Metacognition
--How Students Reflect on Their Learning-Michael E. Martinez
University of California, Irvine
Math/Science Partnerships Workshop
NRC/NSRC
March 8, 2004
Defining Metacognition
• Possible Definitions
– Most simply: Thinking about thinking
– More exactly: The monitoring and control of
thought
• Areas of Application
– Metamemory and comprehension
– Problem solving
– Critical thinking
Metamemory and Comprehension
• Both Concern Awareness of One’s Own
Knowledge State
• Metamemory: How Accurately a Learner
Can Appraise His or Her Own Knowledge
State
• Comprehension: How Accurately a Learner
Can Appraise His or Her Understanding of
Any Message, Written or Spoken
Problem Solving
• A Major Category of Human Cognition
• What is Problem Solving?
– The pursuit of a goal when the path to that goal
is uncertain
• Closely Linked to Scientific Thinking
• Problem Solving Involves Metacognition at
Each Step.
– What am I trying to accomplish?
– What are the most promising pathways?
– Is my strategy working?
Critical Thinking
• Yet Another Major Category of Cognition
• What is Critical Thinking?
– The evaluation of ideas for their quality,
especially in judging whether they make sense
• Critical Thinking Involves Metacognition at
Each Step.
– Is the idea clear?
– Does one idea follow from another?
– Are the ideas backed by evidence?
Is Metacognition Content-Specific?
• Content-Specific Metacognition
– What phenomena am I trying to predict or
explain?
– How can possible explanations be compared
and tested?
• Content-General Metacognition
– Is my strategy working?
– Does this seem true to me?
Conscious or Automatic?
• Initial definitions of metacognition
presented it as a conscious process
• Higher-level thought is known to rely on the
automation of lower-level skills
– Reason: Limited capacity of working memory
– Higher-order thinking and automated skills are
complementary
• Could metacogntion have some component
of automaticity?
Related Ideas
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Wisdom (Socrates)
Mindfulness (Ellen Langer)
Thinking Dispositions (David Perkins)
Habits of Mind (Mortimer Adler)
Evaluation (Benjamin Bloom)
Reflective Thinking (John Dewey)
Vygotskian Connections
• The Social Origins of Higher-Order
Cognition
– Higher-order thought processes begin as social
discourse
– Social discourse is internalized for the
individual, as internal speech
• Vygotsky’s Theory is Perhaps the Best
Rationale for Group Processes in Learning.
The Social Milieu
• Apprenticeship
– Crafts, skilled trades, the arts
– Professional training (e.g., medicine)
• Science Lab Groups
• Graduate Study
• Could Vygotsky’s Theory Be Used More
Deliberately?
How to Enhance Metacognition
• Credible Presence in the Curriculum
– Explicit goals
– Instruction
– Assessment
• Modeling by Teacher/Professor
• Social Interaction Among Learners
– Potentially very effective
– Difficult to sustain quality
Emotional and Self-Regulatory
Aspects
• Metacognition is Not Only Cognitive
• Non-Cognitive Aspects
– Affective (emotion)
– Conative (motivation/volition)
– Self-referent beliefs (self-efficacy)
Metacognition and Education
• Part and parcel of what it means to be
scientifically literate
• Crucial to advanced study in science,
mathematics, engineering, and technology
• Part of what it means to be an educated
person
• Crucial tools for personal effectiveness in a
world that is rich in both information and
uncertainty