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Metacognition: The Gift That Keeps Giving

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Metacognition: The Gift That Keeps Giving

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Metaphor and metacognition: Alise Shafer Ivey at TEDxSunsetPark

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Metaphor and Metacognition: the mind when pushed to invention Alise is the founder and director of Evergreen Community School in Santa Monica, California. Her work with children over the last 30 years sheds light on not only how children think, but also explores the ways in which the thinking of children generates, illuminates, and inspires dialogue and creativity in adults.

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Metacognition, or thinking about one's thinking, is key to facilitating lasting learning experiences and developing lifelong learners. Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues (2003) identify two types of metacognition: reflection, or "thinking about what we know," and self-regulation, or "managing how we go about learning."

Metacognitive activities can guide students as they:

Identify what they already know

Articulate what they learned

Communicate their knowledge, skills, and abilities to a specific audience, such as a hiring committee

Set goals and monitor their progress

Evaluate and revise their own work

Identify and implement effective learning strategies

Transfer learning from one context to another

Activities that promote metacognition should:

Facilitate equal participation

Ensure students do most of the talking

Take place before, during, and after an experience

Happen in different group configurations (individuals, pairs, small group, large group)

Further Resources

Flavell, John H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906-911.

Darling-Hammond, Linda, Austin, K., Cheung, M., & Martin, D. (2003). Thinking about thinking: Metacognition. The learning classroom: Theory into practice. Stanford University School of Education.

Tanner, Kimberly D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 113-120.

* Yancey, Kathleen. (1998). Reflection in the writing classroom. Logan, UT: Utah State UP.

* This book is available for loan through the TLA library.

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Metacognition, or thinking about one's thinking, is key to facilitating lasting learning experiences and developing lifelong learners. Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues (2003) identify two types of metacognition: reflection, or "thinking about what we know," and self-regulation, or "managing how we go about learning."

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Teacher Metacognition within the Professional Learning Community

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Teacher Metacognition within the Professional Learning Community

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As the world economy shifts away from manufacturing jobs and towards more creative jobs, there's a consensus among parents, educators, politicians and business leaders that it is crucial students complete their K-12 education with the ability to identify and solve complex problems, think critically about information, work effectively in teams and communicate clearly about their thinking.

That is why we as educators must focus on the 4 C's of 21st Century Learning: Critical Thinking Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity

A number of conditions support the development of a metacognitive classroom environment. Learning environments that are knowledge-centered and learner-centered, and that take into account the role of assessment in learning, lay the foundation for a reflective classroom. "Knowledge-centered" classrooms focus on meaningful, powerful, nontrivial activities.

When students are asked to engage in activities that build on their previous knowledge, challenge them with complex tasks, and require active sense-making, they are more likely to see the utility of being reflective and strategic learners. In such classrooms, students need access to procedural knowledge-How are you going to do this and be successful?-as well as conditional knowledge-When is this going to be useful to you?

When having a "Learner-centered" classroom take into account students' current knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. If teaching is conceived as constructing a bridge between the subject matter and the student, learner-centered teachers keep a constant eye on both ends of the bridge.

Metacognitive activities that ask students to reflect on what they know, care about and are able to do not only help learners develop an awareness of themselves, but also give learner-centered teachers valuable information for their instruction.

It is important for teachers to give students opportunities to reflect on their learning because it is often difficult for them to realize what they are doing both when they succeed and when they fail. Providing clear constructive feedback is a critical strategy for students to receive in developing their Metacognitive abilities.

For example, if a student writes two essays and gets an "A" on one of them and a "C" on the other, he might not understand what he did on the "A" essay that was different from the "C" essay. Thus, it is important for the teacher to assist the student in reflecting on his own performance by providing timely and personal feedback.

Without this assistance, he will not know how to improve. Metacognition involves taking what we learn in one situation and transforming it into a level of understanding that is much more likely to transfer to another situation.

Developing a culture of metacognition in the classroom-where students are encouraged to develop this kind of awareness-begins with making the purpose of learning activities and the goals for performance clear to students. When students are given feedback with the purpose of redirecting and revising their work rather than simply to assign a grade, they have the opportunity to revisit their work with a greater understanding.

When a teacher provides clear expectations in terms of how she evaluates student work and provides models and examples that give students a sense of the goals they are striving for, students are empowered to take on more responsibility and ownership in their learning. They key to high-quality work is no longer a mystery; expectations and goals are clear. Students are also more motivated to succeed when they can see concrete pathways to improvement.

As teachers, we need to think about how to help students become thoughtful learners in our classrooms. We need to put practices in our classroom which will provide at first the guidance on how followed by the activities and tasks to practice these skills.

If you are interested in this topic you may want to consider the following Teach n' Kids Learn (TKL) Self-Paced online professional development courses.

1. Increasing Student Engagement Planning Outside the Box

2. 21st Century Learning and the 4Cs (Grades K-12)

3. Differentiated Instruction Driven by Assessments (Foundations)

4. Creating Learning Classrooms for Today's Students (Grades K-12)

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Developing A Culture of Metacognition - The Art of Teaching How to Think

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A number of conditions support the development of a metacognitive classroom environment. Learning environments that are knowledge-centered and learner-centered, and that take into account the role of assessment in learning, lay the foundation for a reflective classroom. "Knowledge-centered" classrooms focus on meaningful, powerful, nontrivial activities.

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The Case for Teaching for and with Metacognition

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The Case for Teaching for and with Metacognition

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Good Thinking! — That’s so Meta(cognitive)!

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Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'

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Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'

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For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say "secretly" because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals-and there it stayed.

However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students' mindsets-how they perceive their abilities-played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students' mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset). And when students learned through a structured program that they could "grow their brains" and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better. Finally, we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits.

So a few years back, I published my book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success to share these discoveries with educators. And many educators have applied the mindset principles in spectacular ways with tremendously gratifying results.

This is wonderful, and the good word continues to spread. But as we've watched the growth mindset become more popular, we've become much wiser about how to implement it. This learning-the common pitfalls, the misunderstandings, and what to do about them-is what I'd like to share with you, so that we can maximize the benefits for our students.

A growth mindset isn't just about effort. Perhaps the most common misconception is simply equating the growth mindset with effort. Certainly, effort is key for students' achievement, but it's not the only thing. Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they're stuck. They need this repertoire of approaches-not just sheer effort-to learn and improve.

We also need to remember that effort is a means to an end to the goal of learning and improving. Too often nowadays, praise is given to students who are putting forth effort, but not learning, in order to make them feel good in the moment: "Great effort! You tried your best!" It's good that the students tried, but it's not good that they're not learning. The growth-mindset approach helps children feel good in the short and long terms, by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. When they're stuck, teachers can appreciate their work so far, but add: "Let's talk about what you've tried, and what you can try next."

Recently, someone asked what keeps me up at night. It's the fear that the mindset concepts, which grew up to counter the failed self-esteem movement, will be used to perpetuate that movement. In other words, if you want to make students feel good, even if they're not learning, just praise their effort! Want to hide learning gaps from them? Just tell them, "Everyone is smart!" The growth mindset was intended to help close achievement gaps, not hide them. It is about telling the truth about a student's current achievement and then, together, doing something about it, helping him or her become smarter.

I also fear that the mindset work is sometimes used to justify why some students aren't learning: "Oh, he has a fixed mindset." We used to blame the child's environment or ability.

Must it always come back to finding a reason why some children just can't learn, as opposed to finding a way to help them learn? Teachers who understand the growth mindset do everything in their power to unlock that learning.

A few years ago, my colleague in Australia, Susan Mackie, detected an outbreak of what she called "false growth mindset." She was seeing educators who claimed to have a growth mindset, but whose words and actions didn't reflect it. At first, I was skeptical. But before long, I saw it, too, and I understood why.

In many quarters, a growth mindset had become the right thing to have, the right way to think. It was as though educators were faced with a choice: Are you an enlightened person who fosters students' well-being? Or are you an unenlightened person, with a fixed mindset, who undermines them? So, of course, many claimed the growth-mindset identity. But the path to a growth mindset is a journey, not a proclamation.

Let's look at what happens when teachers, or parents, claim a growth mindset, but don't follow through. In recent research, Kathy Liu Sun found that there were many math teachers who endorsed a growth mindset and even said the words "growth mindset" in their middle school math classes, but did not follow through in their classroom practices. In these cases, their students tended to endorse more of a fixed mindset about their math ability. My advisee and research collaborator Kyla Haimovitz and I are finding many parents who endorse a growth mindset, but react to their children's mistakes as though they are problematic or harmful, rather than helpful. In these cases, their children develop more of a fixed mindset about their intelligence.

How can we help educators adopt a deeper, true growth mindset, one that will show in their classroom practices? You may be surprised by my answer: Let's legitimize the fixed mindset. Let's acknowledge that (1) we're all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, (2) we will probably always be, and (3) if we want to move closer to a growth mindset in our thoughts and practices, we need to stay in touch with our fixed-mindset thoughts and deeds.

If we "ban" the fixed mindset, we will surely create false growth-mindsets. (By the way, I also fear that if we use mindset measures for accountability, we will create false growth mindsets on an unprecedented scale.) But if we watch carefully for our fixed-mindset triggers, we can begin the true journey to a growth mindset.
What are your triggers?
Watch for a fixed-mindset reaction when you face challenges. Do you feel overly anxious, or does a voice in your head warn you away? Watch for it when you face a setback in your teaching, or when students aren't listening or learning. Do you feel incompetent or defeated? Do you look for an excuse? Watch to see whether criticism brings out your fixed mindset. Do you become defensive, angry, or crushed instead of interested in learning from the feedback? Watch what happens when you see an educator who's better than you at something you value. Do you feel envious and threatened, or do you feel eager to learn? Accept those thoughts and feelings and work with and through them. And keep working with and through them.

My colleagues and I are taking a growth-mindset stance toward our message to educators. Maybe we originally put too much emphasis on sheer effort. Maybe we made the development of a growth mindset sound too easy. Maybe we talked too much about people having one mindset or the other, rather than portraying people as mixtures. We are on a growth-mindset journey, too.

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Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' (Opinion)

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Carol Dweck, who parsed the difference between a "fixed" and a "growth" mindset, clarifies her theories of intelligence.

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Everybody talks about it, but do we really understand the concept of growth mindset as deeply as we should? Growth mindset in education is a lot more than just adding the word "yet" to the end of phrases like "I don't understand?" or "I can't do multiplication.

Growth mindset is...

Knowing ALL students can learn at high levels

Believing your students that have never been proficient, can become proficient if and when the right supports are in place

Understanding that you, an educator, can learn a new skill, strategy, or tool

Trusting that although you can't or don't know how to do something now, it's not the end of the story

Welcoming persistent effort and practice leads to improvement

Embracing mistakes and using them as feedback for how to do better next time

Knowing that you have the power to do anything; there are no limits

Talking to staff about growth mindset in education

Growth mindset is a constant work-in-progress. As a staff, we read Mary Cay Ricci's book geared towards educators, Mindsets in the Classroom . In fact, the work we did around Ricci's book was featured in her follow-up, Ready-to-Use Resources for Mindsets in the Classroom .

Growth mindset vs fixed mindset

My experience as a runner has helped me wrap my head around the differences between a growth and a fixed mindset. I think of myself as a runner. I run half-marathons and I can run them at about an eight-minute mile pace. That wasn't always my story, however. As a high schooler, I did not like running and I did not want to run simply for the sake of running. Two-miles was my limit. But things changed. The more I ran, the more I wanted to run. 2 miles stretched to 7, and 7 stretched to 13.1. The same type of thing was happening to my pace. The more I ran, the faster I got. The better I got, the more I enjoyed running. The more I enjoyed running, the more I wanted to run.

Challenge yourself

Think of an area of your life where you clearly exhibit a growth mindset, and one where you do not. What's the difference? Chances are the area for your growth mindset is something that you enjoy; typically, we don't often like the things that are a struggle for us. I t's probably also something that you are relatively good at, but I'm guessing that you weren't always this good. I t's also likely that because you enjoy it, it is something you regularly engage in. And because you do it regularly, it shouldn't come as a surprise that you've improved over time.

When we think of mindset, Carol Dweck, justifiably, is probably one of the first to come to mind. When we become aware of our different and fluid mindsets, it becomes more likely that we'll regularly choose a growth instead of a fixed mindset. When we more regularly adopt a growth mindset, the possibilities for what we can accomplish are amplified. And when our possibilities are amplified that same thing happens for the staff and students that we serve.
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What Does It Mean To Have a Growth Mindset In Education?

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Everybody talks about it, but do we really understand the concept of growth mindset as deeply as we should? Growth mindset in education is a lot more than just adding the word "yet" to the end of phrases like "I don't understand?" or "I can't do multiplication.

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Change your mindset, change the game | Dr. Alia Crum | TEDxTraverseCity

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The Power of belief -- mindset and success | Eduardo Briceno | TEDxManhattanBeach

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The power of believing that you can improve | Carol Dweck

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The power of believing that you can improve | Carol Dweck

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The power of believing that you can improve | Carol Dweck