METACOGNITION

metacognition-Pscychology assignment

METACOGNITION

Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about thinking", or "knowing about knowing" and higher order thinking skills. It comes from the root word 'meta', meaning beyond.^[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.^[1] There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.^[2]

Metacognition is classified into three components:^[10]

1. Metacognitive knowledge (also called metacognitive awareness) is what individuals know about themselves and others as cognitive processors.
2. Metacognitive regulation is the regulation of cognition and learning experiences through a set of activities that help people control their learning.
3. Metacognitive experiences are those experiences that have something to do with the current, on-going cognitive endeavor.

Metacognition refers to a level of thinking that involves active control over the process of thinking that is used in learning situations. Planning the way to approach a learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating the progress towards the completion of a task: these are skills that are metacognitive in their nature.
Metacognition includes at least three different types of metacognitive awareness when considering metacognitive knowledge:^[11]

1. Declarative knowledge: refers to knowledge about oneself as a learner and about what factors can influence one's performance.^[2] Declarative knowledge can also be referred to as "world knowledge".^[12]
2. Procedural knowledge: refers to knowledge about doing things. This type of knowledge is displayed as heuristics and strategies.^[2] A high degree of procedural knowledge can allow individuals to perform tasks more automatically. This is achieved through a large variety of strategies that can be accessed more efficiently.^[13]
3. Conditional knowledge: refers to knowing when and why to use declarative and procedural knowledge.^[14] It allows students to allocate their resources when using strategies. This in turn allows the strategies to become more effective.^[15]

Similar to metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation or "regulation of cognition" contains three skills that are essential.^[2][16]

1. Planning: refers to the appropriate selection of strategies and the correct allocation of resources that affect task performance.
2. Monitoring: refers to one's awareness of comprehension and task performance
3. Evaluating: refers to appraising the final product of a task and the efficiency at which the task was performed. This can include re-evaluating strategies that were used.