Читать книгу Student Engagement Techniques - Elizabeth F. Barkley - Страница 59

Students who reflect on their learning are better learners than those who do not. Being aware of oneself as a learner and constantly monitoring the effectiveness of one's learning involves metacognition, a term used by cognitive psychologists to describe the so-called executive function of the mind. As we suggested in our 2016 book Learning Assessment Techniques, there are two prominent characteristics of metacognition: knowledge of cognition and self-regulation of cognition. According to McGuire (2018), metacognition includes the ability to (a) think about your own thinking, (b) be consciously aware of yourself as a problem solver, (c) monitor, plan, and control your mental processing, and (d) accurately judge your level of learning. Nilson (2013) argues that meta-cognition is an important component of self-regulation, but the latter is the larger concept: “… self-regulation encompasses the monitoring and managing of one's cognitive processes as well as the awareness of and control over one's emotions, motivations, behavior, and environment as related to learning” (p. 5). Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task play a critical role in successful learning in college and university courses.

Metacognitive strategies require activity on the part of the learner, not for grading purposes but for the pedagogical purpose of actively monitoring and controlling the learning processes. Teachers can help students develop the metacognitive strategies that enable them to exert more control over the quality of their learning. After all, in the final analysis, the learners themselves are in the best position to determine whether or not they are learning at their optimal level of challenge.