ANCHOR:
EVIDENCE:
METACOGNITION
IN THE MARGIN
AT HEART THIS
HABIT IS ABOUT…
 KNOWING HOW YOU’RE LEARNING, NOT JUST WHAT YOU’RE LEARNING
THIS HABIT IS ALSO
ABOUT…
PLANNING:
 AWARENESS (AND EVALUATION) OF OWN LEARNING PREFERENCES
 AWARENESS AND MODIFICATION OF EMOTIONAL STATE/STRESS
 CONSCIOUS PLANNING OF A TASK (STEPS/RESOURCES/LEARNING BEHAVIOUR/TIME
MANAGEMENT)
MONITORING:
 MONITORING DURING THE LEARNING PROCESS
 ABILITY TO MODIFY THE LEARNING PROCESS TO ENSURE PROGRESS
EVALUATION
 POST TASK REVIEW OF THE LEARNING PROCESS
 CONSCIOUS EXPERIMENTATION WITH OWN THOUGHTS/PROCESSES (GOING BEYOND
CURRENT LEARNING BEHAVIOUR)
STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE
POSITIVE MENTAL REHEARSAL
Either standard ‘visualisation’ technique, such as sportsmen and women use.
However, many children find it difficult to ‘rehearse’ a new process. Therefore it can be more effective to do this
in reverse. How to do it:
– Visualise the goal – create a multi-sensory experience of what you will see, hear and feel when you achieve
the desired outcome
– Work backwards from the last step to the first (“This would happen because I had just done…”
THINK ALOUDS
Students verbalise the process of the learning as they carry out a task. (This doesn’t interfere with the task itself
but does take a bit longer.) Teacher can model, students can then do in pairs or one student can model it for the
class/a group with other students providing support when student gets ‘stuck’.
PROMPT CARDS
Give out question cards to prompt students to plan, monitor or review their learning process. There are sample
prompt cards on the shared drive for you to use/amend.
MOOD GRAPH
Have students keep a mood graph over the activity. Plot mood every 5/10 minutes. To work effectively they
need to be somewhere between overexcited and de-motivated lines. Emphasis on student to take action as
required. After a while they won’t have to do this explicitly.
SNAPSHOTS
At key moments in the task, or when you sense it is necessary, ask students to take a ‘snapshot’ of their
emotional state – this is just a ‘one-hit’ version of the Mood Graph, above.
How to do it:
– Close eyes
– How does your inner voice sound? Cross? Pleased? Calm? Panicked? Loud? Quiet? …etc
– How do you feel emotionally?
Upset? Worried? Nervous? Relaxed? Excited?...etc
– How do you feel physically?
Tired? Energised? Achy? Thirsty? …etc
– Do you need to do anything about this?
Essential for breaking a negative emotional cycle or recognising a positive state.
THINKING MAPS
Not the only method of
visualising thinking
processes but one of the
most effective. The
metacognitive value of
Hyerle’s thinking maps is
twofold – choosing the
appropriate map for the
type of thinking and the
optional use of the frame,
which helps show students
not only what they think
but where that thinking
has come from…this last is
a metacognitive element
which you don’t get with
a venn diagram etc. Maps
can be used singly or
jointly. There is a
powerpoint on the shared
drive if you want to
review construction (or
ask  )
STRATEGIC USE OF COLOUR
Ask students to colour code discrete steps of a process. They can see how they have generated the work and
teacher can see if there is a mismatch between what a student thinks they’ve done and what they have actually
done. Opens a dialogue between student and teacher about the process of learning.
ACCESS TO LEARNING PREFERENCES
Our students will be introduced to VAK and Multiple Intelligences theories. These are not the only models that
can be used and are certainly not definitive. We ALL work best when ALL our senses are stimulated. A
PREFERENCE for a particular style does not indicate that it is the most EFFECTIVE way of working, just that it is
the most MEMORABLE and most INSTINCTIVELY ENGAGING for a particular student. So it is critical that we don’t
use this to ‘label’ students and imply that they can only do things one way. Instead, we should give students
autonomy to choose from a range of different ways of working, where possible, and also provide explicit
opportunities for them to try things in a way that would not be their preference – this will increase their control
over the learning process and increase their conscious awareness of why they are doing things in particular ways.
Learning preferences can be used as part of planning and monitoring and should definitely be evaluated to assess
whether other methods might not come so naturally but actually be more effective in some circumstances.
META MIRROR
– Close eyes
– Playback the recording of the task/event
– First playback as yourself – ‘Feel it’: notice the emotional reactions you had at key points where it was going
well/badly. Ask yourself whether these reactions helped or hindered the learning process.
– Second playback as an observer- ‘Watch it’: If you saw someone else doing these things what would you say
to them? What advice would you give to them? How would this improve the learning process and outcome?
MARKING SYNTAX
Use school marking syntax consistently, so students can see common errors across subject areas. Can develop
department specific additions.
AS ALWAYS:
MODEL THE BEHAVIOUR YOURSELF
USE THE ANCHOR
EXPECT AND RESPOND TO THE EVIDENCE
EXPECT TO SEE THE EVIDENCE IN STUDENT WORK. IF YOU SEE IT, COMMENT ON IT/ACKNOWLEDGE, TO SHOW IT IS
VALUED
VAK preferences
Visual (V):
This preference includes the depiction of information in maps, diagrams, charts, graphs,
flow charts, and symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices. It could have
been called Graphic (G) as that better explains what it covers. It does NOT include
movies, videos or PowerPoint. It does include designs, whitespace, patterns, shapes and
the different formatting of information.
Aural / Auditory (A):
A preference for information that is "heard or spoken." Students with this modality
report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes, group discussion, email, using
mobile phones, speaking, web chat and talking things through. It includes talking out
loud as well as talking to yourself. Often people with this preference want to sort things
out by speaking, rather than sorting things out and then speaking.
Kinesthetic (K):
A preference for experience and practice (simulated or real). “Learning by doing.” It
includes demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of "real" things, as well as case
studies, practice and applications.



About65% of people are visual learners.
About 30% of people are auditory learners.
About 5% of people are kinaesthetic learners.
However, 100% of people are multi-modal to a degree – or we couldn’t function!
A questionnaire for VARK is online at:
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire
This includes a preference for those who prefer to access information displayed as words PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, filofaxes, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations and words,
words, words. So far we don’t have a useful KS3 VARK printable questionnaire which is
why we are using VAK.
Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences
Anyone who wants to take a test yourself there is a paper copy on the shared drive, or you
can do a test online at:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions
/questions.cfm
ADDITIONAL METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY FOR LITERACY:
SQ4R
– Survey - headings, captions, instructions/questions, graphics; try to get a feel for the piece
– Question - ask yourself what you already know about the topic. Also, turn headings into
questions – ‘Habits of good learning’: “how many habits are there? What makes them good?
What happens without them?” etc
– Read – pay attention to any italicised words, look for answers to the questions you raised,
re-read difficult passages, ‘read’ any graphics or images
– Recite – after each section/paragraphs tell yourself what you have read, in your own words.
Repeat any key words or concepts and tell yourself what they mean, in your own words.
– Relate – look for links between what you have read and what you already know; it is easier
to remember new information if it is ‘pegged’ to existing knowledge/understanding
– Review – check you have understood everything and review the page to ensure you haven’t
missed anything out