Presentación y antecedentes

The teaching of metacognition, whether through specific skills acquisition

programmes or the teaching of such skills across all subject areas, is seen by a number of researchers, including Griffith and Ruan (2005), as being

fundamental to helping children develop these skills and thus improve success in the classroom.

Doran and Cameron (1995) report that although, in their view, metacognition originates early in life, it does not develop sufficiently for children to be able to transfer the skills taught in one situation to another, unless they are specifically taught that this is possible. In order to develop such skills successfully teachers need to organise children’s learning, and the nature of feedback, to specifically enhance this area.

“Teaching is not only about the transmission of facts (and never has been). It is also concerned with teaching children how to learn.”

(Doran and Cameron, 1995, p.22)

In order for children to learn they need to actively process ‘information’ rather than receive ‘knowledge’. By 1995 there were a number of programmes that were designed to help children’s learning, including Instrumental Enrichment, Somerset Thinking Skills and De Bono’s work with the Cognitive Research Trust. Teaching learners how to learn in a planned and structured way was seen as something that could happen in school. Doran and Cameron (1995) suggest that all pupils benefit by explicit self-questioning when presented with a given task or problem. Thinking about, and taking control of, their own learning could happen by using a given set of questions both at the beginning and at the end of activities. The researchers suggest that every Reception (also known as FS2) class teacher should encourage young children to plan activities and to monitor their plans in a structured way. The importance of dialogue in a learning situation is also emphasised and Doran and Cameron (1995) suggest that teachers should focus on asking questions which help pupils identify the

successful strategies they are using and encouraging them to develop further strategies to assist themselves in the future.

Paris and Winograd (1990) also advocate the benefit of direct instruction programmes where pupils aged seven to eleven can learn to identify learning goals and learn to use, and apply, skills effectively to reach them. In addition to this pupils are also conscious of the need to develop these skills as part of the curriculum as well as through direct instruction.

Other approaches that could incorporate metacognitive skills into classroom practice include ‘scaffolded instruction’ of tasks by adults which is based, at least in part, on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Socially constructed learning, as defined by Vygotsky, considers the importance of the role of

language in learning. Schunk describing the key points in Vygotsky’s theory states;

“Social interactions are critical; knowledge is co-constructed between two or more people.”

(Schunk, 2011, p.243)

Vygotsky considered the social environment critical for learning and believed that social interaction transformed learning. One of his key theories is that children working in the Zone of Proximal Development “allowed them to develop greater awareness of themselves, their language, and their role in the world order.” (Schunk, 2011, p.244)

The Zone of Proximal Development is where skills, that are too difficult to master by the child on their own, are developed with guidance and

encouragement from another knowledgeable person. Hall, Leat, Wall, Higgins and Edwards (2006) give five different roles that might be taken by a more capable peer, or adult, to support learning in this way; getting the child’s interest, establishing and maintaining a view of the goals relevant to the task, highlighting features of the task that might be overlooked, demonstrating how to achieve goals and finally helping to control frustration. By developing

metacognitive skills in this way the opportunities to share between the peer-tutor, or adult, and the child exactly why people have made different judgements and choices is enhanced and individual learning is extended in a more social and interactive way. Scaffolding is discussed in greater depth at 2.8.1 below.

There is no doubt in the mind of the researchers that metacognitive skills can be developed in children through teaching the specific skills. However, there are differing opinions about the age at which these skills can be taught.

Teaching metacognitive skills, whether through specific programmes or as ways of working by adults within the classroom, can be part of a good Early Years classroom. ‘Good Early Years Practice’ as described by Siraj-Blatchford, Sylva, Muttock, Gilden and Bell (2002) includes the cognitive interactions of sustained shared thinking, direct teaching and monitoring of activities. They describe settings with excellent practice as those where there is the highest proportion of sustained shared thinking interactions. The interactions can be child initiated or started by the adult.

When considering what has been described above about metacognition in the classroom links can be made with what is described as ‘Good Early Years Practice’ whether that is in terms of direct instruction as described by Paris and Winograd (1990), scaffolding as described by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) or through the learning dialogue described by Doran and Cameron (1995).

Baker and Brown (1984) in their work on metacognitive skills and reading say that although self-regulatory mechanisms, including checking, planning,

monitoring, testing, revising and evaluating the strategies for learning, are more developed in older children, they can also be used by younger ones, especially in monitoring their own activities on a simple problem. Their view is that learners are more likely to take control of their cognitive endeavours when faced with tasks that are neither too easy, so they don’t bother, or too hard, so they give up. They describe reading as involving metacognitive skills in many areas and as children generally focus on reading skills in the classroom to use elsewhere they conclude that interventions to teach these skills are very worthwhile and that:

“we can train the cognitive skills for comprehending and studying

texts……… This training can be carried out under the pressure of normal classroom settings………Study skills can be trained, and such training can be durable and generalizable.”

(Baker and Brown, 1984, p.387)