I've always thought about metacognition in the context of "thinking about thinking," or being self-aware of one's own thoughts. To help myself to really grasp this idea, I've always compared the metacognitive process to the use of soliloquies in literature. With the dramatic move towards realism in the 18th century, soliloquies fell out of vogue, but they are still excellent tools for playwrights to expose the inner thoughts and, in the case of Macbeth above, evil machinations. An audience is literally hearing the thoughts of a character as they themselves would "hear" it.
This analogy of the soliloquy is not enough. The analogy implies that metacognition is passive, and that thinkers are simply observing their thoughts. Metamemory, or self-insight as Martinez puts it, is certainly an important concept. After all, metamemory is "predictive of subsequent learning." Metacomprehension, especially after our discussions in class, sticks out to me as being even more important of a concept for teachers.
It's hard to do. Apprenticeship inherently involves admitting to one's self that they are, in some way, inadequate, and who really wants to do that? It's also hard for one to admit that they're an expert (as we saw in class the other day). Story-time with Steve really stuck out to me as an excellent way of modeling metacognitive reading strategies because it levels that playing field. It's an excellent way of showing students that, yes, we all struggle, but that there are ways to mitigate that struggle if we learn to be aware of those bad qualities.
A little harsh....
I completely agree with your thoughts on how apprenticeship can be difficult, either by believing you are an expert or admitting you do not comprehend something you read that everyone else seems to grasp. Especially for students that are not strong readers, it can be overwhelming to sit in class and consistently not be able to analyze the text the way one's peers can.
ReplyDeleteI also thought the same as you about "Story Time with Steve;" although I go over metacognitive strategies with my students, I have never taken the time to actually model an entire story to really show students that regardless of what the text is, one can use these strategies to not only comprehend the text, but to also develop a much deeper meaning.
Fortunately for me, I realized in High School that there are different ways of approaching the same question and different ways of getting to the same answer depending on how you think and how you learn. When I had solved a problem in a High School math class in a totally different way than my teacher, he admitted to me that this made him learn something new about his approach to teaching. I have often found myself taking a different path toward solutions than many of my peers, sometimes with more ease and sometimes with more difficulty. This has helped me become self aware of my learning processes.
ReplyDeleteWe all may be capable, but need different ways of thinking to reach conclusions. Knowing this has helped me immensely in teaching and tutoring individual students. I attempt to interview my students as to how they came to a conclusion so I can better understand their thinking. Then I start to get them to think about how they are thinking. I've often had to explain that test such as the ACT only deal with one way of thinking and they need to learn how the test writers think in order to be successful on the test. I hope to continue helping students become self-aware of their metacognitive processes so they can learn from all types of teachers.
I really like your analogy of a soliloquy to metacognition. The idea of having an inner dialogue that no one else is aware of, questioning, giving an opinion, expressing emotion, etc... is a good comparison to what goes on in metacognition. However, I do agree with you that it goes beyond the analogy of a soliloquy. The three steps that take place in metacognition allow for different skills and strategies to be implemented to assist the students in reading.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with your statement on the importance of modeling metacognitive reading strategies. I think that in order to teach, the teacher should be confident that he/she is an expert, but as a teacher I should also have the confidence to admit that I might not know it all. I think this is a good way to model metacognitive reading strategies to our students. When we are struggling to remember something or having difficulty solving a problem, this should be an opportunity to model to our students what you can do and what they can do when they come across a challenge. Apprenticeship is important and like you, I plan on implementing it in the first weeks of teaching for my students.
I have very little teaching experience I have only substitute a couple times and co taught in an observation session resulting in very little to no experience establishing a classroom philosophy. The reading with the Steve activity was a great example of a something I could do in the classroom. Which you excitedly pointed out that you could this in the first twenty days to help establish the tone of the classroom. Another aspect of the classroom management you talk about is self talk and self awareness as a means of identifying ones weaknesses. The average Joe/Jane doesn't want to admit publicly or even to one’s self their faults and weaknesses. As the teacher showing some of the faults you have can be teaching tools for students to move past their own weaknesses.
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