Course Introduction and Overview

Awareness of Metacognition

The session aims is to increase your awareness of metacognition which helps learners to be successful within and beyond the school setting by thinking effectively to solve problems and work things out in both familiar and unfamiliar situations. Metacognition can also help students to transfer their learning to different contexts successfully and moves them from dependence towards greater independence.

Upon completion of this course, it is hoped that the following learning outcomes/objectives will be reached: 

  • You will have a clear awareness of what metacognition is and why it matters.
  • You will be familiar with some of the key literature and research about metacognition and how it can impact learning, progress and achievement.
  • You will develop a secure understanding of the different phases and components of metacognition. 
  • You will build a practical toolkit of strategies and approaches for using metacognition in your lessons.

Each module will consist of a variety of pictures, diagrams or similar, and activities to inform you. There will also be a reference section where information will be available for further guidance.

We recommend you download our ‘Thought Journal’ here to enable you to make reflection notes throughout this course.

During the course, there will be an opportunity to download a pdf of information for you to keep.

Where you see this ICON there is an activity for you to complete to reinforce your learning

This first module explains a little about what metacognition is and why it matters. In this module, we will build your awareness and understanding of what metacognition is and why it matters. For this course, we are going to define metacognition as ‘thinking about thinking’ and explore the metacognitive processes involved when learners plan, monitor, evaluate and reflect upon their learning, making changes to realise their learning goals.  

In this module, we are going to explore goal setting and strategy planning. Both goal setting and strategy planning are important cornerstones of metacognition. Learning goals are usually set right at the start of the planning phase. At this point, learners need to think hard about the goals that have been set and begin to plan the strategies that they will use to achieve their goals.

In this third module, we will explore monitoring and self-regulation.  In terms of developing metacognition, the monitoring phase follows the planning phase and monitoring and self-regulation are an integral part of this. At this stage, learners put their plan into action and continue to monitor and check the progress they are making towards their learning goal. 

In this module, we will explore evaluation and self-reflection This forms the evaluation phase of the metacognitive process. At this stage, learners evaluate how successful the strategy they used was in enabling them to achieve their learning goal and consider how they could use this strategy in future. 

After completing the material above, select the “complete module” button below to enable you to save your progress and to continue to the next module. This will enable you to take the final quiz and receive a certificate at the end of the course.