1. © PMB 2007 Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Unit 6 Metacognition: Thinking About Thinking and Learning

2. © PMB 2007 Learning Intentions You will: know what is meant by metacognition; be aware of a range of strategies for promoting metacognition in the classroom; and know how to plan and run an effective plenary session.

3. © PMB 2007 What Is Metacognition? thinking about thinking awareness of the process of learning knowing what we know and what we dont know overseeing learning

4. © PMB 2007 Knowledge and Control … of Thinking Knowledge about - thinking in general -own thinking (awareness) Control of thinking - planning - adapting - evaluating How am I going to do it? Is it similar to anything Ive done before? Is it one of those? Do I understand it so far? Do I need to ask a question? Am I on the right track? Am I still on task? Is there a better way? How did I do it? What method/strategy worked? What did I learn? Did my plan work out? Can I learn from my mistakes? Can I do better next time?

5. © PMB 2007 Knowledge and Control … of Thinking Knowledge about - thinking in general -own thinking (awareness) Control of thinking - planning - adapting - evaluating … of Self Commitment - skill with will Attitude - positive Attention - turning on and tuning in

6. © PMB 2007 What is Metacognition? It is the ability of the learner to plan, monitor, redirect and evaluate how they think and learn.

7. © PMB 2007 Activity 1 Metacognition in Your Classroom If metacognition was being prompted and supported in your classroom: What would you be doing? What would your pupils be doing?

8. © PMB 2007 Challenging tasks Modelling thinking Thinking diagrams Language for thinking Time to think Thinking aloud Sustained dialogue about thinking Joint thinking Making connections Characteristics of the Metacognitive Classroom

9. © PMB 2007 Talking About ThinkingHave pupils describe what they are thinking. Model processes by thinking aloud. Share a common language. Label thinking processes. Have pairs solve problems. Use reciprocal teaching. Use plenaries to debrief thinking processes. Strategies for Developing Metacognition

10. © PMB 2007 Pupil Planning and Self- Regulation Use open-ended tasks Involve pupils in monitoring and self-assessment. Keep a Learning LogUse logs to reflect and record strategies, successes and difficulties. Strategies for Developing Metacognition

11. © PMB 2007 Strategies in Practice We are learning to: work together to solve problems Remember to: explain the problem to a partner; try to think of lots of ways to solve the problem; and talk with others about how to record the answers.

12. © PMB 2007 Strategies in Practice

13. © PMB 2007 Strategies in Practice

14. © PMB 2007 Activity 2 Using Plenaries What do you consider to be the main purpose of a plenary? What are the characteristics of an effective plenary? What are the main challenges/threats to an effective plenary? What are some solutions to these challenges/threats?

15. © PMB 2007 Key Points Promoting metacognition helps pupils take more control of their learning. There are a range of strategies that promote metacognition. Planning plenary sessions is a good starting point for developing metacognition. Plenaries are a part of the learning process: –They occur at strategic moments in the teaching sequence and not just the end. –They help make the TS&PC explicit. –They introduce and develop a common language to talk about thinking and learning. –They need to be planned and focused.