EMBEDDING METACOGNITION AND REFLECTION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Linley Cornish, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Overview
Background information about me
WHY I embed metacognition and reflection in teaching and learning — my philosophy of learning
and teaching
Background information (about some concepts)
HOW I embed metacognition and reflection in teaching and learning
Background information about me
1.
Why am I in Denmark? I am working with Mads Hermansen, author of Relearning, on a book
about reflective practice. The book will have both a theoretical and a practical focus — what is
reflective practice and how do you do it?
2.
I work with pre-service teachers, aged 19 to 70. Some are undergraduate, some have a degree
already. Some come straight from school, some did their degree straight after school and are
now studying for their teaching qualification, and some have had other careers already.
3.
The great majority are online (distance education) students. They have studied humanities,
mathematics, science, economics, law, accounting, etc but not Education. Some will teach
Kindergarten or pre-school, some will teach primary school, and some will teach high school
(subject specialists).
4.
I teach up to 1000 students every year, with some assistance. I mark assignments for about 200
students and do most of the correspondence for all the students but have help with on-campus
classes and some of the online communication.
5.
My university has trimesters – 11 or 12 weeks of classes. Students start having 'pracs' (teaching
blocks in schools) early in their qualification. We do not have university classes when they are
on prac, and they are on prac for 15 days or 20 days. So I only teach them for 7 or 8 weeks.
6.
I teach about learning theory but keep it very simple for these students because they have such
varied backgrounds, they have never studied Education before, and there is very little time.
Therefore I make my teaching very practical. I concentrate on Constructivist learning theory
and how to implement it in a classroom.
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WHY I embed metacognition and reflection in teaching and learning — my philosophy of
learning and teaching
7.
Constructivist learning theory, very simply, means students have to process information in
some way and come to their own understanding, rather than learning the teacher's
understanding or the textbook's understanding. Words used to describe constructivist learning
include 'personal meaning making'. Constructivist learning is the opposite of rote learning.
8.
'Didactic' in Australia describes a teacher-centred approach – a transmission model – where the
teacher tells the students what to learn and they learn it. Tests and exams often just ask the
student to repeat the teacher's or textbook's words.
9.
Constructivism can include some didactic 'transmission' teaching but students must then
elaborate on the information in some way, using active learning and higher-order thinking.
Following Popper's notion of 3 'worlds', Bereiter describes 3 levels of achievement. The first
level involves shallow learning and lower-order thinking such as remembering, rote learning
(external knowledge) — the surface knowledge of a discipline. The second level involves
elaborating this surface knowledge in some way — applying, analysing, evaluating, creating —
leading to deep learning. The third level is constructed understanding where the learner makes
personal meaning and achieves personal understanding (internal knowing). Constructed
understanding only develops after engagement in both the previous worlds.
10. The biggest influence on student learning is what the learner already knows. Everyone's
constructed understanding will be different, perhaps only in small ways but still different,
because of what they already know — their different backgrounds and experiences.
11. So my goal is to introduce my students to a lot of information about learning and teaching
(first-world learning), and extend their understanding by designing learning activities and
assessment tasks that require higher-order thinking (second-world learning) related to their
teaching area (what they already know) so they achieve deep, personal understanding (thirdworld learning).
12. Learning to teach:
(a) Apprentice model  learn from your teacher on prac, copy what your teacher does. (Firstworld learning)
(b) Learn from theory  read a lot of books, implement the theories/ideas. (Second-world
learning)
(c) Develop your own approach by analysing, evaluating, modifying your prac teacher's
approach and theoretical ideas to be personally relevant and meaningful. This third-approach
involves both experience and being a 'reflective practitioner'. (Third world learning)
13. Therefore incorporating reflective and metacognitive thinking in learning activities and
assessment tasks is one way to help students become reflective practitioners and develop
constructed understanding.
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Background information (about some concepts)
Metacognition
Cognition = thinking
Meta = above or beyond
Metacognition = an 'extra' dimension above or beyond the actual thinking/cognition involved in
learning and problem solving.
Metacognition has two aspects:
Knowledge of cognition: Backward-looking — 'thinking about your thinking', focusing on your
thinking
Regulation of cognition: Forward-looking — planning and monitoring your learning
Therefore metacognition includes an 'action' component – What do I need to do next? What steps
do I need to take? How can I solve this problem?
Reflection
To 'reflect' is, in simple terms, to 'think about'.
Reflection, like metacognition, involves backward-looking as well as forward-looking thinking.
Reflecting on something that has happened, e.g., your teaching of a particular lesson, means
evaluating what you did in terms of whether it achieved your aims, etc. But to be genuine reflection,
it must also include forward-thinking:
What is the problem that has started me reflecting? (backward-looking)
What could I have done to avoid that problem? (backward-looking)
What do I need to do tomorrow or next time I teach that lesson in order to avoid the problem
happening again? (forward-looking)
And:
Which students did not learn what I wanted them to learn? (backward-looking)
How can I modify the lesson for these students? (forward-looking)
Reflective practice
Two components: reflection, and practice
Therefore a reflective practitioner reflects and plans, but also implements some action ('practice')
and then reflects again.
The process is iterative, or cyclical.
Reflection is therefore shaped by experience.
Question for me is: How can I encourage my students to become reflective practitioners when,
during the time that I teach them, they are students, not teachers. In other words, how can I
incorporate the 'practice' into 'reflective practice'?
Dewey (1933, Democracy and Education, pp. 104-5): 'the idea after it is formed is tested by acting
upon it, overtly if possible, otherwise in imagination'.
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HOW I embed metacognition and reflection in teaching and learning
 through structured activities and assessment tasks (for the 'practice') and scaffolds (for the
'reflection')
Examples:
1. Six Thinking Hats  Blue hat is for planning, monitoring, organising etc, i.e.,
metacognition and reflection. Other Hats are for 'practice' (e.g., planning lessons).
2. Bloom's Taxonomy  Evaluating involves reflection and metacognition. Knowledge in the
Revised Taxonomy is a separate dimension underlying the 6 types of thinking. Four types of
knowledge are identified, including metacognitive knowledge.
3. Multiple Intelligences  emphasis on student learning and engagement
4. Brookfield's 4 critical lenses: autobiography, theoretical literature, colleagues' experiences,
students' eyes
5. Peer assessment activities and assessment tasks, e.g., self and peer analysis of a lesson
recorded on prac, then reflection (and planning changes to the lesson) based on this
feedback.
6. 'Before and after' question and answer (longitudinal, i.e., responses to a question are written
before learning, based on prior knowledge, and then again after learning. The addition of a
'now what?' question incorporates the 'practice' part of reflective practice.
7. Graphic organisers (e.g., KWL/KWIRL chart, Ranking Ladder, Venn diagram)
8. Professional Teaching Standards (e.g., 1.5: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of
strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across
the full range of abilities)
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