Transformation through Metacognition

Abstract

Metacognition is result-oriented process that refreshes and involves cognitive processes. Metacognition is a process, which involves fruitful knowledge not only about different processes of cognition but also how to use and regulate these processes for result-oriented outcomes; especially, in the processes of learning. This chapter highlights transformation and motivation through awareness and application of metacognition. This chapter introduces metacognition, the value of metacognitive awareness, and how it can be used to improve students’ learning and their academic performance. It further opens the doors for the study of the elements of metacognition; moreover, it focuses on the effects of metacognition on learning. This chapter recommends awareness and the use of metacognition in education as it enables the learners to think big. In order to meet the student’s needs for metacognitive support in learning, this chapter also recommends an interdisciplinary course on educational psychology at different levels of education. In addition, research studies on metacognition, its awareness, and its effects especially in the context of developing countries are recommended.

1. Introduction

Research and awareness of metacognition can play the role of motivational boost for learners. It can help learners to come out from dark phases of life, to be on the right track, and to never ever give up. Our experiences are a real example of the role of metacognition in personal as well as academic lives.

I was student of Bachelor of Education since 2014. I was given a task of presentation on metacognition in educational psychology class by my teacher. I searched different articles, publications, blogs, books, thesis, and the latest content on metacognition. My interest developed and I decided to conduct research on awareness of metacognition in the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, where there was no awareness of this innovative concept. This research helped me not only in my academic development but also in my personal development.

I was passing through a dark phase of my life. I started married life in the recent past and had the responsibility of a kid that made it difficult for me to continue my studies. At that time, health, family, and life issues were the dark side, and the option of never ever giving up was the bright side of my life. Finally, I decided to never give up and got admission in M. Phil. (Education) and conducted research, and published a research paper on the effects of metacognition [1]. This research also improved me as a human being, my learning strategies, and my personality. It gave me an awareness of my own potential and strength. Now it was time to work in the field and apply all the learned knowledge in the real classrooms. I had adopted the teaching profession, the best way to give this fruitful knowledge to the learners of my society. Metacognitive awareness and strategies introduce my students to their true versions and help them to best utilize their own potentialities. Finally, I conducted action research at the primary level in PhD Education (in process) at Abdul Wali Khan University of Mardan to improve the classroom learning environment, develop students’ interest, and enhance reading comprehension the students [2].

Metacognition is a concept that helps a girl from a rural area (Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan) to be aware of her true version, to polish her potentiality through metacognitive strategies, and to overcome her weakness effectively. So metacognition is a concept that has the ability to transform learners into smart workers and big thinkers.

Traditional educational institutions were teacher-centered, with teachers determining how to advance learning. Learners are given less opportunity to engage in reflective thinking about their learning experience. In this didactic form of learning, they have fewer opportunities to govern, monitor, and assess their learning. It also hampered the student’s ability to take ownership of their learning. Our educational environment needs to shift from traditional teacher-centered to learner-centered [3]. Learner-centered education has a long history dating, back to the time of Socrates [4]. In learner-centered learning procedures, learners assume responsibility for obtaining knowledge and become more metacognitive in the learning process. Lifelong learning and/or autonomous learning are assisted by the application of acquired metacognitive skills, which Sternberg [5] views as being at the heart of education.

“The crucial thing to obtain from the training was not textbook factoids, but rather the learning to learn abilities and the skills in accessing a knowledge base that constitute the heart of Metacognition.”

According to Benson [6] “Learners who are asked or forced to take greater control of their learning may be able to self-manage their learning, but they will not necessarily have the cognitive competencies that will make self-management systematic and effective.”

Cognition is essentially intelligence, reasoning, knowledge, and classification. Cognition refers to “what you know and think” [7]. It also includes symbols, fantasies, lower mental processes, organized muscular motions, and senses. “Separate functioning” that has been studied through interactional research is cognition with other variables such as emotions, motivation, and social cognition [8, 9, 10]. Cognition is an umbrella term that includes metacognition; in summary, metacognition is a type of cognition [11]. Terrecone [12] defines metacognition as “second-order cognition”, which provides a ground to know aware, control, and monitor information throughout processes of cognitive processing. Garner [13] defined the distinction between cognition and metacognition as follows: Performing a task necessitates the use of vital skills known as cognitive skills; however, understanding how this job was completed necessitates the use of a required component known as metacognition.

2. Metacognition

Until 1976, metacognition did not appear in the literature; however, studies on theories of mind in the fields of cognitive sciences, psychology, and education had been conducted [14]. Flavell conducted a study on meta-memory capacities and coined the term “meta-memory” in his work [15, 16]. The productive effect of the 1976 study of Flavell’s gives the right track to the introduction of metacognition. Flavell defines meta-memory as “one’s own cognitive processes and outputs, as well as everything associated to them.” Metacognition is the understanding of one’s processes of mind and the use of that information to regulate one’s own mental processes [17, 18, 19]. According to the authors, executive control is a concept in cognitive psychology that consists of two dimensions: monitoring and self-regulation. Other studies have raised the same point in their analyses [20, 21]. Studies on metacognition in numerous aspects have recently increased [22]. Metacognition refers to the process of learning about and managing individuals’ brains or cognitive systems for learning [23].

3. Definitions of metacognition

“The knowledge and control that children have over their own thinking and learning activities” [24].

“The monitoring and control of thoughts” [25].

“Awareness and management of one’s own thought” [26].

“A higher-order agent that oversees and governs the cognitive system while also being a part of it” [27].

He defined metacognition as a list of self-instructions for task control and execution, with cognition serving as a vehicle for self-instructions. Furthermore, for a better grasp of the idea of metacognition, regard it as two-way mental processing [28]. Metacognitive Model of Consciousness and Cognition. He distinguished between “object-level” (cognitions about external objects) and “meta-level” (cognitions about external objects) processes and his metacognitive model explained that “any lower-level cognition can itself be the subject of a higher-level cognition.”

4. Elements of metacognition

Metacognition is made up of several sub-elements, each with its own set of characteristics. Flavell’s [29] gave an introduction to two dimensions of metacognition: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation [30, 31].

4.1 Metacognitive knowledge

Metacognitive Knowledge is essential for independent learning because “it represents the knowledge base that students draw on as they make decisions about their learning” [32]. It included learner knowledge about the self, completed tasks, and strategies used for fruitful learning. It entailed being conscious of one’s mental processes, cognitive aims, and experiences [29, 33, 34].

Metacognitive knowledge is important for obtaining productive outcomes. Learners with knowledge of cognition are found quick and smart in learning. The following forms of metacognitive knowledge have been defined:

4.1.1 Person knowledge

Person knowledge refers to being aware of one’s own and other people’s mental processes. Knowledge of how learning processes occur, how information is processed in the learning process, and knowledge of specific thinking is called personal knowledge. Knowledge regarding diverse ways of processing information in people (listening, seeing, touching) and which mode of processing knowledge is optimal for learning for specific individuals is an example of this. Wenden demonstrated that the development of language can also be affected by personal abilities. Flavell [29] separated this aspect into the following sections.

1. Intra-personal: Awareness of one’s own mental processes, abilities, learning styles, IQ , and potential.

2. Interpersonal: General awareness of others’ knowledge and talents.

4.1.2 Strategic knowledge

Awareness of different strategies and their uses is also very crucial in education. Strategic knowledge gives not only details of different strategies but also when to use which one strategy. It enables us to make a choice of selecting a strategy rather than a chance of using any strategy. It makes the learning process simple and outstanding through a choice, not a chance [35]. Strategic knowledge is actually knowledge about these tasks differently at the appropriate time and its utilization in the best way. These all components affect the processes of the mind involved in learning [27]. It refers to different methods or procedures [27, 30]. It provides a mirror of how procedures are followed or used.

4.1.3 Task knowledge

Task knowledge includes information about the task’s aims, how it will affect one’s learning, the nature of the task (difficulty or ease), and the needs for it. Knowledge about the task provides a right and systematic way toward the achievement of goals. In this case we have two tasks, one in biology, which is mitoses and another one in the periodic table of chemistry. The requirements and demands for both tasks are different.

If we explain the example of mitoses of cells it will be preferable to select understanding processes of cognition. Understanding can be through diagrams and postal presentations. In the case of the periodic table, it is preferable to memorize the names of elements mentioned in the periodic table. Different activities are used to memorize it. One of the examples is to make a statement from the rows and the columns of the periodic table and memorize it. It will become interesting and easy for learners to memorize rows and columns. It shows the requirements of the tasks which are different.

5. Regulation of cognition

Metacognition also involves cognition regulation, which is the second most essential component [36].

Metacognitive self-regulation is primarily concerned with controlling one’s own thinking or learning processes [34]. It was divided into three parts: planning, monitoring, and assessment.

5.1 Planning

Planning is a necessary component before doing the work efficiently. Prior to conducting the work, it is critical to select acceptable task strategies and to determine the fruitful influencing strategies and activities on the performance of learners.

In reading comprehension, the planning strategy is to predict the text and make clues from the pictures and the topics. Guess the meaning of the difficult words etc. These strategies help us to understand the text effectively.

5.2 Monitoring

Individual’s immediate cognitive awareness of a task is monitoring. It helps the learner to be on the right track, utilize cognitive processes through smart work, and to never ever give up until you learn what you want to learn.

I would to share my own experience of using metacognitive strategies with children to enhance their reading comprehension. The monitoring strategy in reading is to reread the text to understand the difficult words and concepts. Asking questions during reading also helps in the understanding of the text. To guess the next content is also one strategy to monitor own reading.

5.3 Evaluation

Assessing learning results is also essential for best learning. One self-regulates learning processes, and decisions concerning learning processes are made in this step [34]. After completing the activity, the learner determines whether or not the task was beneficial to the learner.

For understanding reading, the best assessment strategy is to summarize the reading content.

6. Academic achievement and metacognition

Metacognition effects on the academic accomplishment of learners have been discovered, which is why metacognition is the topic of numerous studies [37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42]. Cognition and metacognition were identified as crucial variables for efficient learning [43]. Students’ academic progress has been influenced by their metacognition since learning is an easier and less arduous process for them; they utilize strategies smartly and learn through big thinking [44]. Researchers [45, 46, 47] have constructed models and taxonomies for describing metacognition [48, 49]. Flavell [29] classified cognition monitoring into four components: (i) metacognitive information, (ii) metacognitive experiences, (iii) aims or tasks, and (iv) actions or tactics.

In the literature, knowledge about cognition and cognition regulation are also two domains of metacognition [34, 50]. Kuhn [45] further categorizes knowing as metacognitive and meta-strategically knowing. The components that are grouped include metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive judgments, monitoring, control, and regulation of cognition [30]. The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory is divided into three categories for measuring metacognition: metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive abilities, and metacognitive attitude. These dimensions are also available in the inventories as sub-dimensions.

7. Metacognition development over time

Metacognition develops over time; through experiences, one replaces inefficient mental techniques with optimum cognitive methods [45]. Many researchers believe that metacognitive abilities are polished, improve, and evolve with an increase in age [21, 51]. Metacognitive development progresses as follows: the knowledge component occurs first, children as young as six years old are aware and capable of reflecting on their mental processes, and these skills are used by the age of eight to ten. Following that is the regulation of mental processes, which can be seen in the form of planning in children aged ten to fourteen. Two remaining steps (monitoring and assessment) were established gradually and remained unfinished until adolescence.

According to Schneider and Locki [21], there is a link between metacognition development and declarative meta-memory development, and the first evidence is children’s knowledge of mental verbs such as “remember,” “think” terms are familiar to pre-schoolers but they have limited memory. Four-year-old children can use and explain mental processes through memory verbs. Before six years of age, children believe that performance is more closely related to effort than it is, and they overestimate the performance of their memory. Between the ages of six and eleven, children gain an understanding of procedural meta-memory. Task features and the application of techniques are considered key tools by children aged 9–10 years to make remembering easier. Students aged 12 years gain the capacity to efficiently govern themselves; they can plan their time and attention, and comprehend the effectiveness of tactics. Although age does not a significant role in general metacognition, it does not improve with age. Sperling et al. [52] created and administered a self-report test to assess general metacognitive knowledge and regulation in youngsters.

8. Academic achievement

Academic achievement is a wide term that refers to the amount to which a person has achieved specific goals. Indicators are used to quantify academic performance and define academic achievements. Mostly, general indicators such as procedural and declarative knowledge are gained. Curriculum-based criteria include grades and educational degrees. Academic accomplishment, as evaluated by the GPA (grade point average), is used for a variety of purposes. In the study [2], cumulative GPA was utilized to assess students’ academic achievements. In a brief summary of academic achievements, many views for individuals and society, as well as psychological and educational studies, have been highlighted. Academic successes determine whether or not a person can pursue higher education, and degrees obtained through academic achievements can also influence one’s professional future following education [53]. According to Woolfolk [44], textbooks on the determinants and measurement of academic achievement have contributed theoretical and empirical knowledge. Individual, home, and scholastic factors of academic accomplishment were identified by Hattie [54]. Individual correlates of university students’ performance, according to Richardson et al. [55].

9. Discussion

This chapter on metacognition discusses the transformation of academic and social life through metacognition by introducing, defining, and explaining the components of metacognition. Metacognition was introduced by Flavell [56]. He did research on the metamemory of children and updated the literature of education psychology with a new concept of metacognition. Metacognition has a great impact on the academic achievements of the students of English literature [1]. The same is found by other researchers as well [38, 52, 57, 58].

Metacognition had a strong and good impact on children’s reading awareness and comprehension. Independent language learning necessitated the acquisition of metacognitive knowledge [59]. Building learners’ autonomy at various phases of language learning is vital for improving their good points in second language learning and controlling their weak points in activities. Ayaz et al., [2] conducted a research study in Pakistan on awareness of metacognition and its effects on students’ academic achievements in English and Mathematics subjects at Abdul Wali Khan University of Pakistan because these both subjects are effective for conducting this study [60, 61, 62, 63]. Metacognition is an innovative, effective, and interesting term in Education to be acknowledged and implemented. Our study was conducted on students of the Mathematics and English departments through multistage stratified random sampling. Data was collected through a metacognitive awareness inventory [34, 52] and self-structured objective-type tests. CGPA/GPA of the students was considered academic achievement of the students. Both the factors of the students mentioned earlier were linked. Findings of the study showed a significant effect of metacognition on the academic achievement of English subject students. Similar results were found in other studies [38, 52, 57, 58]. The results also showed an insignificant association between MAI and gender in both Department of English and Department of Mathematics. Ayaz et al. [2] conducted an action research consisting of four cycles to improve the classroom learning environment through the use of metacognitive strategies in classrooms. The findings of this study showed improvement in students’ learning and classroom environment. The confidence and interest of students were developed.

In the early 1980s, scientists became interested in the notion of metacognition in order to increase student’s abilities to solve problems in mathematics. At the time, studies elicited that challenges are found mostly in mathematics classrooms to develop student’s problem-solving skills. The concept of metacognition was thought to be advantageous in such a case. For example, awareness of one’s cognitive processes involved in problem-solving and the skill of self-monitoring and self-regulation play a significant part in resolving the obstacles found in the solution of problems. Metacognitive rather than cognitive study of mathematics ability is preferred. They came to the conclusion that both metacognitive self-regulation and metacognitive knowledge are important for best mathematical performance.

Students with metacognitively skills outperformed in solving mathematical problems, and their mathematics anxiety was alleviated [64].

Kramarski and Mevarech [64] conducted a study on 384 students to elucidate the effects of awareness of metacognition on mathematical reasoning.

Finally, understanding and applying metacognition would reduce individual disparities in learning, and correct metacognitive tactics employed by teachers and students could have a major impact on students’ academic progress.

10. Conclusion

“Thinking about thinking” requires a multidimensional set of skills called metacognition. It is divided into two sections: metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation. The knowledge component of metacognition is critical. It can be defined as knowledge or awareness of oneself as a learner and understanding of those aspects that affect learner performance (declarative), strategy knowledge (procedural), and implementation of techniques when and why appropriate (conditional). Self-regulation of one’s own cognition is a component of metacognitive. It consists of three tasks: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. The establishment of self-regulation components has improved and developed metacognitive understanding. Knowledge about cognition, in turn, serves as a facilitator for cognition regulation. Metacognitive theories (formal and informal frameworks) organize and express information about beliefs, and these theories, regulation, and knowledge components are empirically related. In short, metacognition and its components development are not only important for learning but also improve the classroom learning environment. Metacognition helps in understanding of learning process and polishing the cognitive abilities of the learners. It not only gives awareness of the potentialities but also gives knowledge of how to utilize these potentialities for best learning. In short, metacognition can transform learners and the learning environment effectively.

This chapter recommends research studies on metacognition that discuss awareness and application of metacognition in education as it enables the learners to think big. Moreover, in order to meet the student’s needs for metacognitive support in learning, this chapter also recommends an interdisciplinary course on educational psychology at different levels of Education.

Acknowledgments

I am thankful to Dr. Amjid Reba, Dr. Amir Zaman (Late), Dr. Syed Uzair Ali Shah, Dr. Abdul Ghaffar and Dr. Idrees (Chairperson of Education Department) for their intellectual guidance and support. They played an important role in my academic journey. They taught me great lessons of hard work, positivity, and never ever give up.