Metacognition TIPR

Metacognition in particular is very important to learning in my opinion.  Evaluating learning and how you learn is crucial to becoming a lifelong learner.  I can't think of specific examples of metacognition from my field experience but one conversation I had with my uncle does come to mind.  He and his wife went to a parent teacher conference for their 8 year old son Alex.  The teacher asked Alex what 2+2 equals.  He quickly replied four, and the teacher then asked how he got his answer.  Alex didn't know how he knew the answer he just did.  Alex wasn't quite able to evaluate his learning.  My aunt and uncle were both upset that the teacher thought this was important.  They didn't understand the benefits of Alex being able to evaluate his learning.  The ideas behind metacognition of planning monitoring and evaluating learning are crucial in turning learners into problem-solvers.  This specific example goes over evaluating but each step of the process is important.

Like I said Miss. F didn't seem to do this much in my observations.  I think the key to metacognition though is getting students to think critically about the learning process.  This could be applied to the process of writing a paper perfectly.  I will definitely implement this in my class.  Having students plan their paper with an outline or brainstorm, work on the paper while monitoring their own learning and how things are going and then evaluate themselves once the paper is done. 

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