Most of us probably know the term “metacognition” as “thinking about thinking.” This definition is accurate, but there’s more to it. Using metacognitive strategies helps us be aware of our own thinking and also make decisions to help ourselves learn and perform at our best. Experts in any field are skilled in metacognition. They’re sure about what they know and what they need to practice or learn. They know themselves as practitioners, so they can figure out how best to apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems that come up.
Metacognitive skills develop over time, but they can be supported at any age. Teaching students metacognitive strategies can help them reach higher levels of mastery—so they can use what they learn in different contexts—and help them hold onto that learning over time.
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Picture these students using metacognitive strategies:
- A first grader predicts they have to practice swinging harder from one bar to the next to master the monkey bars. So that’s how they spend their whole recess.
- When their teacher introduces the word “velocity,” a middle schooler remembers the exit velocity readings they get from the simulator at the batting cage. They think, “OK, I know what my teacher is talking about.”
- A high school biology student feels confused when they read about cellular respiration. They sketch a diagram of the process to make sure they really get it before a big test.
Not only are these students tuned into their own thinking, they’re actively taking control of it. As teachers, we can celebrate when students plan, monitor, and adjust their learning behaviors based on feedback. (Please, let’s honor that persistent friend on the monkey bars!) More importantly, we can weave teaching and support into our lesson planning to help metacognitive strategies become habits.
We’ve pulled together a list of metacognitive strategies for the classroom, including tips for emphasizing metacognition during familiar practices you might already use. These tips are rooted in research, and we’ve linked to some reliable books and organizations if you want to learn more.
Plus, don’t miss our free downloadable bundle of metacognitive strategies posters and a handy student reflection sheet. You can use these resources to introduce and encourage metacognition for students.
For students to reflect on their thinking or take any further action, they need to be able to notice and talk about what’s happening in their brains.
1. Get to know each other as thinkers
Bring lighthearted conversations about yourselves as thinkers and learners into your “getting to know you” activities. Have students share one funny thinking challenge they have and one thing they know helps them work or learn. (Mine: I know if I don’t double-check, I’ll always put a piece on backward or upside down when I’m assembling Ikea furniture. I also love quiet and have been known to unwittingly close down coffee shops because I don’t hear everyone else leave.) Keep chatting about each other’s thinking preferences and idiosyncrasies as the year goes on.
2. Teach “learning verbs”
Get in the habit of naming your mental actions, and ask kids to do it too. Simple reasoning games, like 20 Questions or Guess My Rule, are easy starting points. Define mental actions like “remembering,” “noticing,” “switching gears,” “imagining,” and “deciding” as you play the game. Use the same vocabulary to prompt students during academic lessons to “say what your brain is doing right now.”
3. Introduce Thinking Routines
Researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero have been working for decades to provide resources for teachers to “demystify the thinking process.” Their Thinking Routines give students “thinking moves” they can use across many contexts to “make thinking visible.” Each routine includes brief questions or easy-to-remember steps. Check out their free toolkit and pick a few of the Core Routines to try first. To dive deeper, check out the professional book The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practices To Engage and Empower All Learners by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church.
4. Explain how learning changes the brain
It’s empowering for kids to know that learning actually creates physical changes in their brains, and this knowledge can help them get on board with building metacognitive habits. Borrow language from this Frontiers for Young Minds explanation of neuroplasticity to explain the concept to younger kids, or have older students read the article themselves. We also love the new middle grade book Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen by Lori C. Josephson to help teach kids what goes on in the brain as learners build the neural pathways needed for reading and writing.
5. Develop a school-wide approach to teaching about metacognition
Learning metacognitive strategies best happens over time for students, with explicit introduction, modeling, and lots of practice applying strategies within different lessons. Schools can share this work when they agree on common strategies and language across grades and subjects.
It isn’t enough for kids to just think about their thinking—we want them to do something with it! Use these strategies to build in chances for kids to do that work across subject areas.
6. Make a plan to use new learning
Raise your hand if you’ve taught a lesson about a writing craft move or math strategy and then lamented when students completely forget about it when working independently. Planning is a key element of metacognition. Before sending students off to work, ask them to envision—and say or write down—how they’ll use what they just learned during the upcoming task.
7. Pause to predict how a task will go
Predicting how hard a task is likely to be can help students set themselves up for success. Make it a routine to ask students to anticipate how a task will feel. This can help them learn to gauge how quickly they’ll be able to work and what conditions could help them—like moving to a new seat or having a certain resource nearby.
8. Build a Standard of Coherence in reading
“Standard of Coherence” is how researchers refer to a reader’s expectation of how well they’ll understand what they read—and how hard they’ll work to make it happen. In Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language, Meredith and David Liben come back to this idea repeatedly. If we want kids to “read to learn,” we must ask questions that prompt kids to metacognitively monitor their understanding. The Libens also recommend “structured journaling” to support kids’ developing Standard of Coherence. In this routine, kids write their thoughts as they read about what’s confusing, what’s most important, how the information connects to other knowledge, and what “I wonders” they have.
9. Use metacognitive prompts to encourage monitoring
Monitoring means keeping track of what we are doing, learning, and thinking. It helps us flag difficulties or figure out if we need to change course. Metacognitive prompts scaffold monitoring habits until kids can do it instinctively. List the steps of a task on a checklist for students to follow, or come up with the checklist as a group. Post and refer often to prompts like “What’s the goal of this task?” “Am I on the right track?” “Am I confused about anything right now?” “Do I know what to do next?”
10. Phrase learning targets as reflection questions
Consider shifting the language of learning targets from statements to questions. For instance, if your target is “I can use multiple strategies to solve two-digit multiplication problems,” you might post questions for students to think about as they work like: “Have I tried the partial products strategy, the area model, and the standard algorithm?” “Which strategy is quickest for me?” “Which strategy makes the most sense to me?” This prompts students to both hold themselves accountable to work toward the learning target and to consider what’s most effective for them.
11. Use rubrics as metacognitive tools
Rubrics are a go-to tool for making assessment transparent for kids after they complete a task. In addition, when students also use them to plan their work before starting, or reflect on how they’re doing mid-project and plan what to do next, rubrics can also act as mini metacognitive strategies handbooks.
12. Turn questioning around
As teachers, we ask questions all the time, but teaching students to ask themselves questions as they listen, read, or study can help them more independently dial into what they know and what they still need to figure out. At first, encourage students to generate and then answer straightforward who, what, where, and when questions. Then go deeper with “how …,” “why …,” and “what if …?”
13. Use informal retrieval practice for self-assessment
In Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, authors Peter C. Brown, Henry Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel repeatedly highlight the powers of retrieval practice—the act of calling up what you know from memory. Creating and then testing with flash cards, “brain dumping” everything one can remember on a topic orally or in writing, or quick quizzes all help learners assess what they know and what they don’t.
14. Create visual models
Metacognition includes reflection on which modes or strategies best fit a learning situation. Modeling represents verbal information in a visual way, and we give students plenty of chances to experience how helpful this can be. Creating models can look like an artistic response to reading, a simple graphic organizer or sketch, or even a 3D representation of a concept with clay or LEGO. (Bonus: Building models can be a great chance to include more constructive play opportunities for any age.)
15. Practice metacognitive strategies by making students the teachers
Teaching someone else requires planning what you’ll say and anticipating how another will understand it. It also means responding when someone is confused, and reflecting on how much someone else learned. This all adds up to a huge metacognitive workout! Pair students up to monitor each other when solving problems, or use jigsaw strategies to get peers teaching each other content. Or have students demonstrate learning by planning and leading a lesson for younger kids or community members.
16. Include metacognitive prompts on exit tickets
Exit tickets are a go-to strategy for quickly checking in on student understanding at the end of a lesson. Encourage metacognitive reflection by asking students to share what they know and what they think they need to work on next. Or ask how the lesson added to their prior knowledge or what strategies worked well for them. Check out our list of 30 Exit Ticket Ideas for lots of examples!
17. Coach kids to maximize study time
In Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better, cognitive psychologist Megan Sumeracki and colleagues emphasize retrieval practice, especially when it’s spaced out over time, as a top way for students to review information and get a realistic picture of where they’re still unsure. Show students how to assess what they know through retrieval practice. Then help them use what they find out to create an effective study plan before a test. You can also find downloadable posters for effective study strategies from Megan Sumeracki at The Learning Scientists.
18. Leave time to reflect on feedback when returning assignments
Yes, it always feels like a rush when you’re passing back papers, but building in time for students to reflect on the feedback you’ve given is powerful. Include a written reflection sheet with returned work, or have students record an oral reflection, answering a list of questions like “What are two great achievements on this work?” “What mistakes did I make?” “How do my errors show what’s still tough for me?” “What could I do differently next time?” (Our article 45 Awesome Must-Use Questions To Encourage Student Reflection and Growth has lots more ideas and a printable list.)
19. Track and celebrate successes
Reflection isn’t just about noting areas for improvement. Specifically articulating kids’ successes—or even having them track them—motivates them to keep it up. Shout those achievements out loud too. One meta-analysis about the effects of progress monitoring on attaining goals found that public acknowledgement of progress impacted success.
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