The Two Components of Metacognition
Another type of complex cognitive processes, is metacognition. Metacognition is divided into two primary parts that work together to enhance learning:
1. Knowledge of Cognition (Metacognitive Knowledge)
This refers to knowing what you know and understanding how you learn. This information is stored in your long-term memory and consists of three types of knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional.
2. Control of Cognition (Metacognitive Regulation)
This is the active management of your knowledge to learn effectively. It involves three essential skills:
- Planning: Setting goals and choosing strategies before starting a task (e.g., skimming headings before reading).
- Monitoring: Checking your progress and comprehension while learning (e.g., asking yourself if you truly understand a theory).
- Evaluating: Reflecting after learning to judge the effectiveness of your strategies (e.g., deciding if summarizing helped you understand an article).
Why Metacognition Matters
Developing these skills is crucial because it:
- Improves self-regulated learning.
- Enhances problem-solving and critical thinking.
- Helps learners transfer knowledge to new situations.
- Encourages lifelong learning by teaching students how to learn.
Teachers can promote this awareness by using strategies like note-taking, summarizing, and the SQ4R method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review, and Reflect).
Why Metacognition is “Complex”
Metacognition is considered a higher-order skill for several reasons:
- Beyond Simple Recall: While simple processes involve basic activities like attention and memory , metacognition involves the active regulation of these processes.
- Knowledge Application: It requires the learner to apply declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge to manage their own learning.
- Executive Control: It involves complex regulatory skills such as planning (choosing strategies), monitoring (checking comprehension), and evaluating (judging effectiveness).
- Interconnectivity: In the Bloom’s Taxonomy frameworks, metacognitive-related tasks like Evaluating and Synthesizing are placed at the highest levels of cognitive objectives.
Relationship to Other Complex Cognitive Processes
Metacognition acts as a “support system” for other complex cognitive activities:
- Problem Solving: Helps learners monitor which strategies are working and when to switch approaches.
- Critical Thinking: One of the five key features of critical thinking is Reflection, which is specifically defined as metacognition.
- Transfer of Learning: Strong metacognitive skills are a significant factor in a student’s ability to successfully transfer knowledge to new contexts.
