MODULE 1 METACOGNITION

Objectives:
Explain metacognition in your own words.
Apply metacognitive strategies in your own quest for learning as a novice or an expert learner.

Answering the questionnaire given to you and analyzing your scores is an exercise of metacognition .You
stop for a moment and thought about how you study and learn. You were reminded of your strengths and
weaknesses. Then you wrote what
you can do to improve your study habits

The goal of education is to teach students how to learn on their own. It is vital that students acquire the
skills on how to learn. This will enable them to learn not just while they are in school but for a lifetime. This
entails deeper awareness of how one processes information, the ability to evaluate his own thinking and to
think of ways to make his own learning process more effectively.

The term metacognition was coined by John Flavell

Metacognition, simply put is “thinking about thinking”  or “ learning how to learn”.
 Refers to higher order thinking which involves active awareness and control over cognitive process
engaged in learning.

1. Metacognitive knowledge
Metacognitive regulation and control
2. Metacognitive Knowledge
3. It refers to what individuals know about their cognition or cognition in general. It involves three kinds
of metacognitive awareness namely: Declarative knowledge , procedural knowledge and conditional
knowledge
4. Cognition means mental action or processes of acquiring knowledge and understanding through  .
5. It also means the way in which the brain make connections while remembering what is learned
6. example: the  ability to reason logically
 problem solving
                                              making judgement about information
Declarative knowledge or person variables is the learner’s knowledge about things. It also refers to
the learner’s understanding of own abilities, and the knowledge about oneself as a learner and of
the factors that moderate ones performance.
 Example:
 1. You may be aware that you study more effectively if you study very early in the morning than late
in the evening.
 2.   You may be aware that you work better in a quiet library rather than at home that there are lot
of things that make it hard for you to focus and concentrate.
 3.  You know that Manila is the capital of the Philippines or that Oases is the plural of oasis.
 Procedural Knowledge or task variables  involves knowledge on how to do things and how skills or
competencies are executed. It is also about knowing what exactly needs to be accomplished,
gauging  its difficulty and knowing the kind of effort it will demand from you.

 Example :
1. You know that prerequisite information and prior  skills are necessary to be recalled and
mastered for you to confidently solve the problem.

2. You may be aware that it takes more time for you to read and comprehend a book in Educational
philosophy than it is for you to read and comprehend a novel.
7.

Conditional Knowledge or strategy variable

efers to the ability to know when and why various cognitive acts  should be applied. It involves using
strategies to learn information and evaluating whether the strategy is appropriate and effective. Terms like
meta-attention meta-memory are related to strategy variables. Meta-memory is your awareness of
memory strategies that work best for you.
 Meta-attention is the awareness of specific strategies so that you can keep your attention focused
on the topic or task at hand.
 Meta-memory is your awareness of memory strategies that work best for you.

 2.Metacognitive Regulation and Control

Pertains to the ability of the learners to keep tract/monitor and assess their knowledge or learning.
It  includes their ability to find out what ,when and how to use a particular  skill for a given task or
manner they can control their learning.
 Metacognitive regulation involves three processes
 1. setting goals and planning
 2.  monitoring and controlling learning
 3.  evaluating own regulation.

Planning
 involves the selection of appropriate strategies and the allocation of resources that affect
performance ( Schraw ,2002). Along with setting goals, planning is considered a central part of
students’ ability to control their learning processes and to learn outcomes through deliberate
regulatory decisions and actions.

 Example:

 A student who desires to get high grade ( Performance goal )in a science portfolio determines how
best to make all entries in the portfolio exemplary in the criteria as described in the scoring rubric
(Mastery goal )

At this stage of metacognition regulation,   a learner’s questions include the following: What am I
asked to learn to do here?  What do I really know about lesson or task? What should be my pacing
to complete this task? What should I focus on when learning this task?
Monitoring
 refers to ones ongoing awareness and task performance (Schraw,2002) Referred to as monitoring
and controlling learning. It also involves the monitoring of a persons thinking process  and the
current state of knowledge. Given a task , it involves the awareness of the person that the
prerequisite knowledge and process to manage the task is sufficient to succeed.It involves the
ability to consider the accuracy of the knowledge and procedures to solve the task.

 Example:

 A student who answers a word problem in mathematics is aware of the steps to follow to solve the
task. In the process , the person monitors from metamemory if procedural knowledge is adequate
and could be executed.he/she monitors his/her thinking and then revises if the process is found
ineffective in solving the problem.
  At this stage, some questions asked by the learners include the following: Do Ihave adequate
knowledge to solve the problem? Are my prior knowledge and skills appropriate for this task? Are
my strategies appropriate for this task?What can I do to get additional information for this task?
Evaluating


 refers to assessing knowledge of learning. It involves appraising the products and efficiency of one’s
learning (Schraw, 2002) It also involves the ability to evaluate how well the strategies are used to
lead to the solution of the problem or completion of the task.It tells whether or not the procedure
resulted to the correct answer or different answers.
 Example: In mathematics problem task situation, a person  comes to a realization that the equation
formulated to solve what is asked in the problem was indeed correct based on the cross-checking
process done. If the answer is wrong ,learner surmises what went wrong along the way.

 Questions that the person or learner may ask in this phase are the following: What new learning
was achieved? What universal understanding should I remember? Was the correct answer
obtained? Were the goals set achieved ? What could I have done to make my work better? What
should I do next time I encounter similar situation?


Principles of Metacognitive Instruction
 Metacognitive instruction should be embedded in the context of the task at hand in order to allow for
connecting task-specific condition knowledge (the IF-side) to the procedural knowledge of "How" the skill
is applied in the context of the task (the THEN-side of production rules). 

Learners   should be informed about the benefit of applying metacognitive skills in order to make them
exert the initial extra effort.

Instruction and training should be stretched over time, thus allowing for the formation of production rules
and ensuring the smooth and maintained of metacognitive skills.

These 3 variables all interact as you learn

and apply metacognition

 Omrod includes the following in the practice of metacognition:

1. Knowing the limits of one’s own learning

and memory capacities. Knowing what learning tasks can realistically accomplish within a certain amount
of time.

2. Knowing which learning strategies are effective and which are not. Planning an approach to a
learning task which is likely to be successful.

3. Using learning strategies to process and learn new material.

4. Monitoring one’s own knowledge and comprehension. In other words, knowing when information
has been successfully learned and when it’s not.

Using effective strategies for retrieval of previously stored information.

  knowledge is said to be metacognitive if it is keenly used in a  purposeful manner to ensure that a
goal is met.

Example:

a student may use knowledge in planning how to do homework.

 “ I know that I (person variable) have more difficulty in my science assignments than English and
find Araling Panlipunan easier (task variables), so I will do my homework in Science first, then
Language ,

Arts, then Araling Panlipunan ( strategy variable)

 f one is only aware of one’s cognitive strengths or weaknesses and the nature of the tasks but does
not use this to guide or oversee his/her own learning, then no metacognition has been applied.

 Huitt believes that metacognition includes the ability to ask and

 Answer the following types of questions:

 What do I know about this subject, topic, issue?

 Do I know what I need to know?

 Do I know where I can go to get some information, knowledge?

 How much will I need to learn this?

 What are some strategies and tactics that I can use to learn this?


 Did I understand what I just heard, read or saw?

 How will I know if I am learning in appropriate rate?

 How can I spot an error if I commit one?

 How should I revise my plan if it is not working to my expectations/satisfactions

 METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES TO FACILITATE LEARNING:

 1. Have students monitor their own learning and thinking.

 2. Teach students study or learning strategies

       
TQLR – This can be taught to younger students (primary grades). It is a metacognitive strategy
before listening to a story or presentation.
 T- is for Tune in. Learner must be aware of what he will be learning.

 Q – is for question. The learner is given question and think what he will soon learn.

 L –is for listen. The learner exerts effort to listen.

 R- is for remember. The learner uses ways or strategies to remember what was learned.
 PQ4R – This can be taught to older students.(Intermediate levels onwards )

P - Preview
  Scan the whole chapter before delving on each paragraph.

 Check for the objectives.

 Look for outlines and advance organizers that will give you an idea about the important topics.

 Read the summary of the chapter first but don’t stop at the summary alone .Read the whole
chapter.
 Q - Question
 Read the guide questions provided or think of your own question about the topic.
 R -Read
 Check out subheadings as you read.

 Pay attention to words that are printed in bold or italicized.

 Find out the meaning of words that are not clear to you.

 Use a marker or colored pencil to highlight important words or phrases

 R - Recite
 Work on answering questions that you had earlier.

 R - review
 Pinpoint topics you may need to go back to and read in order to understand better.

 R- Reflect
 Think about what you read. Is everything clear to you? What the main points you learned? How is
this relevant or useful to you?

 3. Have students make predictions

 Have students relate ideas to existing knowledge structures

 5. Have students develop questions.

 6. Help students to know when to ask for help
 Show students how to transfer knowledge, attitudes, values, skills to other situations or tasks

 Differences Between Novice & Expert Learners

Novice Learners Expert Learners

Aspect of Learning
Knowledge in Have limited knowledge Have deeper knowledge in different subject areas
different subject in different subject because they look for interrelationships in the
areas areas. things they learn.

Novice Learners Expert Learners

Aspect of
Learning

Problem Satisfied at just scratching the First try to understand the problem. Look for
Solving surface; Hurriedly gives a solution to bounderies and create a mental picture of the
the problem problem.

Novice Learners Expert Learners

Aspect of Learning
Learning/Thinking Employ rigid strategies that may not Design new strategies that would be
strategies be appropriate to the task at hand. appropriate to the task at hand.

Novice Learners Expert Learners

Aspect of
Learning

Selectivity in Attempt to process all Select important information to process; able to

processing information they receive breakdown information to manageable chunks

Novice Learners Expert Learners

Aspect of
Learning
Production of Do not examine the quality of their Check their errors and redirect their
output work, nor stop to make revisions efforts to maintain quality output