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Research suggests that metacognition is key to higher student achievement, but studies of classroom practice indicate that few students are taught to use metacognition and the supporting cognitive strategies that make learning easier. Educators, you can teach metacognition to your students, so why wouldn't you?

The Forgotten Secret to Leadership Success

By Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers

Follow these four guiding questions to improve leadership and student learning

 

Recent research by London neuroscientist Stephen Fleming indicates that metacognition—‘thinking about thinking’—is the forgotten secret to success across all domains. Educational leaders can use this powerful tool to question, monitor, and adjust their thinking in ways that help drive action toward achieving goals.

We believe that metacognition can be applied to school leaders’ support for teachers and teacher education and improvement. How? By providing opportunities for teachers to work together—and in effect think about their teaching and their thinking about teaching—to improve their teaching practice. By reflecting on best practices for classrooms together, teachers have a chance to become more effective educators, both individually and collectively.

During the past two decades of providing brain-based professional development and university graduate studies, we have seen that when teachers have opportunity for purposeful collaboration, they are more thoughtful, joyful, and resilient professionals.

Mississippi High School Encourages Positivity

At the Center for Innovative Education, we are inspired when schools and districts use our ideas to cultivate a more joyful place for thinking and learning to occur.

At the beginning of the U.S. school year, I want to applaud the educators at Kossuth High School in Corinth, Mississippi, for supporting positivity!

Using one of our articles on the power of positivity in schools, they state, “A positive community of educators within a school has a powerful effect on the students who learn there. Individually, teachers contribute to that positive environment by exhibiting and modeling an optimistic outlook and can-do attitude.”

Australia Report Cites the Importance of Metacognition in Teaching Financial Literacy

Having presented in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia earlier this year, Marcus and I are pleased to see our work is being used in New South Wales. The most recent example that we have learned about is in a report authored by Nikki Goldspink Chaffey of the Narranga Public School in New South Wales.

Ms. Chaffey found particular value in our post, entitled “Metacognition, The Gift That Keeps Giving.” In a report entitled, “Starting Young: An international study of successful primary school financial literary programs” sponsored by First State Super, she cited our article as a resource:

“Research shows a classroom encouraging positive emotions and optimistic viewpoints produces broadened thoughts and actions and improves resourcefulness and exploration, which can result in improved academic achievement and fulfilment. Students who succeed academically often rely on being able to think effectively and independently to take charge of their learning. These students have mastered fundamental skills such as being organised, completing tasks on schedule, making a plan, monitoring their learning path, and recognising when it might be useful to change course. These are skills that we now know can be taught through metacognition (the ability to think about your thoughts with the aim of improving learning).”