A Dozen Simple Metacognition Strategies, Part 2
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #65
Hi! Last week I ran through six very simple strategies that can be used to embed memory and metacognition principles, and to help ensure that what happens in the classroom forms a foundation for independent study.
Let’s get straight on with the next six strategies!
The Strategies, part 2
Strategy 7: Build up a set of actions that students can take in each subject area when they feel stuck.
Most students get stuck from time to time, at which point it’s common to turn to the teacher and ask for help. But a self-regulated learner can (at least mostly) manage without that support.
To develop this capacity, we can start to scaffold a set of actions for them to take, for example looking back through their notes, asking for help from a peer, or using the index of a textbook to find relevant information.
Strategy 8: Emphasise learning from tasks, rather than completion.
It’s so common for teachers to ask their students to complete a set of tasks: “Do these 10 questions for next week,” and so on. But this emphasises the doing, not the learning. At what point has a student mastered the content… and do they know that they have mastered it?
To develop this metacognitive awareness, we can (at least at times) ask them to continue until they have got the idea, rather than to complete a pre-specified number of tasks.
To avoid it being seen as a shortcut, this might also involve asking them to tell us how they know!
Strategy 9: Prompt learners to reflect on what they learned, preferably after a delay.
We talk a lot about reflection in education, but it’s not always built into a lesson systematically. A metacognitive approach to teaching looks at reflection as part of a cycle, thinking about what has been learned, how it links to what has gone before, and what the next steps might be.
The following image show some reflective questions that might be shared at the end of a lesson (if you typically share factual review questions at the end of a lesson, these could come at the start of the following lesson instead – spaced practice!).
Strategy 10: Devote some class time to building high-quality study notes, and to planning.
Self-regulated, independent learning – it might seem obvious that this should happen in the student’s own time. But it can make a real difference if we set them up properly. What’s the sense in them studying from inaccurate or incomplete notes? Class time could be devoted to reviewing and checking notebooks.
Similarly, most students struggle to make good flashcards for themselves; creating flashcards and gradually building up a stack of these could be a supervised classroom task.
Strategy 11: A study plan (and feedback on the plan) could be a homework activity. Consider the idea of when to study, not just what to study.
Another area where we can guide and scaffold independent learning is by providing feedback on a plan. We know that students are often poor at prioritising, and that metacognitive errors lead to them misjudging their own competence. They also tend to avoid spacing out practice. All of these things could be areas where a teacher feeds back on a study plan.
Strategy 12: Promote effective note-taking, building in review and retrieval – for example, via Cornell notes.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about effective note-taking in class, including leaving pauses for students to check their notes, and having students actively interpret and improve their notes. It may also be helpful (depending on the task and curriculum area) to use a guided notes format such as Cornell notes. In effect, these act as a prompt to engage in summarising and self-testing later.
Finding Out More
In my view, professional learning can’t just be about a list of strategies, but neither can it just focus on theory or research. We need to understand both, and see how strategies can arise from theory.
On that note, I have good news! The strategies above and many more, together with the underpinning ideas and rationale, are discussed my forthcoming book.
Yes, you heard it first: I’ve got a book titled Metacognition and Study Skills in the works, and it will be out later this year, published by Routledge. I’ll say a bit more in a future update.
I’m also keen to provide easy-to-access support materials for schools and departments. Would you be interested if I provided these 12 strategies in the form of a CPD task to use with colleagues, and make it a fee download on my website? I’d be happy to do so. Any suggestions welcome!
Hope you have a great week – mid-term breaks don’t feel too far away!
Jonathan
Last week: A Dozen Simple Metacognition Strategies, Part 1.
If you’re still looking for more information and ideas on independent study particularly, then why not check out this podcast episode, recorded via West Partnership in Scotland, and aimed at school students.
Please note that my slides and similar materials are used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This means you can use or adapt them with attribution for non-commercial purposes. If you wish to use my materials for other purposes, feel free to get in touch.