This chapter explains what 'metacognition' is, and why it is important in learning. In particular, the chapter explains why developing metacognition should be seen as a particular goal of science education for gifted learners. The theme of metacognition is linked to the ideas of independence/self-regulation in learning, and is needed if students are to be given responsibilities through 'assessment for learning'.
Metacognition: thinking about thinking
Metacognition is the name given to the ability to be aware of, think about, and manage one's own thinking processes. Metacognition was introduced as a subsidiary theme for the ASCEND project, as it was considered that gifted learners would need well-developed metacognitive skills to work optimally.
Metacognition can include rather basic levels of thinking about thinking: 'that was hard', 'I should be able to do this, it's primary school work', 'I wasn't really concentrating on my work just then'.
However, metacognition would also include a more sophisticated awareness of one's cognitive strengths and weaknesses, allowing decisions to be made about what tasks can likely be achieved, how long a piece of work might take, when help is likely to be needed.
Metacognitive skills would include the types of abilities involved in solving non-trivial problems, being able to break down problems in simpler steps, monitoring progress, recognising where errors might be made, and incorporating suitable checks, etc.
Self-regulated learners
Independence in learning, or the ability of a learner to be 'self-regulated' is clearly a goal for all our students: we want them to leave school with life-skills that make them effective learners, who know how to research topics for themselves.
Developing 'thinking skills' is seen as being central to the school curriculum, and science clearly has a major role to play in this agenda. Thinking skills include logical thought, creativity, etc., but also metacogtnitive skills.
Some schools already support students in developing metacognition through teaching about study skills: explaining about 'active' learning, effective revision technique, learning styles, and so on. Basic knowledge of how perception, attention and memory work, can help learners understand their own cognitive processes.
Assessment for learning
In recent years there has been a significant emphasis on shifting the focus of much assessment of students' work from summative assessment (awarding grades at the end of the learning process) to formative assessment – assessment to inform the learning process. In particular, teachers are encouraged to adopt the processes of 'assessment for learning' (AfL) and a key feature of this is involving learners in monitoring their own learning. Teachers are asking students to mark their own work against marking criteria, undertake peer review, suggest their own targets for improving their work, and so forth.
Clearly, effectively involving learners in this process both presupposes a level of metacognition, and provides opportunities for students to develop greater insight into their own strengths, weaknesses, learning styles, and so on. Some of the AfL techniques that are recommended to teachers will help students to learn to better regulate their own learning, by developing their metacognitive knowledge and skills.
Metacognition and the gifted
In planning the ASCEND project it was felt that metacognition should be an additional focus (along with the nature of science). It was felt that a focus on metacognition was especially useful in developing gifted provision both from a consideration of the practicalities of teaching gifted students in mixed ability settings, and in terms of the particular characteristics of gifted students.
The former consideration was the role of differentiation in effective teaching. Even in top sets there is likely to be a considerable range of ability, so that exceptionally able students would remain exceptional among their able but less exceptional peers. Effective teaching across wide ability ranges requires effective differentiation (through one means or another) by the teacher, and for most forms of differentiation to be effective, learners have to be able to respond by taking some responsibility for regulating learning. This is likely to be especially so for the most able who are 'outliers' in the class population, and where teachers may assume a capability for high levels of independent learning. It was decided that ASCEND would be set up to assume (and test) the notion that more able students could indeed take responsibility for organising and monitoring their own progress on extended tasks.
The latter consideration was a recognition that
- effective students usually have already developed high levels of metacognition, and
- that exceptionally able learners are sometimes autodidacts who are able to largely teach themselves with little external input.
One of the charactersitics that it is said can be expected of highly able students is that they show a high level of independence in their learning.
It was reported above that one of the common complaints reported from high ability students is that "no one explains what being a high-ability learner is all about–it's kept a big secret". It was decided to include an early activity in ASCEND about learning and studying in one of the early sessions in the programme. Although some exceptional learners do find effective ways to 'teach themselves', this does not imply that all gifted students will be effective autodidacts. Just as motivation to be a good teacher does not negate the need for effective teacher education, a desire to learn, and a willingness to be a self-regulated learner, may not by themselves provide the metacognitive awareness to become an efficient self-directed learner.
Metacognition and the learning (and doing) of science
In learning science, students are often expected to restructure their thinking about topics. It has been suggested that this can most effectively be achieved when students are able to 'stand back' and reflect on their own thinking. Studies into the learning of science have highlighted the importance of metacognition. It can help students if they can:
- recognise their own way of thinking about a topic, and explore how this differs from the version offered in school science;
- appreciate how their own thinking about topics is changing as they learn;
- recognise the way they think about science in terms of models, especially when they are using several distinct models for thinking about the same topic (which is common practice both among students, and practising scientists).
These are, of course, skills that scientists themselves need if they are to undertake creative work that develops new theoretical insights. Indeed, there are some important areas of scientific thinking where the role of metacognition is not fully understood, but which are currently being explored for their significance to learning science, and to developing the skills needed for a productive scientific career:
- Scientific visualisation – learning to 'see' (and mentally model and manipulate) the various structures and systems represented in scientific imagery (e.g. molecular structures)
- Thought experimentation – the ability to run mental simulations of physical (or biological) systems
- Scientific intuition – enabling, for example, the ability to identify and use analogies between scientific fields.
These are the types of abilities we might expect to be limited in many secondary students, but students who are gifted in science may well either already posses precocious skills in these areas, or at least have the potential to develop them. Certainly, students given the opportunity to apply such thinking processes during their experience of school science will be provided with an authentic feel for scientific thinking.
