Metacognition in education

Everything has gone flashy in this age of social media. Our fidget of scrolling up and down the digital screen does not let any idea to implant and germinate in our mind fruitfully. Moments of solitude have gone extinct. As the poet W.H. Davies says in his poem Leisure: “What is this life if full of care/ We have no time to stand and stare?”

Consequently it is high time man spared moments to watch the progression of his thoughts. To think critically about our own thinking is called metacognition. It is a way to monitor and judge our own thinking process. It is a mechanism to assess objectively the correctness of our angle of vision regarding any visceral or cerebral aspect of our existence.

Researchers have studied metacognition typically in relation with education system. Both learners and educators go through the same grind without ever measuring out metacognitively their academic mileage. Learners do not enjoy moments to recall their learning and give feedback to themselves on it. It is an interior monologue wherein one meets oneself.

Metacognition being a cognitive exercise helps learners raise questions first in their mind. It then stirs them out of stupor to pursue those questions. Education psychologists aver that metacognition is the silver bullet for growth inertia engendered in learners when bits of information pass before their eyes on digital screen in milliseconds without any lag time. It makes them flexible and adaptive that they can transfer their learning to practice.

In Islam one who before going to bed forgives his tormentors, regrets of his own misdeeds with others and begs forgiveness for his own transgressions against Allah’s dictates is deemed better than those who busy themselves in supererogatory prayers. It all stipulates taking metacognitive stock of one’s daily business of life and clearing accounts to move ahead. Elizabeth Sewell in her poem New Year Resolutions also points towards the purgatory and formative role of metacognitive moments:

“I will drain

Long draughts of quiet

As a purgation;

Remember

Twice daily

Who I am;

Will lie o’nights

In the bony arms

Of reality and be comforted.”

Learners through metacognition can gauge what they have learnt and for what purpose. A study reveals that a group of students were asked whether they had assessed themselves what they had learnt at the end of their academic level. Definitive ‘no’ was the answer. Students are carried away along the dull and drab pathway of receiving lectures and taking tests. Even educators display utter indifference to the qualitative learning outcomes. Absence of metacognition is connected with the Dunning-Kruger Effect i.e. people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence, lacking insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills.

To nurture metacognition, various practices and strategies can be employed. The spirit of questioning will have to be revived and promoted. By scrutinising our thoughts we ascertain what we have achieved and how we can cover up the remaining. It will also engender in us mindfulness, a prerequisite for a laser-focused attempt to achieve our goals. Socrates crystallises the essence of teaching: “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”

In Promoting Student Metacognition, Tanner enlists numerous activities to develop metacognition in students. One is Pre-assessment that means students should ask themselves what they already know about the particular topic that could guide their learning. Second is Retrospective Post-assessments where learners would recognise what conceptual metamorphosis they have undergone at the end of a course or a lecture. Likewise educators would also notice what metanoic transformation their pedagogy has brought about in students.

Albert Camus declares: “An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2023.

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