Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning: EEF's guidance

Introduction

High learning gain is possible using metacognitive strategies - especially for disadvantaged learners - but “How to apply them effectively in the classroom?” is still a not-well-answered question. What is clear that teaching them in parallel with teaching subject content rather than as thinking skills is more effective.

Of course meta cognition is right up there with generalisation and problem solving - hard for lower attaining learners to do - especially for learners with smaller working memories.

Evidence suggests the use of ‘metacognitive strategies’ – which get pupils to think about their own learning – can be worth the the equivalent of an additional +7 months’ progress when used well. However, while the potential impact of these approaches is very high, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, less is known about how to apply them effectively in the classroom.

This guidance report reviews the best available research to offer teachers and senior leaders practical advice on how to develop their pupils’ metacognitive skills and knowledge. The report has recommendations in seven areas and ‘myth busts’ common misconceptions teachers have about metacognition.

For example, some teachers think they need to teach metacognitive approaches in ‘learning to learn’ or ‘thinking skills’ sessions. But the report warns that metacognitive strategies should be taught in conjunction with specific subject content as pupils find it hard to transfer these generic tips to specific tasks.

R1: Teachers should acquire the professional understanding and skills to develop their pupils’ metacognitive knowledge

Learners become more motivated with success - and getting over 80 percent of questions correct in every maths lessons - as timely practice learners do, is very motivating. Learning how to answer questions that needed more than one feedback-dialogue helps learners to believe they can overcome learning challenges and feedback-dialogue helps learners build skills and vocabulary to think about their learning.

Self-regulated learners are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and can motivate themselves to engage in, and improve their learning.

Developing pupils’ metacognitive knowledge of how they learn — their knowledge of themselves as a learner, of strategies, and of tasks — is an effective way of improving pupil outcomes.

Teachers should support pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning.

R2: Explicitly teach pupils metacognitive strategies, including how to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning

Using “think aloud” to explain how to answer questions and solve problems is important. Equally important is ensuring that learners have mastered the prerequisite skills required. Timely practice helps teachers see what learners in their class already know, using a ladder of layers in the progress on topic, meaning “think aloud” skills are more likely to stick.

Explicit instruction in cognitive and metacognitive strategies can improve pupils’ learning. A series of steps — beginning with activating prior knowledge and leading to independent practice before ending in structured reflection — can be applied to different subjects, ages and contents.

While concepts like ‘plan, monitor, evaluate’ can be introduced generically, the strategies are mostly applied in relation to specific content and tasks, and are therefore best taught this way.

A series of steps — beginning with activating prior knowledge and leading to independent practice before ending in structured reflection — can be applied to different subjects, ages and contents.

R3: Teachers should support pupils to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.

Every lesson learners must, when answering their timely practice questions, search in their long term memory for the skills they have to help them answer each question. They cannot rely on “just copying what the teacher did today” this helps them build good triggers for their chunks in long term memory as they build, refine and strengthen their chunks.

Teachers have reported to us examples where learners who started using timely practice at the end of year 9 with attainment below the 20th percentile, who by the time of their GCSE mock exams in year 11 were able to combining Pythagoras and other skills to score almost full marks. Not even we at timely practice, who have faith in timely practice to raise attainment would have dreamed this was possible.

Over the two year course some learners developed the ability to problem solve and generalise, but not all did. Learners in a timely practice class are “not counted out” by their attainment from building their problem solving skills, but neither should they be expected to develop these to be able to achieve in mathematics.

Modelling by the teacher is a cornerstone of effective teaching; revealing the thought processes of an expert learner helps to develop pupils’ metacognitive skills.

Teachers should verbalise their metacognitive thinking (‘What do I know about problems like this? What ways of solving them have I used before?’) as they approach and work through a task.

Scaffolded tasks, like worked examples, allow pupils to develop their metacognitive and cognitive skills without placing too many demands on their mental resources.

R4: Set an appropriate level of challenge to develop pupils’ self-regulation and metacognition

Challenge very much needs to be at the right level, timely practice encourages a spiral of gentle, but relentlessly rising expectations. Timely practice increases both motivation and attainment.

R5: Promote and develop metacognitive talk in the classroom

Encouraging learners to help and seek help first from their peers, for feedback after errors in their timely practice, is part of our guidance for learners.

However as explained in R7 care needs to be taken, low attaining learners often are only able to generalise and therefore explain their processes after mastery - possibly because there is no spare working memory capacity until then. So gently does it.

R6: Explicitly teach pupils how to organise and effectively manage their learning independently

With timely practice it is easy for teachers to provide carefully targeted deliberate practice in these 3 ways:

teaching and guided practice - using our teach-learn resources
personal practice - using our practise-learn resources
retrieval practice - using timely practice assignments

The teach-learn and practise-learn activities of the lesson, where new learning is taught is not the end of the story. It's the next lesson and all the subsequent lessons where learners begin and revisit independent practice on that bite of learning, within their timely practice assignment, where the difference is made.

We strongly believe that teaching has not become learning (by which we mean learning that has stuck i.e. embedded learning) unless the learner can independently answer questions on that learning a few months after teaching.

We don’t think practice can be counted as independent, if it only occurs within the lesson where the new learning occurs. Practice questions which merely require the learner to apply the skill/procedure(s) taught within the lesson shouldn’t count as independent practice. If all/almost all of each lesson is only used to teach learners new skills and practise only those skills, we are not giving learners enough independent practice. Lessons where the only skills practised are the skills taught are like teaching a child to ride a bike with stabilisers.

We believe that independent practice requires the learner to independently recognise what skills or procedures are required to answer a question and the measure of success is that the learner can independently and accurately apply the skills/procedures to answer similar questions. To enable learners to do independent+deliberate+retrieval practice, that is answer the questions in their timely practice assignment, learners will some times need help and feedback. The way we organise retrieval practice means there is enough time in the lesson for the teacher to give feedback and feedback is usually effective.

R7: Schools should support teachers to develop knowledge of these approaches and expect them to be applied appropriately

This is a school wide responsibility, but teachers using timely practice will more quickly develop skills than with traditional maths teaching. Teachers using timely practice quickly develop effective feedback skills (because teachers get 10 to 15 minutes of deliberate practice - giving feedback - every timely practice lesson). Feedback-dialogue requires teachers to help learners change their thinking - which requires learners to think about their thinking - that’s meta cognition.

Advice with respect to chunk based theory, says

teach from the simple to the complex … and … [initially] don’t encourage students to carry out their own analysis of well-known problem situations, as they do not possess the key concepts yet.
From Chunking Mechanisms and Learning Gobet, F. & Lane, P. (2012),

In our opinion learners with smaller working memories will not have capacity to think about their learning at the same time as apply their learning until they have built larger chunks in long term memory. Most topics in timely practice only expect learners to answer questions on what they have already learned - not genuine problem solving. As learners make progress they will begin to encounter more genuine problem solving.