Autumn Carter

Professor Brewer
ECE 250
April 12, 2016
Metacognition
As the book Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum puts it, the
easiest way to define metacognition is thinking about thinking. There is
not a better way to put it. Metacognition is seen in every classroom
environment. Whether that be in preschool or is high school, children and
students are always thinking about their own thought processes.1 There
are different methods and procedures that can be used to improve
students critical thinking processes. Methods and procedure like questions
help. If a teacher or a peer asks the student to answer a question, then the
students main focus is to think about how they will answer the question
and what the question entails. Another way is that children consciously
plan tasks by articulating their thinking process aloud or in writing, this
helps for them to better understand what they are planning so they can
make sure that their thinking process is happening correctly.

Children and

students of all ages will be tested at some point or another when it comes
to critical thinking.
Metacognition breaks down into three areas, John Flavell, a researcher of

1 Marjori Kostelnik, (2007), Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum,

Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 256.
2 Marjori Kostelnik, Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum, 312-313

metacognition, believe kids need awareness in three separate stages.

These three separate stages are an awareness of knowledge, and
awareness of thinking, and an awareness of thinking strategies. Each of
these stages means that children have separate ways of understanding.
The first is understating what they know and examples of this is through
questioning, reading and reviewing. The second understands cognitive
tasks; the students can do this through selecting strategies for a certain
cognitive task. Lastly, this understanding is an approach to directing
learning. This happens through self-assessing and self-questioning.3
All classrooms have thinking in it one way or another. There isnt a
classroom today that can be walked by where children and students arent
thinking about thinking. Even if it looks like the children and students are
doing fun activities, they are thinking in some type of way. Elida Laski
believes that those with better metacognition have a better chance of
higher academic achievement as well as being more successful. She found
that children with better metacognition have greater reading
comprehension, are more coherent and are able to elaborate their writing
and have better mathematical skills in school. Her way of seeing how
metacognition works in her classroom, she used a method called Portfolio
Picks. Portfolio Picks give all of the children an opportunity to think about
the pieces they want to add in their portfolio as well as think about their

3 Melissa Taylor, (2012), Teach Kids to Think About Their Thinking

Metacognition, http://imaginationsoup.net/2012/01/16/teach-kids-to-thinkabout-their-thinking-metacognition/

overall experience they have had throughout kindergarten. It helps them

to think back in order to get their portfolios put together at the end of the
year. Elida Laski believed that she had found her students to be thinking
lots of what they have learned all year as well as continuing to think about
what is coming next in their life. She found that using the Portfolio Pick
assignment was a great way to get the children using their metacognition
skills.4
I believe this way of using metacognition is a very beneficial way. At
the young age of 4 or 5, thinking about past events in school isnt always
easy for children. So being able to give them the opportunity to think and
look back at their previous works that year is a very great idea. If
metacognition is meant to have higher achievement rates, then all
children should be starting to think about thinking starting at a young age.
I would not change anything to this process, I think the children will not
only love the activity of looking and thinking back at all of their
assignments and work from the entire year, but they will learn from this
way of metacognition as well.
Geralyn Jacobs used metacognitive awareness in Kindergarten
classrooms through the writing process. While researching this process,
she wanted to see how much thinking kindergarteners used metacognition
while they had writing assignments. Through doing this research, she
4Elida Laski, (2013), Portfolio Picks,
http://search.proquest.com.proxy01.cuaa.edu/docview/1438729473/3672E
CB4189C4A25PQ/1?accountid=10245

knows that there is still a lot to learn about metacognitive awareness in

kindergarteners. While doing this study, the children were asked questions
about what they were thinking about while they were writing their
assignments. Most of the answers consisted of I dont know, but as they
continued with the study for many months, the children were able to use
their thought process more and the questions could then be answered. Not
only through this process, was Geralyn Jacobs able to find that they
thought while they were writing, but she continued to have the children
think about their writing through asking questions.5
Writing assignments as well as asking your students questions is a
great way to use metacognition in the classroom. Geralyn Jacobs was able
to find that the students were able to think about their thinking while they
were writing, as well through asking them questions. I think all students no
matter the age need to be asked questions about what is going on in their
heads based on what their lesson is. If they are asked questions about
lessons then they can easily reflect more on what they have learned as
well as keep that information in their head. I believe that this a great
strategy that can be used when it comes to metacognition, especially
when you have kindergarteners reflect on easier questions and writings, so
then they can gain skills as they get older.

Kindergarten, however, isnt the only age group where

5Geralyn Jacobs, (2004), A Classroom Investigation of the Growth of
Metacognition,
http://search.proquest.com.proxy01.cuaa.edu/docview/751591969/5F3006
14202A4CCEPQ/6?accountid=10245

metacognition is seen. Metacognition can be seen in every

classroom of all ages. An example of metacognition is seen in Kendra
Hearns 12th grade English classroom as well as Kathleen Hayes-Parvins
sixth grade language arts and social studies classroom. Both use about the
same strategies of how to use metacognition in school through activities.
To begin, they both use strategies in their classrooms. By using strategies,
the students are asked to strategize amongst themselves and figure out
questions. By doing this, they are writing and talking with one another and
thinking of ways to answer questions. Both teachers also used questions
and analysis to get through their lessons. By doing this, you are having the
students think based on whether or not they can think about what they are
learning about.6 In both of these classrooms the teachers base a lot of
their metacognition practices on question based activities. In having a
higher up grade level, question based classrooms are always a great thing
to have in order to keep the students thinking about the questions and
what they are learning.
Classroom environment does play a huge role in thinking that occurs in
the classroom, especially for those younger students that are in 2nd grade
and below. If you ask a kindergartener to think about writing, sometimes
they build off on what they see that is going on around them. With being
younger, they cant always think of a topic right away and need to gain
6 Linda Darling-Hammond, Thinking About Thinking, 167,
https://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/09_metacog.pd
f

ideas for what they are going to write. Classroom environment doesnt
always play a role for students in higher grades. At this point, the chances
of their classrooms being decorated or their desks not being in lecture
style start to become slim, so when you ask them to think about thinking,
they might not always be able to come up with something because they
also need a spark of ideas once in awhile. As you get older it is easier to
think about things without looking at your surrounding environment, but it
is good to have your classroom set up in a way where it can get students
thinking in writing or even in their lessons.
Metacognition is seen in all classrooms. No matter the lesson or the
activity, the chance of their being some type of thinking is very high.
Students are always thinking about what to put on their homework or what
to write in their papers, and when they are younger, they are always
thinking about what is going on around them. Using metacognition in a
classroom is a very important thing, especially if it means getting better
grades in the future and having a higher chance of succeeding. You want
to make your sure as a 2nd grade teacher and younger that you have
metacognition activities and lessons in order for all students to start
building it at a young age and to be able to continue to succeed in it in the
future.

Works Cited
Darling-Hammond, L., Austin, K., Cheung, M., & Martin, D. (n.d.). Thinking
About
Thinking: Metacognition.
https://www.learner.org/courses/learning
classroom/support/09_metacog.pdf
Jacobs, G. M. (2004). A Classroom Investigation of the Growth of
Metacognition
Awareness in Kindergarten Children Through the Writing
Process.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy01.cuaa.edu/docview/751591969/5F3006
14
202A4CCEPQ/6?accountid=10245
Kostelnik, M. J., Soderman, A. K., & Whiren, A. P. (2007). Developmentally
Appropriate Curriculum: Best Practices in Early Childhood Education.
Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Laski, E. V. (2013). Portfolio Picks: An Approach for Developing Children's
Metacognition. http://search.proquest.com.proxy01.cuaa.edu
/docview/1438729473/3672ECB4189C4A25PQ/1?accountid=10245

Taylor, M. (2012). Teach Kids to Think About Their Thinking -Metacognition.

http://imaginationsoup.net/2012/01/16/teach-kidsto-think-about-theirthinking-metacognition/