Did you know that Metacognition is one of our best bets to accelerate student learning? The ‘high impact, low cost’ nature of it means that it is high on many schools’ agendas. Despite this, however, there is a lot of confusion around it, specifically on how to actually help students develop theirs. Fortunately, a new report from the Education Endowment Foundation offers clear guidance – making it a must-read for all in education.
So, what’s new? The EEF have upgraded the impact they think Metacognition has, stating that on average interventions tend to lead to an additional 8 months of progress. The new EEF Metacognition Guidance Report is also much more user-friendly and includes a wealth of practical strategies for schools and colleges to implement straight away. It’s easier to navigate, with a strong emphasis on practical suggestions.
Let’s take a look at 5 key areas that caught our eye…
1 – How to improve student Metacognition
The previous guidance report included stories showing what it looks like when a student exhibits well-honed metacognitive skills. However, knowing what a good self-regulated learner looks like doesn’t necessarily help us to develop these skills in our students. The updated guidance addresses this by accompanying each recommendation with an example or case study showing what a teacher or school might do to implement the recommendation. For example, to support the recommendation that teachers should explicitly teach pupils how to organise and effectively manage their learning independently, there is an example describing how a science teacher achieved this by providing checklists and modelling specific strategies which could be supported with Retrieval Practice.
2 – Metacognition, modelling and scaffolding
The EEF recommends that teachers should model their own thinking to help students develop their metacognitive and cognitive skills. This is aligned with Rosenshine’s Fourth Principle of Instruction, which states the importance of teachers modelling their own thought processes when presenting new material. Eventually, students need to be able to employ such strategies themselves independently. The new guidance report has more emphasis on using scaffolding to support students’ progress from direct modelling through guided practice to independent practice. Importantly, there is clear acknowledgement that such scaffolds should be temporary and that adults should follow the principle of ‘providing least help first to avoid pupils becoming over-reliant on support’.
3 – Improving student metacognitive talk
The EEF recommends that teachers should promote and develop metacognitive talk in the classroom. This section has been expanded to include a section on self-talk, that is, the internal dialogue which students use to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. This was great to see, as it is something we have thought a lot about here at InnerDrive (see one of our favourite blogs here).
The report shows how this can be first demonstrated by teachers, using techniques such as ‘thinking aloud’. Ultimately, students need to be able to use self-talk independently, and the report suggests using group activities and scaffolding to move students along this self-talk continuum. The updated guidance also includes specific questions that can be used by teachers, peers or students themselves to plan, monitor and evaluate learning.
This renewed focus on metacognitive talk has parallels with research on the effectiveness of oral language interventions. If this is an area of interest, we strongly recommend reading our Oracy for Learning guide.
4 – Metacognition, challenge and motivation
The link between the appropriate level of challenge and student motivation is not straightforward. For example, one study found that although students find easy questions much more fun, completing these easy questions results in less learning. However, it is also the case that students will be demotivated when faced with too high a level of challenge. Recognising this, the guidance report now emphasises the importance of setting the right level of challenge and the role of feedback in motivating pupils to persevere at challenging tasks. They suggest that teachers should give ‘feedback on a range of goals, for example, how well they used metacognitive strategies, rather than just on the task itself.’ This is aligned with research which suggests that feedback on processes is more effective than task feedback.
5 – Metacognition and SEND
The updated guidance includes more explicit references to how strategies designed to develop students’ metacognitive skills can be adapted flexibly depending on the needs of a class, particularly classes with large numbers of students with SEND. For example, when describing the seven-step model for gradually releasing responsibility to students, they explain how some students may need longer on the modelling stage and that a visual scaffold may be helpful for some students during independent practice. In addition, the updated guidance shows how the section on scaffolding, and reducing scaffolding, is supported by resources on the effective deployment of teaching assistants.
Final thoughts
Developing Metacognition and self-regulated learning is likely to be much more effective when implemented as a whole-school strategy. The updated guidance shows how every teacher can do this and what this might look like. Given the complexity and importance of this topic, we think this is a great step forward for the profession.
The guidance also highlights the role of good professional development in enabling educators to promote the use of metacognitive strategies. If this is something you are interested in exploring further in your school or college, do get in touch.
We have in-person workshops for teachers on Metacognition and workshops for students on memory and Metacognition. We have also just released a new module on our Teacher CPD Academy, Developing Independent Learners.
