Why Metacognition Matters
Metacognition promotes equity by making the learning process more transparent. Students who engage in metacognitive practices are better equipped to:
- Assess their understanding of course material and identify areas where they need further clarification.
- Develop and refine problem-solving strategies.
- Transfer skills and knowledge across different contexts, drawing connections between disciplines.
- Approach learning with increased confidence and resilience, even in challenging situations.
Ways to Incorporate Metacognition
Reflection Questions
Prompting students to reflect at key points can help them connect course content to broader skills and ideas. Reflection questions can be simple, low-stakes, and easily integrated into class. You might ask:
- What was your favorite part of today’s class?
- What was the most difficult concept to grasp?
- What’s something new you learned?
- What would you like to review?
- What skills are you looking to improve?
- What questions do you still have?
You can ask these questions out loud, as part of a discussion, or through written responses, like exit tickets or anonymous polls.
Weekly Journals
Encourage students to keep a weekly journal where they document their learning experiences. These reflections can include observations about what they found challenging, strategies that helped them succeed, and areas they’d like to explore further. For example:
- What study strategies worked well for you this week, and why?
- How did you approach a challenging problem, and what might you try differently next time?
- What connections did you notice between this week’s material and other topics you’ve studied?
Journals can be private or shared with the instructor for formative feedback.
Assignment Revisions
Incorporate metacognition into the learning process by encouraging students to review their work after receiving grades or comments. Provide questions to guide their self-assessment, like:
- What did I do well on this assignment, and why?
- What was the most challenging part of completing this work?
- How can I use the feedback I received to improve on the next assignment?
This approach also helps students view feedback as a tool for growth rather than as a judgment of their abilities.
Mid-Semester Check-Ins
Schedule verbal or written check-ins during the semester to prompt students to assess their progress and reflect on the course. Questions might include:
- What course activities have been most helpful to your learning so far?
- Are there any areas where you feel stuck or uncertain?
- What goals do you have for the remainder of the semester, and how do you plan to work toward them?
Mid-semester reflections also provide valuable insights for you as the instructor, informing your teaching strategies to better support students.
Class Activities for Metacognition
You can dedicate parts of your class to explicitly teaching metacognitive skills through active learning. For instance:
- Lead students in creating concept maps to visualize networks between ideas.
- Model your own metacognitive process by walking through how you approach a problem or prepare for a presentation.
- Use think-aloud protocols where students verbalize their thoughts while working through a task.
These exercises not only improve metacognitive awareness but also show students how these strategies can enhance their academic and professional lives.
Connecting Metacognition to Active Learning
You can pair metacognition with active learning strategies by encouraging students to take a reflective pause after engaging in activities like group discussions, problem-solving exercises, or case studies. For example, after a think-pair-share activity, ask students to write down what they learned from their partner and how it shifted their perspective. Or, following a problem-solving session, have students outline the steps they took to arrive at a solution and any points where they might need to revise their approach.
By integrating metacognitive reflection into active learning, you help students internalize not just what they’ve learned, but how they’ve learned it. The rest of this chapter provides strategies for combining the two in actionable ways for both you and your students.
Summary
Metacognition is an often overlooked, yet essential, pedagogical element when promoting equitable teaching and active learning strategies to your classroom. Asking students to reflect about and engage with the ways in which they learn, think, and act on the course content assists with cognitive processing and long-term retention of the material. It’s also an important step in the active learning process, which we’ll cover more thoroughly in the next section of this chapter. But before you move on, consider using the following reflection questions to engage in your own active learning by using metacognitive strategies to think about your course structure.
Reflection Questions
- When in your course (e.g., beginning, mid-semester, after assignments) might you invite students to reflect on their learning?
- What kinds of questions could you ask to help students assess their understanding and study strategies?
- How can you incorporate metacognitive moments without taking significant time away from core content?
- Have you ever modeled your own thinking process for students? What might that look like in your field?
- Which metacognitive activity—journaling, revision reflections, think-alouds—feels most feasible for your teaching context?
- How might you gather feedback from students about what helps them learn more effectively?