When an individual "thinks," the main mental operation they use is called cognition. Cogntion is having the intellectual capacity to reason about information and then learn something about, and retain bits and pieces of, that information. All of us, at varying levels, have cognitive ability. Better "thinkers," though, have metacgonitive ability. People who can "metacognate" have the abiltiy to think about their thinking. Such people can "stand" outside themselves and evaluate and monitor their thinking. Learners who regularly use their metacognitive abilties are not only conscious of their own thinking, but they problem solve while they are thinking.

People who are good "metacognaters" are also very good thinkers. They plan a course of action before beginning a task. They monitor themselves in process. They consciously support or adjust their plan. Most importantly, or as importantly, they evaluate themselves (i.e., the finished the product) on completion.

Having strong metacognitive abilities enhances students' ability to learn. To strengthen and encourage metacognition in learners, teachers should have discussions with their students about their thinking. Compare approaches among students to problem solving and decision making. When doing activities and assignments, help students identify what is known, what needs to be known, and how to produce that knowledge.

Metacognitive instruction can include learning how to learn, teaching how to study for a test, using appropriate questioning strategies before, during, and after reading something, and knowing how to learn best.

Metacognitive strategies and skills (see Beyer, 1988, p. 69) include:

Planning
Stating a goal
Selecting operations to perform
Sequencing operations
Identifying potential obstacles/errors
Identifying ways to recover from obstacles/errors
Predicting results desired and/or anticipated.

Monitoring
Keeping the goal in mind
K eeping one's place in a sequence
Knowing when a subgoal has been achieved
Deciding when to go on to the next operation
Selecting next appropriate operation
Spotting errors or obstacles
Knowing how to recover from errors, overcome obstacles

Assessing
Assessing goal achievement
Judging accuracy and adequacy of the results
Evaluating appropriateness of procedures used
Assessing handling of obstacles/errors
Judging efficiency of the plan and its execution

A web site link that has a great deal of information about metacognition is a "learning to learn" site at:

http://snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/mod2/index.html

 

Beyer, B. K. (1988). Developing a thinking skills program. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.