SEGURIDAD INDUSTRIAL.

The adult learner can become successful if they learn to develop and manipulate their learning. Metacognition is broadly defined as awareness and control of one’s learning and is

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considered to be ‘essential to intelligent functioning’, (Gourgey, 1998, p82). Metacognition is said to be ‘second-order cognitions: thoughts about thoughts, knowledge about knowledge, or reflections about actions’, (Weinert and Kluwe, 1987, p8). It is ‘the ability to monitor, evaluate, and make plans for one’s learning, (Everson and Tobias, 1998, p65) and is said to affect the acquisition, comprehension, retention and application of what is learned as well as affecting the efficiency of learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving, (Hartman, 1998). According to Rønning (2009) awareness of one’s own study behaviour (meta-cognition) is inter-related with good time-management because such awareness is important for adult learners to create realistic study timetables in and around their other obligations.

According to Schraw (1998, p114) cognitive knowledge includes ‘declarative knowledge’ relating to knowledge about oneself as a learner and how factors influence one’s performance such as limitations to one’s memory capacity, rehearsal to aid memory; ‘procedural learning’ which enables individuals to perform tasks automatically; and ‘conditional knowledge’ which relates to them knowing when and why to use declarative and procedural knowledge, e.g. when and what information to rehearse.

Self-regulated learning refers to ‘the self-directive process through which learners transform their mental abilities into task related academic skills’ and is seen to be proactive rather than covert as a result of teaching, (Zimmerman, 2001, p1). Hence, self-regulated students are said to be ‘metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviourally active participants in their own learning process’ (Zimmerman, 2001, p5). For students self-regulated learning follows a cyclical model:

- Self-evaluation and monitoring to judge how effective they are being,

- Goal setting and strategic planning to analyse what is needed and set a plan to achieve it, - Strategy-implementation monitoring to execute the plan or monitor its accuracy,

- Strategic-outcome monitoring to study performance outcomes to determine the actual effectiveness of the plan,

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Higher performing students can then regulate their cognition. This means that they can control their learning and improve their performance using a set of activities. These are usually learning strategies and awareness of potential breakdowns in comprehension. Overall, three essential skills exist: planning, monitoring and evaluation, (Schraw, 1998). Firstly, planning involves selection of appropriate strategies and allocation of resources that affect performance; then monitoring refers to periodic self-testing while learning to enable awareness of comprehension and task performance. Thirdly, evaluation relates to the appraisal of the efficiency and outcome of one’s learning including re-evaluating one’s goals and conclusions, (Schraw, 1998).

Mayer (1998, p49) also differentiated between ‘retention tests’, meaning the use of cognitive skills in similar situations, and ‘transfer tests’, meaning the use of cognitive skills in differing situations. Students may solve routine problems in which they have already learnt how to solve the problem, but find greater difficulties with non-routine problems which are unlike anything they have solved in the past. Equally, the poorer student/ problem-solver may simply believe that they have not confronted this problem or situation before. This classification relates well to vocational pre-registration learning of skills and problem-solving.

Importantly, it is thought that metacognitive knowledge and regulation improves as expertise improves within a particular domain. As students acquire more metacognitive knowledge in a number of domains, they may construct general metacognitive knowledge (e.g. understanding limitations or memory) and regulatory skills (e.g. selecting appropriate learning strategies) that cut across all academic domains. However, Schraw admitted substantial debate on this point amongst researchers, (Schraw, 1998, p117).

Problem-solving

Mayer (1998) explained the abilities of problem-solving as having domain-specific knowledge as well as the knowledge of what to do, when to do it. He explained ‘metaskills’ as knowing when to use various skills, how to coordinate them and how to monitor them in problem solving. According to Mayer, these should be learned within the context of realistic problem-

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solving situations which seem ideal for the pre-registration health-care student and one assumes to be a method by which the accelerated student organises their learning. Mayer (1998, p57-58) also cited several studies relating to ‘interest theory’ suggesting that students ‘think harder and process the material more deeply when they are interested rather than uninterested’, although to assume that adult learners are any more motivated than traditional school-leaver students when studying vocational courses is worthy of further debate. The assumption is that content itself will drive the students’ desire to become effective learners. Gourgey (1998, p81) cited several authors who argued that it is the relation of subject material to real-world behaviours that enable a deeper learning and understanding and the transfer of knowledge. However, as noted previously studies of accelerated courses within nursing have suggested that some accelerated students view their education as focussed upon end product rather than process or professional development, (Cangelosi, 2007; Pepa et al., 1997)

It seems likely that metacognition is an advanced skill and more likely to be found in motivated adult learners as it is argued that it, itself, appears to be a learnt skill that requires development:

When students have become used to and have been rewarded over the years for passive and rather mindless learning, they will not jump at the chance to take a more thoughtful or mindful approach to what they are doing, (Sternberg, 1998, p129).

The concept of metacognition is important when understanding how accelerated courses might work. If questioning is an advanced principle directed towards higher-order thinking, as confirmed by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2000), questions generated by the students themselves promote active thinking and learning than if generated by the teachers themselves, (Gourgey, 1998, p84).