Laurel Springs Recommends How Parents Can Give Children the Gift That Keeps Giving: Metacognition

Laurel Springs, an accredited online private school based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, suggests to students’ parents that they utilize our “Drive Your Brain” approach for helping their children prepare to begin middle school in autumn. Specifically, linking to one of our articles on how to teach metacognition—defined as thinking about our own thinking to improve learning—educators at Laurel Springs recommend that parents teach their children this concept because it can have a positive effect on learning. 

In essence, Laurel Springs educators are utilizing our approach for guiding children to use metacognition as an essential thinking tool that improves learning and creates more independent thinkers. They advise parents that once you begin to understand metacognition, you can model it for your child by working through the steps of problem-solving or learning a new concept verbally.

In our article, “Metacognition: The Gift That Keeps Giving,” we elaborate on how parents and teachers alike can model thinking about thinking. “Model metacognition by talking through problems. We've found that students learn a lot from listening as their teachers use higher-order thinking strategies aloud. They often laugh when their teachers make ‘mistakes,’ and they learn when their teachers stop, recognize the miscue, and step through the process of correcting. This ‘teachable moment’ underscores that everyone makes mistakes, and that mistakes are best seen as opportunities to learn and improve.”

Parents might also, whenever possible, let children choose what they want to read and topics they want to learn more about. When they are genuinely interested and motivated to learn about a topic, children are much more apt to sustain a passion for and interest in learning.

To read the article that Laurel Springs educators are recommending to parents of their students, click on the link. Also, visit the Laurel Springs blog site to learn more about the school.

As we read the Laurel Springs post, we couldn’t help but wonder how much children would learn if both home and school focused on a metacognitive approach to learning. What an exciting thought!