6.2 Metacognition
[Metacognitive knowledge is] knowledge about thought processes in general and about one’s own cognitive strengths and weaknesses in particular. It includes knowledge about how to monitor, control, and evaluate one’s performance on cognitively demanding tasks.
Metacognition – thinking about one’s thinking – is relevant in every aspect of our lives (e.g. education, work, family, relationships, friendships, leisure, and community) and can be practised in any situation. It is a highly effective way of learning, doing things more efficiently and achieving successful outcomes. Good metacognitive skills make use of one’s abilities intentionally rather than automatically, leading to independence in learning, allowing control of one’s own learning and working methods, and thereby reducing stress and anxiety. An increase in self-esteem can be a positive outcome, encouraging self-belief and increasing expectations from oneself and others, leading to more confidence and more inclination to persevere, making academic and workplace success more likely.
Learning as much as possible about one’s own thinking and learning processes can help dyslexic thinkers ‘learn how to learn’. This is a process of building on their strengths and self-learned techniques, and developing further through available support and taught strategies. Encourage learning from experience, practice, feedback, and reflection, learning from strengths and failures. By acting positively on feedback and setbacks, and feeding the new information back into behaviour, much deeper learning can be gained.
Encourage self-belief, self-advocacy, and positive self-talk. Our brains do not know what is in the future, only what we are telling it in the moment – so a positive mindset can make all the difference. Support students to think about their strengths – not only what they are good at, but what makes them feel good, what they enjoy. Try to view dyslexia from a strength-based perspective and encourage pupils and students to see their strengths as unique, positive features. Many dyslexic people can have low self-esteem around academic learning, so it’s important to see the positives in different ways of learning, and support challenges with guidance and empathy (Eide and Eide, 2023).
Activity 2 Self-reflection
Metacognitive journaling involves writing about your own thinking and learning processes. For this activity, you might find it useful to employ coloured pens or markers to highlight different aspects of your reflections. For example, use one colour for strategies that worked well, another colour for challenges faced, and perhaps a different colour for new insights or ideas.
Reflect on and write down your answers to the following questions:
What strategies do I use when I am learning something new?
How do I know when I understand something well?
What do I do when I encounter a difficult problem or concept?
How do I monitor my progress while studying or working on a task?
Metacognitive journaling is a great way to become more aware of our learning processes and to track their progress over time.