Week 5: Capacity for Continual Learning

Entering week five of my course, we have been asked to read and comment on two articles: 

1. Metacognition: An Overview by Jennifer A. Livingston; and 

2. Learning as a Way of Being-- Harvard Education Review by Peter B. Vaill

Personally, I always approach  new concepts and ideas by trying to relate them to teaching and understanding my learners better.

In the first article, I discovered that the true meaning of this piece begins with the conclusion.

Concept 1: Students who are aware of their learning process have more successes than students who are not aware of these processes.

Concept 2: Teachers can intervene with the latter group by teaching students how to think about their thinking.

'Thinking about thinking.' 

The author introduces this idea as a simplified definition for 'metacognition.'

As an educator, I always strive to enhance my teaching strategies and prepare students to be better learners is certainly a goal.

An even brief-er Metacognition Overview

Metacognition can be broken into two parts: 

1. Metacognitive Knowledge includes person,     
    tasks, and strategies

• Being aware of your environment, your learning process, what processing demands are required for a task, and what methods will you use to reach your cognitive goals;  

2. Metacognitive Experiences/Regulation  
    includes using 'metacognition strategies' to plan 
    and monitor your cognitive activities.

Metacognition strategies occur when a learner uses a sequential process to control cognitive actions and reach their cognitive goal. As the learner, you must plan and monitor these actions regularly. 

The author provides 'self- questioning' as an example of a metacognition strategy. This strategy is good for monitoring your comprehension of new concepts.

Is there a difference between 'cognition' and 'metacognition'?

According to the author, the two concepts work together to create 'conditional knowledge'.

Cognition helps you achieve cognitive goals, such as understanding text, while metacognition ensures that you reach the goal. Again, using the self-questioning strategy, you can evaluate whether you understand the text or a concept. 

Also, you can use metacognition before or after performing a cognitive activity, but it usually occurs when you experience a 'cognitive failure' such as not understanding the text or concept.

Seems like we really do 'learn from our mistakes!'

In fact, the author briefly discusses CSI: Cognitive Structure Instruction. This type of instruction refers to the development of the learners' thinking skills and processes which will enhance their learning abilities.

As an educator, I want to teach students how to be "more strategic, self-reliant, flexible, and productive in their learning process".

As a learner, you can become a more successful student in two ways:

• being aware of your cognitive process and strategies; and
  
• practicing your strategies. 

How do you teach others to 'think about thinking?'