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]
- Metacognitive knowledge (also called metacognitive awareness) is what individuals know about themselves and others as cognitive processors.
- Metacognitive regulation is the regulation of cognition and learning experiences through a set of activities that help people control their learning.
- 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]
- 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]
- 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]
- 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]
- Planning: refers to the appropriate selection of strategies and the correct allocation of resources that affect task performance.
- Monitoring: refers to one's awareness of comprehension and task performance
- 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.
