Visible Thinking, Verbalizing and Metacognition in Learning

Making thinking and learning visible and speaking about it

Making learning visible involves consciously bringing thinking processes to the forefront by visual and linguistic means. It means that

The learning processes of the pupils become visible to both the teacher and to other learners.
The teacher shares the aims of activities with the pupils.
The learning process is made visible.
Discursive feedback on learning is extremely important

Learning can be made visible by, for example, wondering aloud together. The teacher can use guided questioning to lead the thinking forward. The aim is to make collective understanding and thinking a natural part of class activities.

It is important to keep to the aim of clarity when reasoning and explaining thinking processes. When wondering about things and creating ideas together, no-one needs to be afraid of appearing foolish.

Active listening is essential when we construct and develop ideas based on the answers and comments of others.

In addition to this, it is vital to document thoughts, answers and the research process, for example by writing them down, thereby making them visible. The aim of this type of documentation is not to assess or to keep a record, but rather to draw attention to the learning process, to make it more concretely available for the pupils to reflect on and to change, so that it can help them to make better progress with similar tasks in the future.

The vocabulary needed to describe thinking processes and to assess them has to be used and practiced. It is important to use it while guiding tasks and it is needed as the basis for later reflection on the tasks. If the pupils are not familiar with words and concepts for describing and reflecting on their own learning and thinking processes it makes guidance and discussion on them difficult and inexact. Teachers themselves need to be aware of their own use of language, that it is clear and exact, at the same time as they are systematically building up the pupils’ banks of vocabulary and concepts.

A great deal of research has shown that one very effective way of advancing student learning is for the teacher to act as facilitator. The teacher is responsible for making sure that the pupils know the aims of the learning, that the work is well structured and that pupils receive sufficient feedback during the process. Pupils need clear, challenging learning aims, which can be achieved through practice and joint problem solving, and they need continual assessment and feedback on their progress. Feedback can be given in conversations about learning, it can be part of pair work, or it can be given to individual pupils. Future aims and planning are guided by feedback and it should therefore be returned to and referred to in new learning situations.

The tools developed in the ACTS project are intended as concrete support for teachers and pupils when working with tasks demanding thinking skills. They make thinking and learning visible through images and words in some of the following ways:

The Bloom poster which shows verbs depicting the different levels of thinking we use and move between when learning.
The clouds showing verbs which describe in more detail the levels on the Bloom poster. These can help pupils to understand, learn and use a wider thinking-related vocabulary.
Questions based on the Bloom verbs (the table and the keyring questions) guide the making and use of many levels of questions, and help particularly with follow-up questions, which clarify pupil explanations and understanding.
The wall sentences help pupils to keep working skills in mind throughout the learning process. They also help them to set their own aims and can support discussion about working and learning.
The ACTS tools all include assessment sheets or tables through which thinking and learning processes, progress and challenges can be recorded. In this way the thinking and learning processes used in tasks become concrete to the pupils, allowing them to track their own development.

Making the learning process visible supports the aims we have when teaching: as teachers we model curiosity and how challenges can be accepted enthusiastically, we support our pupils as they develop understanding and deepen it, and we help them to clarify their own thinking.

Metacognition

Metacognitive knowledge can be defined as what we know about ourselves as thinkers and learners. Pupils’ awareness of themselves as active agents in processing their own thinking and understanding is central to the development of learning and thinking skills. When pupils can define what, why and how they learn, they are also able to deal with challenging situations, and their skills as learners progress steadily. Not all learning necessarily involves metacognition, but metacognitive knowledge supports and strengthens lifelong learning skills.

Pupils’ abilities to solve tasks and learn from experience vary greatly. This is also connected to differences in the ability to use metacognitive processes. The following metacognitive processes are central to dealing with challenging tasks:

recognising a problem, defining a challenge
initial understanding of the problem, defining the issues related to it and making comparisons
setting aims and planning how to solve the problem.
assessing progress and solutions, awareness of one’s own knowledge and its limitations

By using the verbs in Bloom’s levels of thinking to approach metacognition, pupils benefit from becoming actively aware of their actions in thinking and describing. When pupils think about how they learn they gain a deeper understanding of what learning is. Speaking about the learning process also deepens understanding of the subject being taught and creates in pupils the ability to assess themselves. When pupils can find the words to express their thoughts, the teacher can also see what has been learned and how. The vocabulary of thinking is not necessarily familiar, understood nor used actively by pupils. It needs to be taught consciously, used precisely in the learning process, modelled and strengthened.

Pupil metacognition is strenthened, for example, by

consciously heightening awareness of it (talking about how we learn and teaching vocabulary which describes the learning process)
verbalizing ( modelling aloud the exact use of the vocabulary, and documenting it, for example visually)
a positive learning atmosphere ( discussion, pair and group work, making sure everyone takes part)
reflecting (whole class discussion and thinking aloud about what has been learned)

Metacognitive questions are an important part of reflecting. For example:

Describing what kind of thinking was used

What kind of thinking did you use?
What words could you use for your thinking?
Was this thinking…?

Describing how thinking was used

How did you think?
What did you think?
Why?
Did you have a plan?

3. Assessing thinking

Was your thinking good?
Why?
Did you have a good plan?
How could you improve your thinking next time?

When pupils are motivated to discuss their learning, they are also able to understand it and develop it better. As metacognitive skills start to develop, it becomes easier to meet new challenges, create suitable strategies and to notice development in thinking.

Fisher, R. 1998. Thinking about Thinking: Developing Metacognition in Children. This paper was first published in Early Child Development and Care Vol 141 (1998) pp 1-15

Halinen Irmeli, Hotulainen Risto, Kauppinen Eija, Nilivaara Päivi, Raami Asta ja Vainikainen Mari-Pauliina. 2016 Ajattelun taidot. PS-Kustannus

Hattie, J. 2011. Visible learning for Teachers. Routledge.

Ritchart, R., Church M. ja Morrison K. 2011. Making Thinking Visible. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Tarrant, Peter and Holt, Deborah. 2016. Metacognition in the Primary Classroom. Routledge.

– ACTS / Alex Black – Metacognition

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Alex Black:

Metacognition as a key element of the Assessment Companion for Thinking Skills (ACTS) project in Rauma (2020)

This article will try to clarify

What research has said about the efficacy and conceptualisation of metacognition.
What are the key knowledge and process dimensions of metacognition.
What processes learners need to employ and how these can be taught.

Why metacognition is very important

Muijs and Bokhove (2020 p. 4), who contributed to a very influential Educational Endowment Fund (EEF) report, discuss the literature evaluating the evidence of the impact of metacognition and self-regulated learning.

“Metacognition and self-regulated learning (SRL) have been advocated by many, and have significant support being seen as a potentially effective and low cost way of impacting learning. Fundamentally, the underlying supposition is that metacognition and SRL are important to learning, and thus raise attainment, and various studies have established that SRL, and in particular metacognition, has a significant impact on students’ academic performance, on top of ability or prior achievement”

A very interesting study that challenges a long held assumption that metacognition was not effective for the early cognitive development of children. This was clearly challenged by Muijs and Bokhove (2020 p. 4)

“Studies suggest that early forms of metacognition are predictive of later attainment, one study of Finnish children, for example, finding that metacognition at age 3 was directly predictive of mathematics performance at age 6, and indirectly predictive of rate of growth maths performance between ages 3 and 6 (largely through its effect on counting ability) quoting (Aunola et al, 2004).”

This article will assume the argument that we should try to develop metacognition as an important aspect of self-regulated learning wherever possible across age and subject areas.

We will try to get clarity about the knowledge, processes and the different aspects of metacognition. This will allow us to inform our ways of teaching, scaffolding and assessing the growth of our learners.

Dimensions of metacognitive knowledge

Krathwohl (2002) and Pintrich (2002) discuss the addition of the category of metacognitive knowledge into the revised Bloom’s taxonomy at length. This addition was also guided by the sub dimension described by Flavell (1979 p.219), namely

“Metacognitive knowledge includes knowledge of general strategies that might be used for different tasks, knowledge of the conditions under which these strategies might be used, knowledge of the extent to which the strategies are effective, and knowledge of self.”

Knowledge of Strategies, Task and Self

Taking these as key components in guiding the development of self-efficacy this article argues that these sub dimensions will allow clear guidance for whole class, small group and individual feedback and discussion. The specific focus on how a learner approaches and succeeds on educational tasks. These will allow for many opportunities for self-reflection using these 3 specific categories to spotlight in their thinking.

Questions that teachers can use and then encourage learners to internalise could be scaffolded at different levels within Bloom’s taxonomy.

How would we describe the task? Can we recall similar tasks and strategies we have learnt or used in the past? What did I find easy/difficult? What did I find this task difficult? If I had used a different strategy, would that have helped?

These dimensions, and their ability to generate questions, will also be very useful to teachers, students and curriculum designers who want to formatively assess and help develop these aspects of metacognitive knowledge.

Cognitive processes as features of metacognition

The revision of Bloom’s taxonomy made a clear distinction between

“the noun and verb, to form separate dimensions, the noun providing the basis for the Knowl-

edge dimension and the verb forming the basis for the Cognitive Process dimension.”

Krathwohl (2002 p.213).

This is taken as a fruitful distinction to frame how teaching environments can increase the use of verbs, actions and discourse to help the development of rich metacognitive environments. Muijs and Bokhove (2020) discuss the literature evaluating the evidence of the impact of metacognition and self-regulated learning. They then conclude from the work of Schraw, Crippen, and Hartley (2006), the role of metacognition is the most important,

“because it enables individuals to monitor their current knowledge and skills levels, plan and allocate limited learning resources with optimal efficiency, and evaluate their current learning state” (p. 116). Muijs and Bokhove (2020, p.6) that the key processes in metacognition are:

Regulation of cognition includes at least three main components: planning, monitoring and

evaluation:

(1) Planning relates to goal setting, activating relevant prior knowledge, selecting appropriate

strategies, and the allocation of resources.

(2) Monitoring includes the self-testing activities that are necessary to control learning.

(3) Evaluation refers to appraising the outcomes and the (regulatory) processes of one’s

learning.

Teaching metacognition

Muijs and Bokhove (2020 p.27) in considering what the evidence has to say about how best to teach metacognition suggest two main approaches:

“The evidence suggests that effective teaching of SRL and metacognition has two main elements: The direct approach, through explicit instruction and implicit modelling by the teacher The indirect approach, through creating a conducive learning environment, with guided practise, including dialogue and (scaffolded) inquiry.”

They also argue that although metacognition is rated as cheap as an educational intervention it needs to be supported by ongoing Teacher Professional development to ensure the modelling, language and fruitful environment for metacognition are maintained.

References

Aunola, K., Leskinen, E., Lerkkanen, M.K. & Nurmi, J.E. (2004). Developmental dynamics of math performance from preschool to grade 2. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(4), 699-713.

Flavell, J. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906-911.

Krathwohl, D.R., (2002). A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory Into Practice 41, 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2

Muijs, D. and Bokhove, C. (2020). Metacognition and Self Regulation: Evidence Review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Pintrich, P (2002) The Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, Theory Into Practice, Volume 41, Number 4, 219-225, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_3

Visible Thinking, Verbalizing and Metacognition in Learning

References

– ACTS / Alex Black – Metacognition

Metacognition in ACTS