What was I thinking?!: Meta-cognition

Rate yourself on the following statements using the following five-point scale:

1 2 3 4 5 Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

1. I know a lot about the Civil War.
2. I know how to hit a baseball.
3. I know how to solve a system of linear equations.
4. I am an expert chef.
5. I am a right-brain thinker.
6. I am a visual learner.
7. I only need to see something once, and I can remember it forever.
8. I can multitask.

It's Time to Get Meta.

The concept that each of these statements intends to target is meta-cognition, or, your knowledge about what you know and how you think.

Statements 1-4: Let's start with the "what" first. Questions like, "Do I know this?" or "How well do I know this?" target your meta-cognition awareness of your warehouse of knowledge. Being aware of what you know is important because it can guide your behavior toward filling the gaps that you perceive in your knowledge. However, there is always a danger that we overestimate how much we know. Remember that demonstration with the visual blind spot? Well, that can also apply to meta-cognition. We sometimes don't perceive the gaps in our knowledge.

Statements 5-8: Meta-cognition also applies to the "how," or beliefs you have about your own thought processes and the way your mind works. For example, you may believe that your memory is like a video recording where all of the details are preserved in a pristine library somewhere in your brain. If you believe that, then you are going to have more trust in your memories than someone who believes that memories are actively reconstructed at the time of retrieval. Your understanding of how your mind works will also guide your behavior. For example, if you think your memory is like a video recording, then you may think you only need to read or hear something one time to remember it forever, rather than needing to write it down or review it a few times to make sure you can recall it later.

Putting the BAM! into Meta-cognition

If Emeril were a Cognitive Scientist, he'd say it's time to kick it up a notch. Hopefully you buy into the fact that meta-cognition operates on two levels. It applies to being able to declare what you know (the what). It also applies to the declarative knowledge that you have about how the mind works (the how). So here's how we can take it to the next level: Meta-cognition is a skill that can be developed with practice. BAM!

From my perspective, that is the most interesting feature about meta-cognition. We can become more accurate in our assessment of what we know or don't know. A simple way to start exercising this skill is to get into the habit of asking yourself: Does that make sense? If the answer is "sort of" or "no," then that becomes a trigger for asking deeper questions ("What is the root of my confusion?"). Because many people don't find it fun to admit they don't know something, it may not feel natural at first to go looking for things you don't know. But, if you embrace each gap that you identify in your knowledge as a new opportunity to learn and grow, then you'll soon reap the benefits of developing your meta-cognitive awareness. 

The STEM Connection

Why is the what and the how of meta-cognition important for learning? It is important for students to be accurate about what they know. For example, if you ask your class, "Does that make sense?" and they answer in the affirmative, then you might expect that they get it. However, when students who are not well-calibrated get home and start working on their homework, they will find that they did not understand the lesson as well as they thought they did. Now they have a new problem to solve. How do they get the support and guidance they need outside of the classroom? Do they ask their parents for help, do they go to the internet, or do they give up entirely? 

It is also important for students to have an accurate understanding of how the mind works. It's unrealistic to say that you will remember something if you've only seen it once (i.e., memory is not a video recording). Students should also understand that multitasking will fail under most conditions, so putting aside the cellphones while studying is probably a good idea. Finally, it would be helpful for students to understand the limitations of their working memory so they can tell their teacher to slow down or chop up the lesson into smaller pieces.

When do students get feedback on their meta-cognitive skill for assessing their knowledge? That generally happens during an assessment, which is often too late in the learning process to be helpful. Instead, it would be ideal if students could practice their skill of knowledge assessment before the big exam. Asking students to explain the content to each other in small groups is a great way for kids to determine whether or not they truly "get it." 

Meta-cognition is a skill that can be exercised and strengthened, and we need to give our students opportunities to assess their knowledge and receive feedback on their accuracy. As my friend Ido Roll once said, learning to gauge when you need help might be the secret sauce for learning. BAM!


Share and Enjoy! 

Dr. Bob

For More Information

[1] Roll, I., Aleven, V., McLaren, B. M., & Koedinger, K. R. (2007). Can help seeking be tutored? Searching for the secret sauce of metacognitive tutoring. In R. Luckin, K. R. Koedinger, & J. Greer (Eds.), Proceedings of the international conference on artificial intelligence in education (pp. 203-210). Amsterdam: IOS Press.