1. Metacognition
John Nanson & Alaina Smith
EPSE 526
July 13, 2011

2. Definition
The term metacognition is used to
refer to the deliberate conscious
control of ones own cognitive actions
(Brown, 1980), that is, cognition about
cognition: thinking about thinking (Wray, 2002).
Metacognition is not a new idea, in 1962 Vygotsky suggested
that there are two stages in the development of knowledge:
firstly, its automatic unconscious acquisition and
secondly, a gradual increase in active conscious control
over that knowledge.

3. Metacognitive Process
self-assessment questioning
monitoring clarifying
directing understanding
connecting

4. How is this different from other
teaching strategies?
Experience/kn Assumptions
about what
Metacognitive owledge of the students Observed
strategies person understand Practices:
incorporate of metacognitive instruction is to assist students to identify and
The focus an
awareness of: enlist strategies to promote and monitor learning.

5. Metaliteracy
 Wray suggests that literacy experiences need to be
meaningful and purposeful from the child’s point of
view…….this often requires explicit instruction and
modelling from the teacher
 We do not need to wait for students to become more
mature and more self-aware, with supportive teacher
behaviour, children can engage in metacognitive
operations like comprehension (Palincsar &
Brown, 1984) and revision (Fitzgerald, 1987) at a much
higher level.

6. Teacher modelling – shared
writing………
 Shared writing provides teachers opportunities to:
 work with the whole class, to model, explore and
discuss the decisions that writers make when they are
writing
 make links between reading and writing explicit:
 demonstrate how writers use language to achieve
particular effects
 focus on particular aspects of the writing
process, such as planning, composing, revising or
editing

7. Think aloud………..
Shared thinking provides opportunities for teachers and
students to:
 Make predictions about text
 Make text connections
 Ask questions about text as they read or listen
(monitoring and clarifying)
 Reflect on reading (discussion, asking
questions, sharing insights)

8. Reciprocal teaching………..
Reciprocal teaching provides opportunities for students
to:
 Take on the role of the teacher
 Lead small groups
 Ask questions, summarise, predict and clarify what
they have read
This strategy requires extensive modelling for students.

9. Summary
 Research evidence in  It may be that a key
metacogntion (and to enhancing
how to measure it) is children’s abilities in
incomplete but there literacy is to develop
are several teaching their abilities to be
strategies that may be more ‘aware’ of their
beneficial in helping literacy processes
students develop
their literacy skills

10. Connections
Explicit
careful instruction
analysis of of
the task at Instruction
Vygotsky, ZPD, social strategies
aspects of learning
hand regarding the
generalized use
of the strategies.
Feedback on the
identifying Common usefulness of the
Personal
strategies that elements strategies and the
experiences as a
will promote amongst articlessuccess with
“why” child
successful on metacognitionwhich they are
task being used.
completion

11. Thoughts……
Too rarely is the individual teacher so free from the dictation
of authoritative supervisor, textbook on
methods, prescribed course of study, etc., that he can let
his mind come to close quarters with the pupil’s mind and
the subject matter.
-John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916)
What children can do with the assistance of others might be
in some sense even more indicative of their mental
development than what they can do alone.
-L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society (1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS_Ftio1ops&feature=player_detailpage

12. Connections
Acting
Divergent Converging
Thinking
“My experience is what I agree to attend to”
Reflection
( William James)
Experience
Accommodating
Assimilation

13. Final Thoughts….
“Pedagogy must be oriented
not to the yesterday, but to
the tomorrow of the child’s
development. Only then
can it call to life in the
process of education those
processes of development
which now lie in the zone
of proximal development”
(Vygotsky, 1993, pp. 251-
252).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvyZ
sSQ3ul4&feature=player_detailpage

14. References
Kold, A., et al. (2009). The learning way: Meta-cognitive aspects of experiential Learning.
Sage Publications, 40(3).
Palincsar, A.S., & Brown, D.A (1987). Enhancing instruction time through attention to
metacognition. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20(2), 66-75.
Sternberg, R.J. (1998). Metacognition, abilities, and developing expertise: What makes an
expert student? Instructional Science, 26(1), 127-140.
Vygotsky, L. (1993). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Vol. 2: 77 fundamentals of
defectology. R.Rieber & A. Carton, Eds., J. Knox & Stevens, Trans. New York: Plenum.
Wray, D. (2002). Metacognition and literacy. In G. Reid & J. Wearmouth (Eds.), Dyslexia and
Literacy. London: Wiley.