[LET SCI - 4] How can we promote students’ metacognitive awareness in collaborative learning?

In Week 4 of the course LET Scientific Grounding, the researcher Ashen Cini give us the requirement to write a short essay to answer the question: How can we promote students’ metacognitive awareness in collaborative learning?

But firstly, we have to watch three presentations of hers then read two book chapters from the book Metacognition in Learning and Instruction. Although I think this amount of work is a little bit of overload, I must admit that the book chapters are very interesting for me. Here is the link to the book.

                              

In the following part of this post, I will share my turned-in-assignment. After reading it, you can continue with the second task of Week 4 in the next entry which labelled [LET SCI - 5].

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Scientists have been researched about metacognition for over twenty years. Most researchers agree that metacognition is a significant element which helps students have better achievements and face less stress and less mental issues in learning. ‘High achieving students have been found to possess more metacognitive awareness and engage in more self-regulatory behaviour than low achieving students’ (Meichenbaum & Biemillier, 1998).

Before students are able to practice metacognitive strategies, it is essential for them to be aware of the need for metacognition. In this essay, I will discuss the ways to promote students’ awareness of metacognition in the situation of collaborative learning with respect to the Chapter 1 and 3 in the book “Metacognition in Learning and Instruction" by Hartman.

In collaborative learning, students can prepare their metacognitive awareness by researching beforehand about the tasks given or thinking about how they can contribute to the team as well as which strengths of themselves that may benefit the team’s achievement. Then, the teamwork time could be spent on more meaningful tasks which need more than one’s single effort. If each member of the team try their best to understand the task personally, it will create a common foundation which plays the role of a start point for the team. As a result, they are able to work together more effectively. In another word, the metacognition of each member will save time for the whole team.

There are various ways to promote students’ metacognitive awareness in collaborative learning. 

In Chapter 1 of the book “Metacognition in Learning and Instruction”, Gregore Schraw mentioned four general ways to increase metacognition in classroom settings. They are: promoting general awareness of the importance of metacognition, improving knowledge of cognition, improving regulation of cognition, and fostering environments that promote metacognitive awareness. 

In this essay, I will use these four ideas as my starting points to suggest four steps to enhance metacognitive awareness in collaborative learning.

The first step is promoting general awareness of the importance of metacognition

Teachers can find an appropriate time to introduce metacognition to students. What metacognition is, what the successful examples of metacognitive learning are. Even when teachers do not directly mention about metacognition, they can still model it so that students can see and feel the effectiveness of metacognitive strategies. Teachers should allow students who possess metacognitive learning ability of potential to model their strategies for the rest of the class.

In the condition of collaborative learning, students need to acknowledge themselves that metacognition plays a vital role in the achievement of the team. If students know that metacognition can lead them to better result in teamwork, they will actively pay a certain amount of attention to metacognition and hence, they will be more motivated to practice metacognitive strategies in the following tasks.

The second step is improving knowledge of cognition

Knowledge of cognition includes three components which are declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge.

In teamwork, students need to be instructed to understand the detailed requirement of the tasks given as well as understand themselves as a learner. They can make a diagram to analyse their responsibilities in collaborative activity. By doing that, they will form their declarative knowledge about their studies.

Besides that, students are instructed to procedurally plan for the tasks. They will list out the series of actions they need to take to achieve the team goals, both individually and as a team. They are given appropriate support, suggestions and tools to do that by their teachers.

The ultimate aspect of knowledge here is conditional knowledge, which can be understood as the time given for the task, the place where the team will do the task as well as other details about the situation of their mission. 

The third step is improving the regulation of cognition

Regulation of cognition can be improved through the practices of planning, monitoring and evaluating.

In the first phase - planning, students create an action plan which they think achievable and effective.

The next phase should be spent on taking actions and observe the process of that. Students can continuously review and modify the initial plan to adapt to the real situation.

The fourth step is to foster environments that promote metacognitive awareness.

It is the teachers’ responsibility to encourage all teams to create enough ‘space’ for each member to contribute their own metacognitive skills. Every team members must be open-minded, good listeners and respect personal contributions so that their peers will not be stressful and fear about being judged when speaking out.