Metacognition is the process by which learners use knowledge of the task at hand, knowledge of learning strategies, and knowledge of themselves to plan their learning, monitor their progress towards a learning goal, and then evaluate the final outcome.
The literature on expertise highlights the importance of metacognitive skills. Experts not only possess more knowledge that is better organized and integrated compared to novices, they have highly developed metacognitive skills. They are more aware of themselves as learners, strategically plan their approach to a task, and constantly monitor their progress. They know when they should check for inconsistencies or errors, which allows them to more productively redirect their efforts. Experts also engage in reflection to better understand why an approach is working or not working or why a strategy should or should not be used in the future and under what conditions (NRC, 2000; Berliner 1994).
Many researchers describe metacognition as having two basic components: a knowledge component and a regulatory component (Ertmer & Newby, 1996; Schraw, 1998).
Metacognitive knowledge encompasses knowledge of oneself as a learner (e.g., strengths, weaknesses, prior knowledge/experience in the area, preferred time of day for study, preferred study location) and how the human brain encodes, stores, organizes, and retrieves information (Pintrich, 2002). Thus, students should learn about effective learning strategies and how, when, and why to use them (Serra & Metcalfe, 2009).
Metacognitive knowledge also includes knowledge of the task to be completed and knowledge of effective strategies to complete the task. For example, the metacognitive knowledge to solve textbook engineering problems includes strategies for diagramming the system and determining which governing or constitutive equations apply. Students with more metacognitive knowledge learn better than those with less metacognitive knowledge.
Self-regulation of learning involves the ability to plan, monitor, and control the learning process.
Planning includes activities such as setting goals and selecting appropriate strategies to reach the learner’s goals. In order to plan an approach to learning a concept or a task, a learner needs to analyze the learning task and set goals and sub-goals. Specific goals (e.g., describe how torque causes angular momentum to change) are more likely to enhance learning than general goals (e.g., to get a good grade on the exam). Near-term goals are more motivating than distant goals. Monitoring one’s progress toward specific, near-term goals is much easier than monitoring progress on vague, long-term goals. Learners are likely to expend more effort on difficult goals. Assuming that the learner has the prerequisite skills required, difficult goals help to build self-efficacy (Schunk, 1990). Students can benefit from explicit instruction and guidance in goal-setting (Moeller, Theiler, & Wu, 2012). While it will not be discussed in this brief review, self-efficacy and beliefs about intelligence impact goal-setting and goal orientations.
Once the goals are set, the learner utilizes their metacognitive knowledge of themselves as a learner and of learning strategies to develop an action plan for goal attainment. The next step in the feedback loop of self-regulated learning is monitoring.
Monitoring is the real-time self-assessment of progress towards goals. Regulatory control is the use of monitoring data to inform whether or not adjustments to the plan are needed to reach learning goals. Control involves decisions such as prioritizing items to study, how long to study a specific item, and when to stop studying (Kornell & Bjork, 2008). The more accurate one’s monitoring of the learning process, the better control will be exercised. Students can better monitor and control their learning by seeking feedback from peers and instructors, and by reviewing texts and other instructional materials after retrieval attempts (Butler, 1995; Rawson & Dunlosky, 2007).
Two MIT students in the same subject can both be novices in a given topic. They participate in the same learning activities (e.g., problem sets) and have access to the same textbooks and web resources. However, one of these students performs better on the exam than the other. Why? One possible reason (there are many) is that this student may be more aware of themselves as a learner. They may be more reflective and more strategic in their use of learning strategies. That is, they may be more knowledgeable of learning strategies in general and more skillful in matching learning strategies with task demands.
If a goal of college is to help students become expert learners, then helping students develop metacognitive skills should be an explicit part of the curriculum.