Metacognition definition: "Awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes" (Merriam-webster.com, 2014) Overall, metacognition is "thinking about thinking." Some people are more metacognitive than others.
Metacognition research: "We engage in metacognitive activities everyday. Metacognition enables us to be successful learners, and has been associated with intelligence (e.g., Borkowski, Carr, & Pressley, 1987; Sternberg, 1984, 1986a, 1986b). Metacognition refers to higher order thinking which involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning." Activities such as planning how to approach a given situation or task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature. It is important to study metacognitive activity and development to determine how students can be taught to better apply their cognitive resources through metacognitive control.
How you may use it:
Teachers can use this strategy with their students by teaching students how to ask questions during reading and model “think-alouds.” Ask learners questions during read-alouds and teach them to monitor their reading by constantly asking themselves if they understand what the text is about. Teach them to take notes or highlight important details, asking themselves, “Why is this a key phrase to highlight?” and “Why am I not highlighting this?” Another way teachers can use this strategy is to have students draw out concepts of the topic and ask how they relate to each other. It's great for an ongoing project and for students to think about their thinking.
How it will benefit student learning: Metacognition refers to learners' awareness of their own knowledge and their ability to understand, their own cognitive processes. Metacognitive skills are important not only in school, but throughout life. in the real world. "(Mumford, 1986) says that it is essential that an effective manager be a person who has learned to learn. A person as one who knows the stages in the process of learning and understands his or her own preferred approaches to it - a person who can identify and overcome blocks to learning and can bring learning from off-the-job learning to on-the-job situations." Students benefit from metacognition because they will be using it all the time during school and not at school. Humans automatically think about their own thinking.
Writing component of the strategy: W.6.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Writing is tied into this strategy because students can write their metacognition thoughts down on paper, analyze them, and reflect. I gave an example above it could be as simple as a teacher asking his or her students "Why is this a key phrase to highlight?" The teacher will refer to a text the class is reading.
2 videos with short summary: The first video is a teacher that is teaching her class how think about their learning. She teaches her students to self-evaluate when learning. She gets the class engaged by asking questions like "what strategies do you use when you are stuck and need help?" A boy answers the word wall. Her instruction is great because she is visually writing key factors of thinking about learning down for the class to see and having a whole group class discussion, which is engaging for students. The teacher can assess her students with questions thinking about their learning by calling on all of her students or have do think-pair-shares and observe them.
The second video is an example of how think about your thinking. The teacher demonstrates a think-pair-share with her students because it's a strategy to use metacognition. It's engaging for students because they get to interact with one another and share their thoughts. The teacher can assess by making anecdotal record. Her instruction is great because she models it then the students do it.