Metacognition

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Thinking about thinking. Like an orchestra conductor. You're not playing the instrument, you're directing the players.

Cognition vs. Metacognition: Using a strategy is cognition, choosing which strategy is best is metacognition. Driving a car is cognition, looking at a map and saying "am I on the right road?" is metacognition.

Two components:

Knowledge:

• Person:How do I learn? ("My brain works best in the morning")
• Task: What does this task require? ("This is not rote memorization, it's comprehension")
• Strategy: Which strategy, and when? (This is the hardest part. Most people know the strategy, but they don't know when to use it.)

Regulation:

• Planning: What will I learn, by what method, and in what timeframe?
• Monitoring: How am I doing, do I understand?
• Evaluation: If I get there, what would I do differently?

Names: Flavell coined the term (1979) + the information component. Brown provided the stages of organization (1987).

Why it's important: It breaks the "illusion of knowing" trap. Looking at notes gives you the feeling of "I know," but it doesn't appear on the exam. Correct monitoring = reduced wasted study time.

The teacher's main tool: Think-aloud. When solving a problem, you say your thoughts aloud, making the thought process visible. Then you slowly withdraw the support (scaffolding fade).

The exam quartet: the distinction between cognition and metacognition, the two components, the Flavell-Brown division of labor, think-aloud.