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Metacognition, the act of thinking about thinking, is a higher-order cognitive process centered on managing one's thoughts. This awareness of one's own cognitive processes supports students to gain control of their own learning. As students gradually monitor and assess their learning, they begin to recognize the limits of their own knowledge, planning strategies, and ability to evaluate resources. This allows learners to ultimately become better problem-solvers, decision-makers, and Critical Thinkers. Executive functions are a huge contributor to this metacognitive skill, supporting learners' ability to manage time, focus Attention, and manage multiple tasks to achieve goals as early as the first year of life. Metacognition continues to develop into later adolescence, where students hone their monitoring and control skills, gain confidence in their own thinking, and learn to integrate and apply new information more efficiently.
When learners use their Metacognition, they become aware of their own cognitive processes. Once learners develop the ability to regulate their own cognitive processes, they start monitoring their own thoughts and actions, while consciously modifying their thinking and behavior following these reflections. Metacognition is a complex construct that can be broken down into several important components:
Information continually flows between the different components of Metacognition. For example, a student might use metacognitive monitoring to recognize what areas of a lesson they have the most difficulty with, and decide to study or practice these before an upcoming test using metacognitive control. These metacognitive experiences during learning improve learners' awareness of how their minds process and use knowledge, supporting metacognitive knowledge. Metacognitive development in adolescence involves continuing to fine-tune previously developed monitoring and control skills, including the increasing flexibility in use of metacognitive control, and more accurate monitoring.
Metacognition develops through natural, social interaction with the environment. Adolescent's improved metacognitive ability is related to their increased sense of self and Identity development, resulting in students being more aware of their own task performance and others' perspectives. Important to note is that students with ADHD and learning disabilities who have negative experiences or interactions around repeated failure with both social and academic skills, often have a low sense of self-efficacy, which has been shown to impact some domains of Metacognition.
As adolescents become more independent learners, their confidence in their own knowledge increases and they become less reliant on others. However, educators can continue to support their learners' Metacognition, such as by helping them to practice evaluating their own knowledge or thinking (e.g., through formative assessment such as peer feedback, teacher check-ins, or self-assessment checklists or inventories), and to practice using these evaluations to effectively plan and direct their own learning.
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