Metacognition

SE - Current Issues in Technology Enhanced Learning 24.05.2005

Monika Pilgerstorfer

Metacognition Thinking about thinking

(Blakely, 1990; Livingston, 1997)

Flavell (1977) Child cognition Developmental changes in

Metamemory Metacomprehension Metacommunication

Metacognition Knowledge and active control over

one’s own cognitive processes when engaged in learning metacognitive knowledge metacognitive regulation

Metacognitive Knowledge Knowledge about human learning and

information processing Knowledge about the learning task at

hand and its corresponding processing demands

Knowledge about cognitive and metacognitive strategies and their appropriate use

Metacognitive Regulation processes that can be applied in order to

control cognitive activities and achieve cognitive goals

planning and monitoring cognitive activities and further revision depending on the result of these activities

Elements of Metacognition Metamemory

Knowledge about memory systems and memory strategies

Metacomprehension Learner‘s awareness about what he/she

knows / does not know

Elements of Metacognition Self-regulation

Learner‘s adjustment to errors Covers social interaction

Schema Training Helps learner‘s to develop their own

cognitive structures from understanding information and experiences

Metacognition Student’s perception of themselves has an

impact of their performance, achievements and self-management of their own learning.

Metacognition influences the student’s orientation to learning tasks and problem solving.

Performing the task or solving the problem influences their belief in their personal and academic abilities, therefore metacognition allows students to believe in themselves.

Metacognitive Strategies Blakely & Spence (1990)

Connecting new information to former knowledge

Selecting thinking strategies deliberately Planning, monitoring and evaluating

thinking processes

Utilising these strategies a learner can identify a problem, research alternative solutions, evaluate and decide on a final solution.

Metacognitive Strategies Macpherson (2002)

Metacognitive explanation Scaffolded instruction Cognitive choaching Head-to-hands Co-operative learning

Metacognitive Explanation Involves the teacher

Talking through the problem, start to ask the student for suggestions

Thinking aloud Observing the process of solving a

problem

Scaffolded Instruction Exploring problems with little help from

the teacher Teachers role is to support Teacher should intervene if the student

is experiencing difficulties What do you think would happen if? How can you check to see if you are correct or

not?

Cognitive Choaching Teacher prompts student from solution Students are encouraged to explain

what he/she did to the other students On-going assessment of student‘s

performance Students are challenged to achieve

new goals with different levels of difficulty

Co-operative Learning Utilises the social aspect of learning Breaking the class into pairs or small

groups

Head-to-Hands Carry out a practical application Manipulate and test learning Helps students maintain motivation

towards their learning

Metacognition in E-Learning Sucess of learning environments turns

on the dynamic relation between learner and environment How well students interact with their

environment How well they read documents How well they explore concepts, facts,

illustrations How well they monitor progress How well they accept help

Metacognition in E-Learning Metacognition is associated with the

activities and skills related to planning, monitoring, evaluating and repairing performance.

External ressources for help Visual design can improve

metacognition

Metacognition in E-Learning (Kirsh, 2004)

Metacognition is a type of situated cognition. it works by controlling the interaction of person

and world it is a component in the dynamic coupling of

student and environment controlled by biasing what one looks at controlled by what one does in a motor sense sophisticated, concerned with managing

schedules, checklists, notes and annotations Metacognition is interactive!

Metacognition in E-Learning (Kirsh, 2004)

The rhetoric of metacognition is about internal regulation but the practice of designers focuses on external resources. Metacognition recruits internal processes but

relies at skills that are oriented to controlling outside mechanisms!

Good visual designs are cognitively efficient. The cognitive effort involved in metacognitive activity

is not different in princible than the cognitive effort involved in first order cognition.

The way visual cues are distributed effects the cognitive effort required to notice what is important.

Metacognition in E-Learning (Kirsh, 2004)

Good visual design supports helpful workflow. Learners need to plan, monitor and

evluate their progress In well set up environments students will

develop expectations of the kind of information to be had when engaged in a task, such as solving a problem.

Good visual design is about designing cue structure.

A Distributed View of Metacognition

Managing ressources Processes involved in internal cognitive

functioning Objects and processes in one‘s immediate

environment

A Distributed View of Metacognition – 5 tenets

1. The complexity of deciding what to do next is made considerably less complex than the general problem of rational choice.

2. Humans lean on environmental structure for cognitive support.

A Distributed View of Metacognition – 5 tenets

3. We are closely coupled causally with our environments that cognition is effectively distributed over mind and environment.

4. Our close causal coupling holds true at different temporal levels.

5. Learners are coordinators locked in a system.

A Distributed View of Metacognition For students operating in well designed

environments the activity of maintaining coordination, of monitoring, repairing, and deciding what to do next may not be a fully concious process, and certainly need not require attention to one‘s current internal thinking process.

A Distributed View of Metacognition Cognition is distributed between agent

and environment When there is conscious awareness of

mental activity, the aspect of cognition being attended to may be the externalisation of that thought.

Cognitively Effective Design Principles of good pedagogy

Providing cues, prompts, hints, indicators and reminders

The manner of displaying them has an effect on how and when students notice them.

Cognitively Effective Design

Cognitively Effective Design The effectiveness of a structure or process

measures the probability that subjects will comprehend, perceive, extract the meaning, or use the structure correctly.

a) use the interface, hence not reject it outright as being too complex to be useful

b) use the display to obtain the result the users want because the display makes it easier to understand the options and their relations better

Personal Learning Management (Foroughi , 2005)

The organizer Information on self progress Search tool for suitable content and

assessment modules Emulating presence through a talking

avatar

„Blooming E-Learning“ Adapting Bloom‘s Taxonomy into the

content of e-learning course to promote life long learning through Metacognition.

University of Dublin Trinity College

„Blooming E-Learning“ E-learning course developed as a web

site Introduction to HTML Skills and knowledge to produce a web

site Recognise current metacognitive skills

and enhance them Bloom‘s taxonomy Metacognitive instructional approaches

„Blooming E-Learning“ Bloom‘s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956)

Can be used as a means by which teachers and students can be introduced to metacognition.

„Blooming E-Learning“ E-Learning course

6 chapter Each chapter incorporates one of Blooms

educational objectives Each chapter incorporates one of the

metacognitive instructional approaches by Macpherson (2002) Metacognitive explanation Scaffolded instruction Cognitive choaching Head to Hands Co-operative learning

„Blooming E-Learning“ Chapter 1 - Introduction

Content displayed as web pages Bloom: knowledge Exercise: recall

Chapter 2 - Text Learners can enter text, format it into

headings, paragraphs, lists, etc. Bloom: comprehension Exercise: Hot Potatoes

„Blooming E-Learning“ Chapter 3 - Links

Add links to page Bloom: application Exercise: create web page Metacognitive explanation

Chapter 4 – Images Insert images Bloom: analysis Exercise: view an existing web page and pick out

the elements and tags that make it up Co-operative learning

„Blooming E-Learning“ Chapter 5 – Tables

Bloom: synthesis Exercise: Link two web pages Heads-to-Hand

Chapter 6 – Forms and Design Bloom: evaluation Exercise: create a form and add some

elements Scaffold instruction

„Blooming E-Learning“ Evaluation

Metacognitive knowledge monitoring assessment (Tobias & Everson, 1996) Predication for success with actual successful

performance Predication for failure with actual unsuccessful

performance Predication for failure with actual successful

performance Predication for success with actual

unsuccessful performance

„Blooming E-Learning“ Lack of measures for general

megacognition Reduced the overall assessment to the

metacognitive strategies

„Blooming E-Learning“ Course incorporated metacognitive

skills Content received good feedback Benefit, helped learn HTML

Resources http://interactivity.ucsd.edu/articles/Metacognition/Elearn

ing10.pdf https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/mscitedu/mite_wrk/resourc

es/portfolios/2001/doyle_e/Final.rtf http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2005/papers/1321.pdf http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/oct2003/dobrovolny.

htm Schwartz, N.H., Andersen, C., Hong, N., Howard, B.,

McGee, S. (2004). The influence of metacognitive skills on learners’ memory of information in a hypermedia environment. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 31, 77–93.

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