3 Insights from the Science of Learning (SoL) Zaretta Hammond
| This month, my three science of learning insights revolve around metacognition, an often misunderstood aspect of learning. |
| 1. Metacognition requires concentration and quiet because attention is a filter, not a spotlight. |
There’s a lot of district-level focus on metacognition: planning, monitoring, and reflecting on one’s thinking as a way to move students through productive struggle. Here’s a quick point to understand about metacognition and students’ attention: Noisy classrooms that boast high engagement might actually be counter-productive to metacognition. Carl Hendricks, professor of Applied Learning Sciences at Academia University in the Netherlands, points out that students rarely suffer from boredom or attention shortages, they suffer from attention surplus – too much stimuli that has to be actively filtered out. Why does this matter? Because attention is not limitless. That filter has a narrow bandwidth, easily clogged by noise and distraction. If classroom talk is not purposeful, it can be the most powerful distractor of all. The job of teaching is not just to provide something worth noticing, but to protect students from everything that isn’t worth their attention at the moment.
So, how can you use this information? The solution isn’t to eliminate all talk or stimulation, it’s to be intentional about what demands attention. Teachers whose instruction is grounded in the science of learning create what we might call “attentional architecture”: environments where what is important stands out precisely because what’s unimportant is de-emphasised through well-designed instruction. Read more about what Dr. Hendricks says about it here. |
| 2. Metacognition requires both awareness and an “attack plan.” |
| When we keep in mind that the main work of metacognition is task analysis, the “attack plan” begins with the move I call Size It Up/Break It Down in Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power. Third grade teachers and researchers, Grace Douglas, Alison Hardy, Katie MacLean, and Sarah Powell (University of Texas at Austin) say that word problems are notoriously challenging for students who have difficulty with mathematics. According to one analysis, word problems make up over 90 percent of the items on high-stakes math tests, so figuring out how to help students improve is an important instructional goal. What students find most difficult in word problems isn’t just the words, but grasping what’s going on in each problem, then translating the scenario into computation, and keeping all this in working memory as they solve the problem slows down computing the answer. “When we reinforce the ineffective keyword strategy,” say Douglas, Hardy, MacLean, and Powell from the study, “we are setting students up for failure, particularly with inconsistent problems.” What’s a better way to solve word problems? Rather than beginning with circling key words, the authors recommend beginning with a metacognitive attack strategy, like this:First, you have to understand the problem. After understanding, make a plan (convert to a computation problem).Carry out the plan. Look back at your work. How could it be better?How to use this information? There are variations on developing an “attack” strategy, but they have one thing in common: the first step is urging students to take the time to just understand what’s going on, because most students skip this stage. Make this an activity where students talk to each other about what they think is going on in the word problem. This is especially helpful in supporting multilingual students. The second step is choosing a simple attack strategy, ideally with a catchy mnemonic that students can remember. But it all begins with metacognition. Check out the article here. |
| 3. Instructional Illusions: The Illusion of Being Student-Centered |
| In his new book, Instructional Illusions, Carl Hendricks outlines ten common traps we fall into when it comes to teaching in ways that go against the science of learning. One he points out is the illusion of being student-centered when in reality we structure instruction around teacher-led processing masquerading as student-centered instruction. The most evident sign that we’ve fallen into this trap is over-scaffolding where the teacher is doing most of the cognitive work in the classroom to move students through a lesson. Hendricks suggests that to shift toward an authentically student-centered classroom, we have to help students develop metacognitive awareness of what they already know about a subject, no matter how unrelated it might seem. Why is this a key to a student-centered classroom? Because, as Hendricks points out, there are two principles of learning: Learners come to understand new information in reference to what they already know. My simple way of saying it is: all new learning must be coupled with existing knowledge. Like LEGOs. If a student doesn’t practice metacognitive awareness of what they know, their brain’s synapses aren’t prepped for incorporating new information. How to use this information? Rather than front-loading information we call “background knowledge,” give students time to surface all the ways they might know something about the topic from their everyday lives – movies, songs, memes. Help them make their schema explicit by starting with metacognitive awareness. |
| 2 Quotes: Thinking About Metacognition |
| Metacognition has many facets, from self-awareness and reflection to understanding our own learning processes and thought patterns. Here are two quotes indirectly related to the topic. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein Einstein reminds us that innovation begins with being aware of our current thinking. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past This quote captures Proust’s insight that true discovery and understanding come from deepening our awareness of what’s already available around us. |
https://www.corwin.com/books/rebuilding-students-learning-267855?inf_contact_key=15c70f0a50151f1159d88f13f4c41feb680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1
