METACOGNITION

I. Introduction
In general, metacognition is thinking about thinking. More specifically, Taylor (1999)
defines metacognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a
correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires,
combined with the agility to make correct inferences about how to apply ones strategic
knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably.
The more students are aware of their thinking processes as they learn, the more they can
control such matters as goals, dispositions, and attention. Self-awareness promotes selfregulation. If students are aware of how committed (or uncommitted) they are to reaching
goals, of how strong (or weak) is their disposition to persist, and of how focused (or
wandering) is their attention to a thinking or writing task, they can regulate their
commitment, disposition, and attention (Marzano et al., 1988). For example, if students
were aware of a lack of commitment to writing a long research assignment, noticed that
they were procrastinating, and were aware that they were distracted by more appealing
ways to spend their time, they could then take action to get started on the assignment. But
until they are aware of their procrastination and take control by making a plan for doing
the assignment, they will blissfully continue to neglect the assignment.

II. Metacognition and Three Types of Knowledge

To increase their metacognitive abilities, students need to possess and be aware of three
kinds of content knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional.

Declarative knowledge is the factual information that one knows; it can be

declaredspoken or written. An example is knowing the formula for calculating
momentum in a physics class (momentum = mass times velocity).
Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something, of how to perform
the steps in a process; for example, knowing the mass of an object and its rate of
speed and how to do the calculation.
Conditional knowledge is knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or
strategy and when not to use it; why a procedure works and under what
conditions; and why one procedure is better than another. For example, students
need to recognize that an exam word problem requires the calculation of
momentum as part of its solution.

This notion of three kinds of knowledge applies to learning strategies as well as course
content. When they study, students need the declarative knowledge that:
(1) all reading assignments are not alike; for example, that a history textbook chapter
with factual information differs from a primary historical document, which is

different from an article interpreting or analyzing that document. They need to

know that stories and novels differ from arguments. Furthermore they need to
know that there are different kinds of note taking strategies useful for annotating
these different types of texts.
(2) students need to know how to actually write different kinds of notes (procedural
knowledge), and
(3) they need to know when to apply these kinds of notes when they study
(conditional knowledge). Knowledge of study strategies is among the kinds of
metacognitive knowledge, and it too requires awareness of all three kinds of
knowledge.

III. Metacognition and Study Strategies

Study strategies are diverse and dont work in every context. For example, reading for
information acquisition wont work in a literature course and wont work if students are
supposed to critically evaluate an article. But students who have learned only the strategy
of reading to pass a quiz on the information will not go beyond this strategy. Study
strategies dont necessarily transfer into other domains. Students need to know they have
choices about which strategies to employ in different contexts. And students who learn
study skills in one course need to apply study strategies in other contexts than where they
first learned it.
Students need to monitor their application of study strategies. Metacognitive awareness
of their learning processes is as important as their monitoring of their learning of the
course content. Metacognition includes goal setting, monitoring, self-assessing, and
regulating during thinking and writing processes; that is, when theyre studying and
doing homework. An essential component of metacognition is employing study strategies
to reach a goal, self-assessing ones effectiveness in reaching that goal, and then selfregulating in response to the self-assessment.

IV. Monitoring Problems with Learning

When students monitor their learning, they can become aware of potential problems.
Nickerson, Perkins, and Smith (1985) in The Teaching of Thinking have categorized
several types of problems with learning.
A. Problems with Process; Making errors in encoding, operations, and goals:
1. Errors in Encoding - Missing important data or not separating relevant from
irrelevant data. For example, some literature students will base their interpretation
of a poem on just the first stanza.
2. Errors in Operations - Failing to select the right subskills to apply. For example,
when proofreading, some students will just read to see if it sounds right, rather
than making separatepasses that check for fragments, subject-verb misagreement,
and other errors they have learned from experience they are likely to make.

Failing to divide a task into subparts. For example, some math students will jump
right to what they think is the final calculation to get the desired answer.
3. Errors in Goal Seeking - Misrepresenting the task. For example, students in a
speech communication class instead of doing the assigned task of analyzing and
classifying group communication strategies used in their group discussions will
just write a narrative of who said what. Not understanding the criteria to apply.
For example, when asked to evaluate the support provided for the major claim of
an article, students will explain why they liked the article rather than apply
appropriate evaluative criteria.
B. Problems with Cognitive Load
Too many subskills necessary to do a task. For example, some students might have not
yet learned how to carry out all the steps in a complex nursing procedure.
Not enough automatic, internalized subskills. For example, students in an argument and
persuasion class might have to check their notes on how to analyze persuasive strategies
because they have not internalized the procedure.
C. Problems with Abilities
Lacking the level of needed mental abilities. For example, students are asked to think
abstractly about general concepts and issues, but they can only think concretely about
specific situations.
A good way to discover what kind of errors students are making in their thinking
processes is to get them to unpack their thinking, to tell you step by step how they are
going about the task. By listening to how they are doing the cognitive task, an instructor
can detect where the student is going wrong. Asking students to describe their thinking
processes also develops their metacognitive abilitiesa very necessary skill to improve
thinking.

V. Metacognition and Motivation

Metacognition affects motivation because it affects attribution and self-efficacy. When
students get results on tests and grades on assignments (especially unexpected results
such as failures), they perform a mental causal search to explain to themselves why the
results happened. When they achieve good results, students tend to attribute the result to
two internal factors: their own ability and effort. When they fail, they might attribute the
cause to these same internal factors or they might, in a self-protective rationalization,
distance themselves from a sense of personal failure by blaming external causes, such as
an overly difficult task, an instructors perverse testing habits, or bad luck. This tendency
to attribute success to ability and effort promotes future success because it develops
confidence in ones ability to solve future unfamiliar and challenging tasks. The converse
is also true. Attributing failure to a lack of ability reduces self-confidence and reduces the
students summoning of intellectual and emotional abilities to the next challenging tasks;
attribution theory also explains why such students will be unwilling to seek help from
tutors and other support services: they believe it would not be worth their effort. In
addition to blaming failure on external causes, underachievers often self-handicap

themselves by deliberately putting little effort into an academic task; they thereby protect
themselves from attributing their failure to a painful lack of ability by attributing their
failure to lack of effort.

VI. Metacognition and At-Risk Students

The last two decades have seen a great deal of research directed towards improving the
academic success of at-risk students. As McKeachie (1988) explains, the problems are

Students enter the higher levels of education with . . . strategies that handicap
them in achieving success.

Neither home backgrounds nor schools have helped young adults become aware
of alternative ways of approaching learning situations, and of options other than
increasing or decreasing ones effort as one approaches different learning
situations

Teachers give plenty of feedback about the correctness of learning outcomes but
not about how to achieve these outcomes.

The use of learning strategies is linked to motivation. When students fail, they tend to
assign the cause to something stable and unchangeablelow innate abilityrather than
to something they have the ability to changeemploying different, more effective,
learning strategies.

VII. Five Generalizations of Study Strategies

Simpson and Nist (2000) have conducted a review of the literature on strategic learning
in the last 20 years and summarize it in five generalizations:
1. Understanding the task is of great importance
The tasks that students need to perform vary not only among disciplines but among
instructors in the same discipline. An effective strategy for preparing for a multiple
choice test in biology is different from what is needed to prepare for a history exam with
an essay that asks students to synthesize information from several chapters. Yet students
often employ the same strategyand sometimes the least effective strategyfor
studying for very different kinds of tests. Furthermore, many students who perform badly
misinterpret the tasks; for example, by misunderstanding what clearly written essay
instructions asked them to do. Students need to understand the task accurately in order to
use the most effective strategies.

2. What students believe about learning affects their selection of study strategies
What students believe about learning and studying has an influence on how they
interpret the task, how they interact with text, and, ultimately, the strategies they select.
3. Instructors need to provide good instruction in how to use study strategies
Simpsons and Nists first point in this section is that it takes time to teach explicit use of
strategies. In one experiment students were explicitly taught the metacognitive strategies
of planning and evaluating, but distinct and significant improvement did not emerge
until 4 weeks after the initial instruction. Second, students should not only be taught
what the features of a strategy (declarative knowledge of the strategy) but also procedural
and conditional knowledge: the steps to use and when to employ them. Students need to
practice on authentic texts from the courseand the texts should be challenging enough so
that students will not employ simplistic approaches. Third, practice with strategies should
occur within a specific course; isolated study skills courses have limited success. Fourth,
instruction in study strategies should be explicit and direct and include five features:
(a) strategy descriptions; (b) discussions of why the strategy should be learned and its
importance; (c) think-alouds, models, and examples of how the strategy is used, including
the processes involved and when and where it is appropriate to apply the strategy; (d)
explanations as to when and where it is appropriate to apply the strategy; and (e)
suggestions for monitoring and evaluating whether the strategy is working and what to do
if it is not. Instructors should design guided practice where students use the strategies on
authentic course tasks and provide feedback.
4. Instructors should teach a variety of strategies that research has shown to be
effective.
Researchers have found that four reading and studying strategies are effective:
A. Generate questions and answer them. Students need to be taught how to create
higher-level questions and how to answer them; sometimes this is done in small
groups or pairs. The strategy improves students comprehension of the text.
B. Write summaries. Students need to use their own words and be taught the rules of
summarizing (which is difficult). Writer-based summaries not only improve
students comprehension, but also help them monitor their understanding.
C. Write elaborations. Ask students to create examples, make analogies, explain
relationships between concepts. [The Cornell note-taking method and doubleentry notebook are examples of elaborations.]
D. Use organizing strategies. Concept maps, network representations, and other
graphic organizers can be effective.

5. Emphasize the cognitive and metacognitive processes that underlie a study

strategy.
The value of a strategy lies more in the cognitive and metacognitive processes used than
the steps in the strategy itself. The key steps are elaborating, planning, monitoring, and
evaluating.