MODULE 2: METACOGNITION: THINKING ABOUT THINKING

After completing the lesson, you will be able to:

• explain the meaning of metacognition and metacognitive knowledge

 Identify metacognitive strategies for a particular lesson
 analyze the relationship among the three metacognitive processes

A. METACOGNITION AND METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think” – Margaret Mead

“If you teach a person what to learn, you are preparing that person for the past. If you
teach a person how to learn, you are preparing that person for the future” - Cyril Houle

The most important goal of education is to teach students how to learn on their own. It
is vital that students acquire the skills of how to learn; and that these skills enable them to
learn not just while they are in school but for a lifetime. This entails a 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 effective. All these involve metacognition.
Just what is metacognition? This appears to be such a high sounding word that some
people are confused about what it is about even before they actually spend time to find out
what it really means. It is not all that complicated. In fact, we do metacognitive activities so
often in our daily lives. When you sense that you are experiencing difficulty with a topic you
are studying, and you try different strategies to learn better, you are practicing metacognition.
The word maybe long, seems to be intangible but it is worth focusing on because it can help
you to be a more successful learner. When you become a teacher, it can also help your
students to learn more efficiently and effectively.
Metacognition, a term coined by John Flavell, refers to higher order thinking which
involves active awareness and control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning. It is
the knowledge concerning one’s cognitive processes and products or anything related to them,
e.g., the learning-relevant properties of information and data. It is the active monitoring and
consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes concerning the cognitive objects
or data on which they bear, usually in the service of some concrete goal or objective (Flavell,
1976).
It is knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena (Flavell, 1979). Its meaning
metamorphosed into “thinking about thinking” or “learning about learning”, “knowing about
knowing” and “cognition about cognition.”
The elements of metacognition are metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive
experiences or regulation. These two elements are interrelated; the presence of the first one
enhances the second element.

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Categories of Metacognitive Knowledge

Metacognitive Knowledge (knowledge of cognition)

“what individuals know about their cognition or cognition in general”
Declarative Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Conditional Knowledge
(person variables) (task variables) (strategy variables)
 Knowledge about  Knowledge on how to  Knowledge on when
things do things and why to apply
 Knowledge about  Knowledge on how to cognitive acts
one’s own abilities execute skills  Knowledge on when a
 Knowledge about strategy is
factors affecting one’s appropriate
own performance

Metacognitive knowledge is acquired knowledge about cognitive processes categorized

as follows:
1. Person Variables. This includes how one views himself as a learner and thinker.
Knowledge of person variables refers to knowledge about how human beings learn and
process information, as well as individual knowledge of one’s own learning processes. For
example, you may be aware that you study more effectively if you study very early in the
morning than late in the evening, and that you work better in a quiet library rather than at
home where there are a lot of things that make it hard for you to focus and concentrate.
This knowledge is not always accurate as the learner’s evaluation of his/her capabilities
may be unreliable. Manila as the capital of the Philippines and oases as plural form of oasis are
examples of declarative knowledge which a learner may have limited knowledge.
2. Task Variables. Knowledge of task variables includes about the nature of the task
and type of processing demands that it will place upon the individual. It is about knowing what
exactly needs to be accomplished, gauging its difficulty and knowing the kind of effort it will
demand from you. For example, you may be aware that it will take more time for you to read
and comprehend a book in educational philosophy that it would for you to read and
comprehend a novel.
The assessment on the learner’s task knowledge includes what knowledge is needed
(content) and the space available to communicate what is known (length). A learner given a
problem-solving task, for instance, knows that prerequisite information and prior skills are
necessary to be recalled and readily executed at the given time to solve the problem.
3. Strategy Variables. Knowledge of strategy variables involves awareness of strategy
you are using to learn a topic and evaluating whether this strategy is effective. If you think
your strategy is not working, then you may think of various strategies and try one to see if it
will help you learn better.
It is the ability to know when and why various cognitive acts should be applied. It
involves strategies to learn information (knowing how to know) as well as adapting them to

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novel contexts (Knowing when a strategy is appropriate). This knowledge is evident in a
learner who seeks the help of a school nurse to make a report on communicable diseases
prevalent in the community and knows that the best way to gather data is to interview a nurse
or go over the health records of the City or Municipal Health Office.

Terms like meta-attention and metamemory are related to strategy variables. Meta-
attention is the awareness of specific strategies so that you can keep your attention focused on
the topic or task at hand. Metamemory is the awareness of memory strategies that work best
for you.
These three variables all interact as you learn and apply metacognition. Omrod,
includes the following in the practice of metacognition.
• Knowing the limits of one’s own learning and memory capacities
• Knowing what learning tasks one can realistically accomplish within a certain amount
of time
• Knowing which learning strategies are effective and which are not
• Planning an approach to a learning task that is likely to be successful
• Using effective learning strategies to process and learn new material
• Monitoring one’s own knowledge and comprehension. In other words, knowing
when information has been successfully learned and when its 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. For example, a student may use knowledge in planning how to do
homework: “I know that I (person variable) have more difficulty with my science assignments
than language arts and find sibika easier (task variable), so I will do my homework in science
first, than language arts, then sibika (strategy variable).” If one is only aware about one’s
cognitive strengths or weaknesses and the nature of the task but does not use this to guide or
oversee his 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 do I need to know?
• Do I know where I can go to get some information, knowledge?
• How much time 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 at an appropriate rate?
• How can I spot error if I make one?
• How should I revise my plan if it is not working to my expectations/satisfaction?

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Metacognition and Development

Researches such as that of Fang and Cox showed that metacognitive awareness was
evident in preschoolers and in students as young as eight years old. Children already may have
the capacity to be more aware and reflective of their own learning. However, not many have
been taught and encouraged to apply metacognition. The challenge then to future teachers
like you is to integrate more activities that would build your students’ capacity to reflect on
their own characteristics as learners, the tasks they are to do and the strategies that they can
use to learn. Below are some examples of teaching strategies to develop metacognition:
1. Have students monitor their own learning and thinking (Example: have student
monitor a peer’s learning/thinking/behaving in dyad)
2. Have students learn strategies (e.g. SQ3R, SQ4R)
3. Have students make predictions about information to be presented next based on
what they have read.
4. Have students relate ideas to existing knowledge structures . (Important to have
relevant knowledge structures well learned)
5. Have students develop questions; ask questions of themselves, about what’s going
on around them. (Have you asked a good question today?)
6. Help students to know when to ask for help. (must be able to self-monitor; require
students to show how they have attempted to deal with the problem of their own)
7. Show students how to transfer knowledge, attitudes, values, skills to other situations
or tasks.

Metacognitive knowledge is the result of an individual’s metacognitive experiences.

Experience is just not what happened but what you do with what happened to you. An
experience is what an individual has through which knowledge is attained, or through
regulation occurs. A learner who obtained low scores in knowledge and skill tests becomes
aware that he or she has low declarative and procedural knowledge. In contrast, a learner who
always scored high in both content and skills tests has strong confidence in his her adequacy of
knowledge in the subject.

Metacognitive knowledge depends so much on the learner’s metamemory, the

awareness of memory strategies that best work for self, the knowledge of what memory is,
how it works and how to remember things. Through instruction and individual effort,
metamemory develops over time. For instance, learners who have been taught how to
organize information and use rehearsal strategies have richer metamemory. They can retrieve
declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge when required by the task.

Metacognitive thinking among learners provides avenues for them to learn more. Two
aspects of metacognitive instruction is content knowledge (concepts, facts, procedures) and
strategic knowledge (heuristic, metacognitive, learning). It is essential that to think through a
process, learners must have the content knowledge to think about something. One also needs

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to have a heuristic (shortcut) or algorithm (formula) to follow in developing a skill (Medina,
et.al, 2017). Instruction should have a content component and direct instruction on how to
work through a process.
Another consideration is the potential of cooperative learning in teaching
metacognition. Engaging learners in collaborative discussion of the learning task enables them
to enhance their learning. During the discussion, learners think about their way of thinking and
their reflection after the lesson demonstrates a metacognitive way of thinking. The learners
identify the main components of the learning strategy and realize how the strategy helps them
to learn (Eldar, et.al, 2012). Collaborative teaching strategies are, therefore, useful tools to
enhance learners’ reflective thinking.

Types of Metacognition
Metacognition can be divided into two types of knowledge: explicit and implicit.
1. Explicit metacognitive knowledge. This refers to the conscious factual knowledge.
It involves information about the tasks. For instance, it is easy to remember the major
point in the selection rather than to memorize the entire text. In the same manner, in
remembering people, we tend to associate them with common things that are familiar
to us. In other words, explicit metacognitive knowledge accounts for our awareness
that smaller chunks of knowledge are understood better than bigger ones. Research
shows that explicit factual knowledge of cognition has been motivated by the plausible
assumption that children’s increasing knowledge about memory and about the general
cognitive system leads them to choose the appropriate strategies and to remember
more effectively (Siegler & Alibali 2005).
2. Implicit metacognitive knowledge. In this type of knowledge, children learn how to
monitor themselves. Self-monitoring skills lie at their decisive power to choose what
and how much to study. The amount of time children devoted for study before saying
that they know the material increases from age 4 at least though qge 12 or 13 ((Siegler
& Alibali 2005).

B. METACOGNITIVE REGULATION AND CONTROL

If metacognitive knowledge refers to the learner’s knowledge or beliefs about the

factors that affect cognitive skills, metacognitive regulation pertains to their ability to keep
track or 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.
To illustrate metacognitive regulation, consider yourself a student in a Speech class.
You know when a word is mispronounced as it sounds unpleasant, thus, you consult an
electronic dictionary to listen to how the word should be pronounced. Following the model,
your pronunciation is improved.

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 Metacognitive regulation involves three process: setting goals and planning,
monitoring and controlling learning and evaluating your own regulation.

Metacognitive regulation and control processes

PLANNING involves the selection of appropriate strategies and the allocation of

resources that affect performance (Schraw, 2002). Together with setting goals, this process is
considered a central part of students’ ability to control their learning process and to learn
outcomes through deliberate self-regulatory decisions and actions.
Planning is a form of decision making. Planning allows us to decide on various aspects:
the time to be spent in accomplishing the task, resources to be used, strategies to be employed
to finish the task, steps to follow, or what to give priority to. Planning includes setting goals,
generating questions, skimming, among others. During the planning phase, learners can ask:
“What am I supposed to learn?” “What background knowledge will help me with this task?”
“What should I do first?” “How much time do I have to devote in order to complete this?”
Goals are categorized as mastery goals and performance goals (Paulson and Bauer,
2011). Mastery goals are related to process, learning and development while performance
goals are usually associated with product orientations and demonstrating competence or
social comparisons to peer groups.
For example, you desire to get a high grade (performance goal) in a Science class
portfolio, you determine how to make all entries exemplary in all criteria as described in the
scoring rubric (mastery goal). At this point of metacognitive regulation, you question yourself:
What am I asked to learn or do here? What do I already know about this lesson or task? What
should be my pacing to complete this task? Why should I focus on when learning or solving
this task?

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 MONITORING refers to one’s ongoing awareness of comprehension and task
performance (Schraw, 2002). It involves monitoring of a person’s thinking processes and the
current state of knowledge, as well as the ability to consider the accuracy of this knowledge
and procedure to solve the task. If ever inadequacy is felt, you can control the processes
undertaken to still succeed in the resolution of the task.
Monitoring refers to one’s special duty to be responsible. It entails a lot of checking,
supervising, and seeing how the task progresses or develops. It is one way to ensure that
strategies are carried our in order to achieve success. During the monitoring phase, learners
can ask: “How am I doing the task?” “Am I on the right track of doing it?” “How should I
continue with the task?” “What information is important to remember?”
For example, you answer a word problem in Mathematics, you are aware of the steps
to follow to solve the task. In the process, you monitor from metamemory if your procedural
knowledge is adequate and could be executed. Along the way, you monitor your thinking, then
revise the process if found ineffective.
At this stage, some questions which may be asked by you include: Do I have 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 appraising the products and efficiency of one’s learning
(Schraw,2002). It involves your ability to evaluate how well the strategies are used. To lead to
the solution to the solution of the problem or completion of the task. It tells whether or not
the procedure resulted to the correct or a different answer.
In the previous Mathematics word problem-solving task situation, you come to a
realization that the equation formulated to solve what is asked in the problem is indeed correct
based on the crosschecking process done. If your answer is wrong, you can guess what went
wrong along the way.
Some of the questions you may ask at this phase would be: What new learning did I
achieve? 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 a similar situation?
Evaluating is developing a sound judgment about the process and outcomes of thinking.
If we fail to meet the needed standards, think and develop another plan of action. There are
cases when the resources used do not fit the task, so we have to change our approach to
thinking. We need to revisit our objectives and such action goes back to planning. During the
evaluation phase, learners can ask: “How far have I done?” “Did I get the results I
anticipated?” “Is there anything I don’t understand - any gaps in my knowledge?”

Teaching learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their thinking is possible. For teachers
to help the learners develop metacognitive thinking, they need to profile the ways of thinking
and studying their learners. Metacognitive learners are either novice or proficient. For
instance, a reading comprehension research observed that novice or poor readers skip the title

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and paragraph headings, refrain from setting goals, select reading strategies accordingly, read
linearly without noticing lack of comprehension and terminate reading without reflection or
evaluation.
Proficient readers start with orienting reading to grasp the theme or gist of the text,
read the title and paragraph headings, skim through the text and purposely read the
concluding paragraph while activating prior knowledge of the subject matter. They set goals
and plans, and monitor their comprehension, both on the level of the individual words and on
the level of paragraphs or entire text (Veenman, 2012).
Teachers can provide interventions that are appropriate to the needs of students after
knowing their metacognitive thinking. Giving scaffolds while learners perform a task, helps
them refine their way of thinking and studying, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses in
the process. The next time they engage in metacognitive thinking, they could plan, monitor
and evaluate their own thinking better.

Answer the short version of Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) to
determine how you learn and study.
Direction: This questionnaire has been designed to allow you to describe in a systematic way
how you go about learning and studying. Please answer truthfully so that your answers
describe your actual ways of studying accurately, and work your way through the questionnaire
quite quickly, making sure that you answer all items. Check (√) the cell that corresponds to
your agreement to the statements:
SA means Strongly Agree, A-Agree, D-Disagree and SD-Strongly Disagree

Statements SA A D SD
1. I often have trouble making sense of the things I have to remember. 1 2 3 4
2. When I am reading an article or book, I try to find out for myself exactly
what the author means. 4 3 2 1
3. I organize my study time carefully to make the best use of it. 4 3 2 1
4. There is not much of the work here that I find interesting or relevant. 1 2 3 4
5. I work steadily through the term or semester, rather than leave it all until
the last minute. 4 3 2 1
6. Before tackling a problem or assignment, I first try to work out what lies
behind it. 4 3 2 1
7. I am pretty good at getting down to work whenever I need to. 4 3 2 1
8. Much of what I am studying makes little sense; it is like unrelated bits and
pieces. 1 2 3 4
9. I put a lot of effort into studying because I am determined to do well. 4 3 2 1
10. When I am working on a new topic, I try to see in my mind how all the
ideas fit together. 4 3 2 1
11. I do not find it at all difficult to motivate myself. 4 3 2 1
12. Often, I find myself questioning things I hear in lectures or read in books. 4 3 2 1
13. I think I am quite systematic and organized when it comes to reviewing
for exams. 4 3 2 1
14. Often, I feel am drowning in the sheer amount of material we have to
cope with. 1 2 3 4

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15. Ideas in course books or articles often set me off on long chains of
thought of my own. 4 3 2 1
16. I am not sure what is important in lectures, so I try to get down all I can. 1 2 3 4
17. When I read, I examine the details carefully to see how they fit in what is
being said. 4 3 2 1
18. I often worry about whether I will ever be able to cope with the work
properly. 1 2 3 4
Score/Dominant Approach
Source: Entwistle and Tait, 2013. Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST),
incorporating the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI).

Scoring Procedure: Add your scores for Deep Approach: Items 2, 6, 10, 12, 15, 17
Add your scores for Strategic Approach: Items 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13
Add your scores for Surface Approach: Items 1, 4, 8, 14, 16, 18
The approach which you scored highest is the dominant approach you use in studying and
learning.

C. METACOGNITIVE INSTRUCTION

Principles of Metacognitive Instruction

Developing metacognitive thinking of the students needs the creativity of the teacher.
Using metacognitive strategies facilitates how learners learn. Studies proved that
metacognitive teaching practices enhance the learners’ capabilities to transfer their
competencies in learning new tasks in new contexts (Palinscar& Brown, 1984; Schoenfeld,
1991).
Metacognitive teaching practices make learners aware of their strengths and
weaknesses as they learn. Knowing their strengths give them the confidence to pursue a task.
Knowing their weaknesses lead them to strategize on how to overcome their limited
knowledge and how to source out the needed information for the task.

Veenman, et al. (2012) recommend three fundamental principles to effectively develop

metacognitive thinking among learners:

1. Metacognitive instruction should be embedded in the context of the task to allow

connecting of 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).

2. Learners should be informed about the benefit of applying metacognitive skills to

make them exert the initial extra effort.
3. Instruction and training should be stretched over time, thus allowing for the
formation of production rules and ensuring the smooth and maintained application of
metacognitive skills.

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 Cognizant of these principles, teachers can plan their lessons well to ensure that as
learners undergo classroom activities, they metacognize their learning. Leading learners to
think metacognitively gradually leads them to become self-regulated learners.
Metacognitive Teaching Strategies
Varied metacognitive strategies to teach learners to undergo metacognitive thinking
have been proven effective which include:
Graphic Organizers are visual illustrations displaying the relationships between facts,
information, ideas or concepts. Through the visual displays, you are guided in your thinking as
you fill in the needed information.
One good example is the KWHLAQ chart, a variant of the KWL chart. It is useful during the
planning, monitoring and evaluating phases of metacognition.

What do I What What new

What do I HOW do I What have I
WANT to ACTION will I QUESTIONS
KNOW find out? LEARNED?
know take? do I have?
Focus on one How have I
Ex. Definition Types of Reading Different type of applied this
of learning learning books, types of learning I am type of
researching learning good at learning to my
life situation?

Think aloud helps you to think aloud about your thinking as you undertake a task. You
report your thoughts as you do it. With the help of a more knowledgeable learner, the errors
in thinking and the inadequacy of declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge can be
pointed out giving you increased self-awareness during learning.
Journalizing can be used together with think aloud where you write what is in your
mind when you select an answer and the reasons for your choice in a journal or any notebook.
Later, you can write your realizations, what went wrong and what should have considered in
answering. Finally, you can resolve on what to do the next time a similar problem or situation
arises.
Error analysis is a systematic approach for using feedback metacognitively to improve
your future performance (Hopeman, 2002). Teachers asking you where you are correct or
wrong provides avenues for you to evaluate your thinking. It results in your metacognitve
knowledge of your own mistakes and making use of them to improve your next performance.
Wrapper is an activity that fosters your metacognition before, during and after a class.
For example in a reading class, before the selection is read, the teacher asks about the theme
of the selection based on the story title. While reading the selection, you are asked if your
assumptions are true. After reading, you asked what made you comprehend or not
comprehend the story.
Peer mentoring is a proven metacognitive strategy as many students learn best when
studying with peers who are more informed and skilled. By observing the more skilled peers,

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novice learners can learn from the metacognitive strategies of their peer mentors. The use of
cooperative learning is helpful toward this goal.

Teaching metacognitive strategies to learners is a must if teachers want them to be self-

regulated learners. Several studies have shown the benefits of metacognitive instruction. Goh
(2008) cites her study (Liu & Goh, 2006) that proved metacognitive knowledge can be
increased through classroom instruction.
Goh and Hu (2013) demonstrated a casual relationship between metacognitive
instruction and a statistically significant improvement in listening performance. In another
study, students’ use of metacognitive skills in problem-solving, with five main processes that
encompass an emerging substantive theory namely: understanding the problem through
sense-making; organizing and constructing useful information from the problem; planning
solution strategies by identifying, conjecturing and selecting strategies; executing the plan;
checking the process and strategies undertaken, and reflecting and extending the problem, has
facilitated the development of Filipino students’ problem-solving heuristics (Tan & Limjap,
2018).

Differences between Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

One of the many challenges that we face is the restructuring of the classroom in such a
way that it may allow students to initiate learning, transfer learning, and activate prior
knowledge. A major set of decisions that teachers will make during their entire teaching career
concerns instructional control. There are various variables in the classroom that we need to
consider. One of which is the development of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Those
who wish to be effective implementers of effective learning need to be reflective teachers who
are characterized by:
- Caring attitude toward the learners and learning
- Understanding the social context of schooling
- Practicing problem-solving strategies
- Evaluating student progress
- Encouraging students to ask questions
- Using questioning hierarchy
- Using sequencing strategies that develop complexity and abstraction
- Providing authentic learning
- Reflecting on teachers’ best practices by developing teaching portfolios, teaching
toolbox, or case stories from the field
- Contextualizing learning
- Constructing meaning and relevance
- Providing independent learning]
- Providing a wide range of learning strategies
- Fostering cognitive and metacognitive strategies
- Celebrating learning

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 Cognitive and metacognitive strategies are related to each other because both contain
the element of cognition; both use the process of thinking and thought processes. Cognitive
learning strategies are characterized by intentionality, effort, situation specificity, and goal-
direction. In some instances, metacognitive strategies appear to share these common
characteristics. However, metacognition involves more sophisticated forms of thinking and
problem solving. Additionally, metacognitive strategies are used for more generic skills instead
of specific situations. Metacognitive strategies enhance the thinking skills and capabilities of
adults for self-regulation which implies relatively more complex and complicated forms of
learning. Moreover, cognitive strategies are specific ways through which teachers help
students achieve a particular goal (e.g. analyzing metaphors in a poem), while metacognitive
strategies are ways through which teachers make the learning goal to be achieved (quizzing
oneself to evaluate one’s understanding of metaphors in a poem). Metacognitive experiences
usually follow a cognitive activity. That is, when students have learned metaphors, they must
be able to use them in meaningful sentences or in analyzing other poems.

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