We think about our thoughts — we just don’t realize we’re doing so, according to an article in K-12 Dive. These metacognitive skills build our knowledge base and self-confidence. They help us learn why we did or didn’t reach the right answer, take note and frame our thought patterns, and give us second-nature feedback.
Teaching these skills doesn’t require a deep-dive; it’s making small alterations to what you do every day, says Katie Fitch, assistant professor at the University of Oregon College of Education.
“As an educator, my goals would be to hopefully teach students how to be lifelong learners, getting them to understand their own learning process.”
Metacognitive skills enable students to become more reflective on their thoughts, problem-solving, and how they approach tasks, says Alnardo Martinez, interim director of the pediatric OCD intensive service and a licensed mental health counselor with the Child Mind Institute.
“All teachers can have students talk out loud about how they’re solving the problem… thinking about why they’re choosing the steps they’re choosing, or the skills or formula they’re using,” he says. “Talking out loud is helpful when a student reaches a ‘stuck’ point and potentially gets something wrong. ‘What was I doing? Where did I get stuck?’”
This self-reflection helps a student understand what they know and how they learn, Martinez says, focusing on “patterns of what’s working and what’s not working in a given situation.”
“This helps them set goals and think about how they can get to those goals,” he says.
As a science educator, Fitch recommends a book and website called, “Ambitious Science Teaching,” which talks about how to incorporate metacognition using a “Gotta Have” checklist for big classes.
A math teacher could assign students to work on a problem and then turn to a partner next to them and explain the steps they took to solve it, Fitch says. “It’s not only about the math but how they were thinking about the math,” she says. “That’s the metacognitive piece: Not only do the learning but explain the learning.”
The state of Oregon has rolled out metacognition standards as part of its statewide social and emotional learning standards for all K-12 students. Superintendents and principals should know the standards in their respective states — and offer professional development for teachers to talk and learn together and determine how to incorporate these practices into their teaching, Fitch says.
Other resources include the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s framework, built around five pillars including self-awareness and self-management. “They don’t necessarily say the word ‘metacognition,’” she said.
Another resource Fitch recommends is universal design for learning, guidelines by CAST that include the promotion of “individual and collective reflection.”
“Metacognition is not something separate, but something you can incorporate into what you already do,” she says.
K-12 Dive
