Mastering Metacognition: The What, Why, and How

Good article. I would add one more item to the list of important elements of metacognition: awareness of one’s own motivation to study and learn. In school contexts, motivation often comes from outside the learner: tests, grades, encouragement and inspiration from teachers, competition and cooperation with peers. If you want to learn something on your own, though, then it really helps to be able to monitor what motivates you to study and to be able to control those motivations.<p>I work in the field of second-language education. While the motivation provided by teachers and schools is useful, most adults need to dedicate years of study outside the classroom to become really proficient in a second language—especially if it is a foreign language that they do not use in daily life. Probably the biggest reason most people do not become as proficient as they would like in foreign languages is that they are unable to keep themselves motivated enough to continue studying. Better awareness of own’s own motivations can help.

This is a great article. The implementable points are laid bare without fluff.<p>To add to the article from my personal research, one of the most powerful activities I&#x27;ve implemented thus far in my intellectual and work life are reflection journals. This basically entails taking a moment after producing a piece of work to analyze its quality and extract lessons from it. I honestly think it is a super power.<p>I discovered the process through learning about effective study. Medical education is a treasure trove of this type of research, for example, the use of mnemonic images a la Sketchy.com. There&#x27;s also a large body of work on reflection, specifically in nursing. I&#x27;ve found a lot of those lessons to be generalizable and immediately applicable to my work as a programmer and in my art, learning and music.<p>For more info, the wiki page is great: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reflective_practice" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reflective_practice</a><p>More in line with the article in question, here&#x27;s MIT&#x27;s Teaching + Learning Labs articles on metacognition and self-regulation, which I was coincidentally studying two days ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tll.mit.edu&#x2F;teaching-resources&#x2F;how-people-learn&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tll.mit.edu&#x2F;teaching-resources&#x2F;how-people-learn&#x2F;</a><p>Finally, I&#x27;ll share an Observable notebook with the simple template I use for my reflective practice: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;observablehq.com&#x2F;@iz&#x2F;reflection" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;observablehq.com&#x2F;@iz&#x2F;reflection</a>

Asking questions that elicit thinking, and not just rote answers, are what we want in learning. Not just &quot;what&#x27;s the answer to [question]&quot;, but &quot;how did you get that?&quot; This also works well for uncovering wrong assumptions or incorrect problem-solving methods. Getting students (or anyone) to learn how to learn on their own is, sadly, not taught in school here (California).<p>I gave a talk a few years ago on how people learn: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ted.dev&#x2F;learntalks" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ted.dev&#x2F;learntalks</a>

&quot;Metacognition. Think about it.&quot;

Metacognition or “mentalization”[0,1] is a promising approach to mental health, on the theory that mental health difficulties reflect a metacognitive deficit.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mentalization" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mentalization</a> [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;m000dpj2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;m000dpj2</a>

Do we really need the fancy new word &quot;metacognition&quot; when we already have the plain old word &quot;epistemology&quot;?