METACOGNITION: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES AND STRATEGIES - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The metacognition is awareness about our thinking and on our cognitive strategies. It can be defined as "thinking about our thinking." In addition, it involves the control and supervision of our own cognitive processes when we learn.

This ability can be developed and is associated with intelligence and academic success. That is why it is a topic that is approached and worked mainly from educational psychology.

An example of metacognition is realizing that we have a harder time learning one text than another. We are also practicing metacognition when we change our mental strategy to solve a problem when we see that the previous one did not work for us.

Definition of metacognition

Defining metacognition is not an easy task. Although the term is being used more and more, there is a great debate about its conceptualization.

It appears that this is because different terms are used to describe the same phenomenon. For example, metacognition sometimes appears in the literature as "executive control" or "self-regulation."

In general, it refers to the ability of human beings to reflect on and regulate their own cognitive experiences. This process seems to be within our executive functions, which are those capacities related to the supervision and regulation of cognitive processes.

That is, modulate attention, working memory, plan, inhibit behaviors, control emotions, etc.

The term metacognition is often associated with John Flavell, for his extensive research in this area. This American developmental psychologist was the one who first used the concept in 1979. Flavell explained that metacognition meant the knowledge and control of cognition.

Thus, "metacognition" can be conceptualized as all the processes that direct cognition. How to detect aspects about your own thinking, think about your own thought and respond to it through control and regulation.

That is, it occurs when we plan, regulate, evaluate and make changes in our learning behaviors seeking improvement.

Characteristics of metacognition

Metacognition is made up of three characteristic elements:

Metacognitive knowledge

It is what we know about ourselves and others in terms of how we process information. It includes both the knowledge we have about ourselves as students or thinkers, as well as the factors that influence our performance. This is called "declarative knowledge."

It also encompasses "procedural knowledge." That is, what we know about our strategies and procedures for doing different tasks.

Lastly, it includes “conditional knowledge”, which is about knowing when and why to use declarative and procedural knowledge.

Metacognitive regulation

What does the regulation of our cognitive experiences and learning mean? It is carried out through three skills: planning and proper selection of strategies, monitoring one's own performance, and evaluating the result obtained.

In the latter you can reflect on the efficiency with which the task has been done. It may involve re-evaluation of the strategies used.

The metacognitive experience

It refers to the metacognitive exercise itself that we perform during a cognitive effort.

Examples of metacognition

There are countless examples of metacognition, although a few are mentioned. We can say that we are practicing metacognition when:

- We are aware of our own learning process. That is, we can observe and analyze it from the outside.

- We become aware of the mental processes that we use every moment.

- we reflect on the way we learn.

- We control the use of the most appropriate learning strategies in each case.

- We maintain motivation for a long period of time until the task is finished.

- We are aware of those internal or external things that distract us and we strive to ignore them and meet the objectives.

- Be aware of our strengths and weaknesses in terms of the cognitive plane. For example: "I have trouble remembering dates, although I have a very good memory to remember images and other visual elements."

- Recognize if a certain task is going to be complex to understand.

- Know what strategy to use and if it is appropriate for the activity to be carried out. For example: "if I write down the key concepts in this text, I will memorize them better." Or, "Perhaps I will understand the subject more easily if I first do a quick read of everything."

- We realize that a certain strategy is not being successful and we try to carry out a different one. It may also happen that we realize that there is another better or more comfortable and efficient strategy.

- Before carrying out a certain activity, we plan by asking ourselves what the objective is, what strategies we are going to use, and which of them we have done in the past that can serve us.

- We wonder about the process of the task that we have completed. If we could have used another strategy or if the result has been as expected.

Benefits of metacognition

Metacognition is important in education as it has been shown to be essential for successful learning.

Students who use their metacognitive skills often do better on tests and do assignments more efficiently. These students quickly identify which strategies to use for an assignment and are flexible to substitute or modify them to achieve their goals.

In fact, it has been observed that metacognitive knowledge can compensate for IQ and the absence of prior knowledge.

Furthermore, a study by Rosen, Lim, Carrier & Cheever (2011) found that university students with high metacognitive abilities used the mobile phone less during classes.

Other benefits of metacognition are:

- Helps students to be autonomous and independent learners, monitoring their own progress.

- It is useful in a wide age range. For example, from primary school onwards.

- Metacognitive skills help to expand what has been learned to other contexts and different tasks.

- Teaching metacognition skills in school is not expensive nor does it require changes in infrastructure.

Strategies to develop metacognition

There are multiple ways to develop metacognition and to teach it in school. In general, it is important that we realistically become aware of ourselves and our performance.

It is true that each individual develops their own metacognitive strategies, so that one strategy is not always good for everyone. That is why the exercises, rather than teaching learning strategies, are based on making students aware of their own thoughts and strengths.

The development of metacognitive skills help to learn to apprehend. This means that the ability to recognize our own learning process is developed, thus increasing its effectiveness, performance and control over it.

The objectives are to be able to plan, control and evaluate learning. In addition to knowing how to learn better and becoming aware of what is learned and how it is learned.

Some tasks that can be performed to increase metacognition are:

Try several ways to do the same activity

For example, in school, it is possible to learn a word with different strategies.

These can be: associate that word with another already known, form a phrase with it, relate the new word to the sound of another that is already used, associate the new word with a drawing or photo, or make it rhyme with other words.

Each person will find one strategy more useful than another. Or, you will know how to use each of them according to the context or moment in which you are. That is, first it is important to know what strategies are used to learn something or reach a certain goal. After practicing these strategies, try to identify which one is most useful for you at all times.

Do self-assessment exercises after each topic

For example, try to reflect on your performance in a specific job or activity, being realistic. What could you have improved? What part has been easier for you? Which has been the most complicated?

Break down steps of cognitive tasks

When you do a cognitive task, try to break down into steps what cognitive strategies you have used to reach the goal. For example, when you are going to memorize the content of an exam, try to be aware of what strategies you are using, what things deconcentrate you or what you could try to change to make it better.

Preparation of self-questionnaires

These are intended to represent relationships between different concepts. This is how dependencies, similarities and differences between concepts are manifested, as well as their hierarchical organization.

These serve so that we realize our own learning processes and value the relationships between concepts. Especially among those who apparently have no connection.

Have students ask the questions instead of the teacher

That is, before a work, exhibition or exam, try to think what you would ask if you had to check the existing domain of the subject.

On the other hand, teachers can tell their students to ask questions about a topic that had to be learned or read before. They can also reflect on the questions asked: are they simple or are they far from the learning objective.

References

1. Campanario, M. (2009). The development of metacognition in science learning: strategies for the teacher and student-oriented activities. Eudoxus Digital Collection, (8).
2. Livingston, J. (1997). Metacognition: An Overview. Retrieved from University at Buffalo: gse.buffalo.edu.
3. Metacognition. (sf). Retrieved on April 21, 2017, from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
4. Metacognition: The Gift That Keeps Giving. (October 7, 2014). Obtained from Edutopia: edutopia.org.
5. Rosen, LD, Lim, AF, Carrier, LM, & Cheever, NA (2011). An empirical examination of the educational impact of message-induced task switching in the classroom: Educational implications and strategies to enhance learning. Educational Psychology, 17 (2), 163-177.
6. What is metacognition? (sf). Retrieved on April 21, 2017, from Cambridge International Examinations: cambridge-community.org.uk.