We’ve all met students who devote hours to studying and working on assignments and yet still perform poorly. In most cases, the culprit isn’t the students’ lack of effort, but ineffective effort.
Instructors can help students study and learn more effectively by helping them learn how to learn. Researchers refer to this process as metacognitive skills development.
Metacognitive skills help learners become aware of, reflect on, and direct their own thinking and learning. This self-awareness helps students become ‘self-directed’ learners, capable of choosing effective learning strategies – a skill that will benefit them throughout their lives.
Activities for teaching metacognitive skills
Metacognitive skills need to be intentionally developed. The example activities below are designed to help students cultivate their metacognitive skills, regardless of the course topic. How might you modify these activities for your course?
This activity helps students develop the metacognitive skill of assessing the demands of the task.
After sharing the instructions for an assignment with students, ask them to answer any or all of the following questions:
- What am I expected to do in this assignment?
- What resources or materials will I need?
- How much time is this assignment going to take me to complete?
- Where do I think I might struggle in this assignment? Are there skills and knowledge that I don’t have? Where can I go or what can I do to build those skills and acquire that knowledge?
- How can I track my progress and stay on schedule?
This activity helps students develop the metacognitive skill of determining the extent of their existing knowledge and skills so that they can work strategically to fill gaps.
Prior to introducing a new concept, ask students to complete a practice quiz with questions focused on key concepts associated with the project or exam. Consider including some questions specifically designed to surface misconceptions common to the topic of your course or field (e.g., “Until the 20th century, American women did not work outside the home.” “The sun revolves around Earth.”).
This activity helps students develop the metacognitive skill of identifying their progress and where growth areas remain.
Assign a short 1-3 question “exit ticket” at the end of each class. Exit ticket questions might include the following:
- What was the most important thing you learned today?
- What is something from class that you’re still confused about?
- What questions do you still have after today’s class?
Skim through the tickets to get a sense of where students are still struggling. Then, you can model a metacognitive practice for students by addressing shared gaps in their understanding in the next class (and calling attention to why you are doing so).
This activity helps students develop the metacognitive skill of using reflection to identify where they might need to adjust their approach to completing a task.
Create a short 1-2 question reflection for students to complete after you’ve graded their work. Consider adapting any of the following questions:
- What strategies did you use to prepare for this exam/assignment and how effective do you think they were?
- How might you adjust your strategies?