Even though I intend to teach early elementary students, I want my students to understand that in order to learn, one must think. I understand that, for young students, "cognition" and "metacognition" may be difficult concepts to grasp. However, I really want to help my students understand that they must stimulate their minds in order to learn.
To help my students better understand these intimidating terms, I might engage in a whole-class discussion on "cognition" and "metacognition" with my students. I would guide the discussion and acknowledge/expound on student input. Students are capable of understanding that "cognition" refers to thinking processes. Additionally, in the case of metacognition, I want my students to determine how they, as individuals, learn best. I might have my students complete a learning style inventory to help them identify their preferred learning style. Although I would have to adapt this inventory for younger elementary students, I really like this learning styles survey I found on Edutopia Survey. I plan to carefully consider the different types of learners in my future classroom and differentiate my instruction based on their needs.
On Education.com, I found a great article on developing metacognitive behaviors in students. The author proposes 6 strategies for "developing metacognitive behaviors:"
- Identifying "what you know" and "what you don't know."
- Talking about thinking. (Think-Aloud)
- Keeping a thinking journal.
- Planning and self-regulation.
- Debriefing the thinking process.
- Self-evaluation.
I think that your article that you have found and added to your posting really emphasized your points, and was a good addition. And the six strategies is a nice and simple way to break it down.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of figuring out each student's learning style! I think that is something that would be so helpful to you as a teacher, but also something that would be interesting and valuable for the students. The knowledge would help you know how to best instruct them, but also let them know how they learn best.
ReplyDeleteI love how you want your students to understand that in order to most effectively learn, they must think. I talked about this important skill as well in my blog post. I really love how you are going to assess the type of learners you have in your classroom through a learning style inventory I think students would be really interested in knowing there are different ways people learn.
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