Metacognition

What is metacognition? And why is it important?

Metacognition is one’s own ability to think and reflect on their OWN thinking. Now what does this mean? And why it important to our educational process, especially when learning a new language?

The University of Texas, at Austin has been conducting research on metacognition and have divided it into three types:

Metacognitive Knowledge

Describes anything one knows about thinking, especially one's own.

• Declarative knowledge - Knowledge about oneself as a learner and what can influence one's performance.
• Procedural knowledge - Skills, heuristics, and strategies. Knowledge about how to do things.
• Conditional knowledge - Knowledge about when and in what conditions certain knowledge is useful.

Metacognitive Regulation

The process of managing one’s own learning; includes planning, monitoring, and evaluating.

When we are aware of our own thoughts and thought processes, we can better understand the information we are learning, as well as ourselves.

Ask yourself, How do you learn best?

Do you learn well through music, writing, singing, doing?

By understanding our own thinking and learning, we can not only start to learn in the ways we know we learn best, but we can also reflect on the information and how well we know and understand it.

https://ctl.utexas.edu/metacognition. 18/11/25. Dr. Peter Arthur.