Wednesday, November 5, 2014

More metacognition

I thought I'd jot down a few notes about metacognition as I learn more about it myself. First, it's clear that there exists a burgeoning literature about the topic that is theoretical, empirical, and applicable. Second, there are many (for me) surprises to be found in that literature.

I just got Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning, edited by Kaplan, Silver, Lavaque-Manty, and Meizlish. It's a slender, accessible book that, as it's name implies, contains many practical tips, but also covers the history and theory of metacognition.

The second chapter is by Lovett and mostly introduces exam wrappers (a cool idea for another time) but she starts the chapter off with some more general points about metacognition. These were helpful for me, so I thought I'd pass them on.

She starts with Flavell's oft-referenced definition of metacognition: thinking about one's own thinking. She adds two other phrases not typically included: knowledge about one's own knowledge, and learning about one's own learning. These additions highlight the link between metacognition and the actions undertaken by instructors and students. Understanding (and utilizing) metacognition can enhance teaching and learning.

By way of demystifying metacognition, Lovett points out 4 things that metacognition is not:
  • It's not one thing (one skill), but a combination of skills, such as planning, reflecting, monitoring, and evaluating.
  • You don't learn metacognitive skills by doing one specific thing, but rather these skills develop through practice and feedback (just like any skill).
  • Although metacognitive skills can be transferred from one domain to another, they are not transferred automatically. The transfer needs to be pointed out and reinforced. And the more varied the domains are, the more difficult the transfer will be.
  • Metacognitive skills are not the same as generic study skills, they need to be learned in the context of a particular domain (or discipline). The most useful metacognitive skills for physics are not the same as for composition, for example.
The insight I gained from this material was that metacognitive skills are similar to any other skills one might want to develop: clear instruction is essential, as is practice in diverse contexts. This seems obvious in hindsight, and maybe this was clear to you from the beginning. If so, good on you.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Metacognition

The new buzz-word in education (not that new, of course) is metacognition. There are many definitions of the term, but the most common is thinking about thinking. One of the sources I read the other day suggested that you really need a metaphor to understand or explain metacognition, and they suggested "the controls for your brain", like the controls for a car. Not bad, but I thought of one last night that I like better.

Have you ever been in or watched a 5k race? I used to run in them in my younger days. I was never in the elite group, or even very close, but they were fun community events. The most popular race in my area is held in the summer, right downtown, in a festival atmosphere. There are easily more than 1,000 runners of all ages. As an earnest, if not accomplished runner I was often annoyed by the kids who ran the race. They usually started out or raced to the front of the pack and took off sprinting when the gun sounded. They would run laterally, sometimes chasing each other, and always at top speed. Of course 4 or 5 blocks later they were spent and would stop suddenly, or veer off to the sidewalk. Really a menace. And of course I never saw them at the finish.

At the other end of the spectrum were the truly serious runners, and then the runners like me. For the serious runners, the ones in contention to win outright, a 5k is still not a sprint. I certainly did not sprint during a race. Why? Pacing. Pacing means that I knew that in order to finish, and to run the fastest race I could, I had to set the right pace. Too fast and I would fizzle out, too slow my time would suffer. Pacing was the key. I never got good enough to consider race tactics, but if you were good enough you would consider if you liked to set the pace, or wait for a strong kick. Perhaps the course is important, or the weather. Diet, pre-race routine, etc.

Pacing, tactics, conditions, all of these things are outside of or removed from the actual skill of running. This is what metacognition is to learning. Learning is interacting with the material you are trying to learn; encoding it, storing it, retrieving it, using it. Metacognition is thinking about the best way to do those things. It's both the principles of learning, and your own tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. We now know much from cognitive science about the better and worse ways of storing information so that it can be retrieved later. And skill acquisition. I'm reading make it stick by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, and they point out many ways that our intuitions about learning are both wrong and misleadingly satisfying. Worth a read.

Just like some people have genetic advantages to running, some people learn better than others. But everyone can benefit from considering their metacognitive practices and abilities, just like all runners need to consider pacing and tactics to perform their best.

There are ways to infuse metacognition into assignments and curricula. We can teach our students about metacognition, and we can create activities that require that they think about their thinking.

The attractive thing about metacognition is that it can be transferred from one setting, or one discipline, to others. There is some debate (and some research) about this, but it looks promising. It now seems painfully clear that our students will forget much of the content of our classes soon after they walk out of our classes, perhaps as soon as they finish an exam. But if we can teach them about metacognition they might be able to learn better in every setting they encounter. I used to think that the key to making life-long learners was to get someone hooked on the content. But maybe the key is to create better learners, so that learning is more successful, and thus more rewarding. We'll see.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

NMC Horizon Report

I found an interesting report put out by something called the New Media Consortium. They claim to be an international body of experts on educational technology, which sounds right up my alley. I was less impressed by the amateurish video on their About page, but the goals is still a good one -- to share ideas about new trends in education. They do seem to be focused on technology in the electronic sense, but the report I read contained trends that went beyond computers and software to include technology more widely defined (see below).

The NMC conducts research about educational technology, although I think they mean research in the broader sense, including gathering information about trends, not the narrower sense meaning conducting studies about the various technologies. They also hold a conference every summer (warning: another hokey video). But their main contribution seems to be the annual Horizon Report, which comes in several flavors, including K-12, Museum, and the one I read, the Higher Edition edition. This report is the product of collaboration between 53 "technology experts" from 13 countries on 6 continents. Technology experts can self-nominate, but it's not clear how easy it is to join the panel. So, take what follows for what it's worth. It's clear to me that the report is a compilation of opinions, albeit the opinions of people who consider themselves experts on technology in education and are willing to put their names to the report (they are listed at the end of the report).

The goal of the report is to identify the trends that will affect education in the next five years. They break them down into three categories: trends accelerating adoption of technology, challenges to adopting technology, and important developments in educational technology. Each category has three levels and two trends in each level. That's 18 trends they discuss, and that's a lot. The report is nearly 50 pages but the way they present the information helps you get to the most interesting parts. Each of the 18 trends gets only two pages, and there are clearly identified sections in each trend, including Overview, Relevance for Teaching, and Further Reading. This makes it easy to jump to the trend that looks interesting and get the point quickly. I found some of the links they provide (to sites outside NMC) quite helpful. It really is worth browsing the report.

The reason I found the report (if I remember correctly) is because an author of a research report on flipped classrooms cited it as evidence that flipping is a hot topic and current trend. Indeed, the 2014 Horizon Report does include flipping as an important development, with a time-for-adoption of one year or less.They provide a nice history lesson about flipping, links to several examples of flipped classes, and links for further reading with brief descriptions. Pretty helpful.

Some of the other trends they identify include learning analytics, social media, hybrid courses, the move from students as consumers to students as creators, competition from new models of education (MOOCs), 3D printing, and gamification. It's a broad view of education. I do think they missed a significant challenge for education: rising tuition costs, but maybe that didn't fall into their purview. And what about the digital divide?

Overall, I found the report, and the NMC, to be yet another source of information about education that I didn't know existed. It's not perfect, but I appreciate their efforts and goals.