognitively able students are aware of a range of strategies to help them to learn, know that they can direct their thinking & essentially are active rather than passive learners (at least some of the time!) – engage with material that is to be learned, with stimulating situations, actively question and plan
. Recent NCCA guidelines on Assessment distinguish between AoL and AfL. AoL reflects the traditional system of grading, whereas AfL represents more of a partnership between teacher and learner, looking for ways to improve, evaluating progress and moving forward
“emphasises the child’s active role in his/her own learning, in that the teacher and child agree what the outcomes of the learning should be and the criteria for judging to what extent the outcomes have been achieved…This level of involvement in shaping their own learning can heighten children’s awareness of themselves as learners and encourage them to take more personal responsibility for, and pride in, their learning” NCCA 2007 7 7

8. The Learning Cycle
Learning should be a cycle but pupils often fail to see it that way. They do a piece of homework, study for a test, get the marks and move on. The marks they get often determine how much effort they put in the next time around. Too often, mistakes are seen as things to be avoided at all costs.
Metacognitive thinking and the learning cycle are completely interlinked and heavily related to good practice in Assessment for Learning

9. Metacognition and pupils with SEN
The dyslexic child’s disorganisation… undermines his ability to keep track of books, pencils and pieces of paper….It lurks unseen and plays havoc with his thinking, planning, hypothesising and testing, and even with his storage and retrieval processes, all of which need help, through support and strategies if he is to succeed.
Goldup & Ostler, 2000, p.319

10. Metacognition and pupils with SEN
Pupils with SEN tend to
have less metacognitive knowledge about learning
Fewer learning strategies that they can use
Are less flexible in applying metacognitive strategies independently
Have difficulty with the self-regulatory aspects of learning on-task
BUT metacognitive skills training can compensate for working memory problems and metacognition is partly independent of IQ

11. Which aspects of metacognition do pupils with SEN find difficult?
Recognising task requirements
Give explicit instructions
Cue pupils to analyse tasks
Selecting and implementing strategies
Planning skills, selecting appropriate strategies, deciding how completion will be judged
Monitoring and adjusting performance
Build time into a lesson to stop and monitor how task is going

12. Metacognition and Exceptionally Able pupils/ Dually Exceptional pupils
Better metacognitive knowledge but not better at self-regulation
Good working memory means that they may bypass planning
Failure can be stressful – learning to evaluate performance valuable – LEARNING CYCLE
A chance to help dually exceptional pupils show their full potential?

13. Strategies for promoting metacognition in the classroom
General approaches
Specific strategies

14. Misunderstanding Thinking…
PUPILS think that:
It is like breathing or heartbeat
It “just happens”
It is out of our control
NOT TRUE!!!
Thinking is a skill that can be learned, practised, developed and improved.
Thinking skill is not the same as:
Intelligence
Being “brilliant” at school work
Gathering lots of information
Being good at speaking out in class
It is passive rather than deliberate

15. Four ways to promote metacognitive awareness
Tell pupils about metacognition and model the processes in your own work
1. Rarely explicitly explain to pupils what good thinking or metacognition actually is, which adds to this air of mystery around good thinking and what it actually is. Subject experts (ie. teachers) can model the expertise they have in a subject by making their thinking processes explicit

16. Metacognition – turning pupils into experts
Novice problem-solvers Experts

17. Four ways to promote metacognitive awareness
Tell pupils about metacognition and model the processes in your own work
Teach pupils about the types of strategies they can use to learn & study

18. Strategy How to Use When to Use What is it for? Skim/Survey
Search for headings, highlighted words previews, summaries
Before you read a long piece of text
Gives an overview of the key concepts, helps you to focus on the important points
Slow down
Stop, read and think about information
When information seems important. If you realise you don’t understand what you have just read.
Improves your focus on important information.
Activate prior knowledge
Stop and think about what you already know about a topic.
Before you read something or do an unfamiliar task.
Makes new information easier to remember and allows you to see links between subjects. Information is less daunting if you already know something about the topic
Fit ideas together
Relate main ideas to one another. Look for themes that connect the main ideas, or a conclusion
When thinking about complex information, when deep understanding is needed.
Once you know how ideas are related they are easier to remember than learning as if they are separate facts. Also helps to understand them more deeply
Draw Diagrams
Identify main ideas, connect them, classify ideas, decide which information is most important and which is supporting
When there is a lot of factual information that is interrelated
Helps to identify main ideas and organise them into categories. Reduces memory load. May be easier to visualise

19. Four ways to promote metacognitive awareness
Tell pupils about metacognition and model the processes in your own work
Teach pupils about the types of strategies they can use to learn & study
Help pupils to learn to regulate their thinking as they work on a task

20. Planning Monitoring Evaluating What is the nature of the task?
What is my goal?
What kind of information and strategies do I need?
How much time and resources do I need?
Monitoring
Do I have a clear understanding of what I am doing?
Does the task make sense to me?
Am I reaching my goals?
Do I need to make changes?
Evaluating
Have I reached my goal?
What worked?
What didn’t work?
Would I do things differently the next time?
Can be simplified : Plan, Do, Check
A list like this forms the basis of almost every metacognitive skills training programme. Feel free to simplify the language

21. Four ways to promote metacognitive awareness
Tell pupils about metacognition and model the processes in your own work
Teach pupils about the types of strategies they can use to learn & study
Help pupils to learn to regulate their thinking as they work on a task
Show that you value metacognition in your classroom/mentoring relationship.
Point 4:
Devise a vocabulary for thinking. You can’t talk about things if you don’t have the right words. Praise instances of metacognitive behaviour.
Metacognition is effortful. If you don’t show that you think it’s valuable and worth doing, pupils aren’t going to bother.

22. 3-2-1 Summary Minute Paper
What are three ideas that have captured your attention from today's class?
What are two questions that you are still thinking about related to these topics?
What one thing will you remember long after this class is over?
Minute Paper
Please answer each question in one or two sentences:
What is the most useful, meaningful, or intriguing thing you learned from today's class discussion?
What questions do you have about today's discussion that you would like answered before we move on?

23. HOT skills & developing questioning
McGuinness (2006) defines higher-order thinking as
“the need for learners to go beyond the mere recall of factual information to develop a deeper understanding of topics, to be more critical about evidence, to solve problems and think flexibly, to make reasoned judgements and decisions rather than jumping to immediate conclusions”.
- Deep learning & “expert” pupils
Developing higher-order thinking skills is part of teaching pupils how to learn

24. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification system that outlines a variety of cognitive thinking skills, ranging from skills such as remembering factual information to more sophisticated cognitive procedures including the analysis of information to allow for its evaluation. While the original taxonomy was proposed by Bloom in 1956, it has been revised numerous times to make it more relevant and useful to today’s classroom.
At each level pupils are asked to engage with information or learning in a different way. The lower levels are often seen as the least “desirable” types of thinking, requiring less sophistication and effort of the student – this shouldn’t be the case; each level is an important step in the process of moving towards higher order thinking skills.

25. Higher-order thinking
Bloom’s Taxonomy Create Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.   Evaluate Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging    Analyse Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding   Apply Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing   Understand Explaining ideas or concepts Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining   Remember Recalling information Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding  

26. Suggestions for using Bloom’s Taxonomy
Introduce it to a class, small group etc
Get pupils to research the levels
Keep it visible throughout the year
Signpost your questions
A tool for differentiation?
Simplify if needed

27. (understand, apply, analyse)
Create
(Evaluate, create)
Use
(understand, apply, analyse)
Recall
(remember)

28. Asking questions in the classroom
How many questions do you ask in one class period?
On average 50.6 (pupils ask 1.8)
Which level of Bloom’s Taxonomy would you say most of your questions come from?
The majority come from the Remember level
How long do you wait for an answer from a pupil?
Many teachers wait less than 1 second

29. Wait time 1 & Wait time 2
Research indicates 2 key places where pauses greatly increase quality of responses:
WT1 – immediately after you ask a question
WT2 – immediately after pupil responds
Pupils
Give longer & more complex answers
Support answers with evidence
Ask more questions
Talk more to other pupils & “piggyback”

30. Asking questions in the classroom
Remember questions are good for establishing understanding & allowing pupils to “rehearse” facts.
Questions should then move to upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Best questions are planned beforehand
A few complex & probing questions are preferable to many “shallow” ones
Rehearsal – needed for long-term memory
One of the best ways to support and scaffold a pupil in coming up with a complex answer is to do nothing.

31. Asking questions  making meaning
A change from viewing asking a question as displaying your weakness to seeing questions as active links between old and new information
Get pupils to devise their own questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy levels
Pair-problem solving
Differentiating for able learners & learners with SEN
Skip to the end of the textbook chapter!
Learners devise their own questions
Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to challenge pupils to write their own questions to pose to the class. They should aim to devise at least one question per level of the taxonomy. In small groups, the questions can be posed, with the asker leading discussion and specifying the criteria that satisfies the answer he seeks.
Pair problem-solving
This strategy was devised for maths or science classrooms but could be applicable to other topics. One learner is designated the problem-solver, and must talk aloud throughout the problem-solving attempt, to explain their thinking. The second student must not intervene in the solution process, even if the partner makes mistakes, but they must to all they can to understand their partner’s thinking and to “get behind it” by asking questions. It is difficult for pupils to engage in metacognitive monitoring and reflection while staying focused on the problem at hand itself. In this strategy, the listener clarifies the solver’s thinking for him by asking questions. Ideas that might otherwise be fleeting, or threads of a solution that might get lost, are “kept alive” by the questioner.
There are a number of possibilities for employing this strategy with learners of different abilities:
Exceptionally able pupils can be paired together for accelerated work
The collaborative approach makes a supportive atmosphere for learners with SEN. It can be especially effective as an opportunity for learners with SEN to see questioning strategies modelled by a peer, and practice self-regulatory monitoring
The strategy can also be used in one to one coaching or mentoring sessions between a teacher and pupil. The teacher should model the first problem to allow the pupil to warm up and not be “on the spot”. The pupil may have difficulty formulating questions initially. Next the pupil should attempt a problem, with the teacher focussing on asking good questions. A period of reflection and discussion at this point on which questions elicited the best responses may be appropriate to evaluate the questions.

32. The SQ4R method for reading
Can’t read textbooks like story books. The plot doesn’t unfold that way! This method is all about creating road-map for reading.
Reading questions at the end of a chapter to stimulate thinking – ties in with teacher questioning
Reading fiction – not all elements work but you can still tie in prior knowledge, predict, recall, think about other plots, review.

33. KWL Grids Ireland in World War II K W L (What I know already)
(What I want to know) L
(what I have learned)
K stands for Know This first stage may surprise you: Think first about, then list, what you know about the topic. This advanced organizer provides you with a background to the new material, building a scaffold to support it. Think of it as a pre-reading inventory.
Brainstorm! Before looking at the text, think of keywords, terms, or phrases about the topic, either in your class or a study group.
Record these in the K column of your chart until you cannot think of more.
Engage your group in a discussion about what you wrote in the K column.
Organize the entries into general categories.
W stands for Will or Want The second stage is to list a series of questions of what you want to know more of the subject, based upon what you listed in K.
Preview the text’s table of contents, headings, pictures, charts etc. Discuss what you want to learn
List some thoughts on what you want, or expect to learn, generally or specifically. Think in terms of what you will learn, or what do you want to learn about this.
Turn all sentences into questions before writing them down. They will help you focus your attention during reading.
List the questions by importance.
L stands for Learned The final stage is to answer your questions, as well as to list what new information you have learned. Either while reading or after you have finished.
List out what you learn as you read, either by section, or after the whole work, whichever is comfortable for you.
Check it against the W column, what you wanted to learn
Create symbols to indicate main ideas, surprising ideas, questionable ideas, and those you don’t understand!
Expand this exercise beyond K W L:
Add an H! Stands for HOW you can learn more.
Pose new questions about the topic
How can I learn more or answer questions not answered in my worksheet These include other sources of information, including:  organizations, experts, tutors, websites, librarians, etc.

34. KWL Grids Ireland in World War II K W L (What I know already)
(What I want to know) L
(what I have learned)
Dates of WW 2
Hitler & The Holocaust
Role of GB & USA
“The Emergency”
K stands for Know This first stage may surprise you: Think first about, then list, what you know about the topic. This advanced organizer provides you with a background to the new material, building a scaffold to support it. Think of it as a pre-reading inventory.
Brainstorm! Before looking at the text, think of keywords, terms, or phrases about the topic, either in your class or a study group.
Record these in the K column of your chart until you cannot think of more.
Engage your group in a discussion about what you wrote in the K column.
Organize the entries into general categories.
W stands for Will or Want The second stage is to list a series of questions of what you want to know more of the subject, based upon what you listed in K.
Preview the text’s table of contents, headings, pictures, charts etc. Discuss what you want to learn
List some thoughts on what you want, or expect to learn, generally or specifically. Think in terms of what you will learn, or what do you want to learn about this.
Turn all sentences into questions before writing them down. They will help you focus your attention during reading.
List the questions by importance.
L stands for Learned The final stage is to answer your questions, as well as to list what new information you have learned. Either while reading or after you have finished.
List out what you learn as you read, either by section, or after the whole work, whichever is comfortable for you.
Check it against the W column, what you wanted to learn
Create symbols to indicate main ideas, surprising ideas, questionable ideas, and those you don’t understand!
Expand this exercise beyond K W L:
Add an H! Stands for HOW you can learn more.
Pose new questions about the topic
How can I learn more or answer questions not answered in my worksheet These include other sources of information, including:  organizations, experts, tutors, websites, librarians, etc.

35. KWL Grids Ireland in World War II K W L (What I know already)
(What I want to know) L
(What I have learned)
Dates of WW 2
Why called “The Emergency”?
Hitler & The Holocaust
Why did Ireland decide to stay neutral?
Role of GB & USA
Impact on life in Ireland?
“The Emergency”
Impact on Ireland’s domestic & foreign policy?
K stands for Know This first stage may surprise you: Think first about, then list, what you know about the topic. This advanced organizer provides you with a background to the new material, building a scaffold to support it. Think of it as a pre-reading inventory.
Brainstorm! Before looking at the text, think of keywords, terms, or phrases about the topic, either in your class or a study group.
Record these in the K column of your chart until you cannot think of more.
Engage your group in a discussion about what you wrote in the K column.
Organize the entries into general categories.
W stands for Will or Want The second stage is to list a series of questions of what you want to know more of the subject, based upon what you listed in K.
Preview the text’s table of contents, headings, pictures, charts etc. Discuss what you want to learn
List some thoughts on what you want, or expect to learn, generally or specifically. Think in terms of what you will learn, or what do you want to learn about this.
Turn all sentences into questions before writing them down. They will help you focus your attention during reading.
List the questions by importance.
L stands for Learned The final stage is to answer your questions, as well as to list what new information you have learned. Either while reading or after you have finished.
List out what you learn as you read, either by section, or after the whole work, whichever is comfortable for you.
Check it against the W column, what you wanted to learn
Create symbols to indicate main ideas, surprising ideas, questionable ideas, and those you don’t understand!
Expand this exercise beyond K W L:
Add an H! Stands for HOW you can learn more.
Pose new questions about the topic
How can I learn more or answer questions not answered in my worksheet These include other sources of information, including:  organizations, experts, tutors, websites, librarians, etc.

36. PMI : Plus Minus Interesting
Take three minutes to think about this question; 1 min for positives, 1 min negatives and 1 min for anything interesting that strikes you
What if the human body had a third arm?
What if children were paid a wage to come to school?
see both sides of an argument
view things from a different point of view
think broadly about an issue
suspend judgement
make informed decisions
work as individuals, in pairs or as members of a group
Look before you leap. Everyone does plus, then minus – not an attempt to counteract each other.

37. What is a concept map?

38. What is a concept map?

39. What is a concept map?

40. Advantages of concept maps
Minimal writing, suitable for pupils with SEN
Precision of expression required
Indicate pupils’ understanding of a topic
Opportunity for planning, revising & evaluation
Helpful study guides
A new way to test?
Study guides – some students prone to under-lining EVERYTHING

41. Build your own concept maps from these terms...
Cats Omnivores
Dog Sheep
Pet Lion
Tail Herbivores
Mammal Humans
Wild zoo
Meat endangered
Carnivore(s) wool

42. Helping pupils to evaluate their own performance

43. Helping pupils to evaluate their own performance
The role of motivation: mastery vs. Performance
Be explicit about learning objectives
Set aside class time for pupils to evaluate their work – and follow it up
Mid-task reflection time
Ask for revisions?
Explicit prompts – homework wrappers

44. Using questionnaires to help pupils think about their own metacognition
Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies (MARSI)
30 items – global, problem-solving, support strategies
Junior Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (Jr. MAI)
18 statements relating to strategies such as activating prior knowledge, planning, evaluation, monitoring

45. Using questionnaires to help pupils think about their own metacognition
Not possible to reliably test how “metacognitive” somebody is
Self-report questionnaires are open to bias
A good starting point for introducing metacognition to pupils?
A talking point about ways to improve, strategies to work on – how, when, where, why?

46. Summing up
Teaching metacognitive skills can be beneficial to pupils with a variety of learning needs
The Equality of Challenge initiative has put together a set of strategies that inter-link and can be used flexibly in many settings
The document is a working in progress – lots of opportunity to modify the strategies to match your teaching & learning objectives.

47. He who learns but does not think is lost
Chinese Proverb

49. Questions relating to each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy

50. Questions for Remembering
What happened after...?
How many...?
What is...?
Who was it that...?
Can you name ...?
Find the definition of…
Describe what happened after…
Who spoke to...?
Which is true or false...?

51. Questions for Understanding
Can you explain why…?
Can you write in your own words?
How would you explain…?
Can you write a brief outline...?
What do you think could have happened next...?
Who do you think...?
What was the main idea...?
Can you clarify…?
Can you illustrate…?
Does everyone act in the way that …….. does?

52. Questions for Applying
Do you know of another instance where…?
Can you group by characteristics such as…?
Which factors would you change if…?
What questions would you ask of…?
From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about…?

53. Question for Analysing
Which events could not have happened?
If. ..happened, what might the ending have been?
How is...similar to...?
What do you see as other possible outcomes?
Why did...changes occur?
Can you explain what must have happened when...?
What are some or the problems of...?
Can you distinguish between...?
What were some of the motives behind..?
What was the turning point?
What was the problem with...?

54. Questions for Evaluating
Is there a better solution to...?
Judge the value of... What do you think about...?
Can you defend your position about...?
Do you think...is a good or bad thing?
How would you have handled...?
What changes to.. would you recommend?
Do you believe...? How would you feel if. ..?
How effective are. ..?
What are the consequences..?
What influence will....have on our lives?
What are the pros and cons of....?
Why is ....of value?
What are the alternatives?
Who will gain & who will loose? 

55. Questions for Creating
Can you design a...to...?
Can you see a possible solution to...?
If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with...?
Why don't you devise your own way to...?
What would happen if ...?
How many ways can you...?
Can you create new and unusual uses for...?
Can you develop a proposal which would...?