Components

Learn­ers who enter post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion are often unaware of what learn­ing entails, and how to improve on exist­ing strate­gies. Evi­dence shows that if the cor­rect strate­gies for learn­ing are applied and learn­ers apply metacog­ni­tion, their chances of suc­cess are great­ly improved. Two key process­es are essen­tial for metacog­ni­tive learn­ing.

1. Knowl­edge of Cog­ni­tion
   1.  Aware­ness of fac­tors that influ­ence your own learn­ing
   2. Know­ing a col­lec­tion of strate­gies to use for learn­ing
   3. Choos­ing the appro­pri­ate strat­e­gy for the spe­cif­ic learn­ing sit­u­a­tion

    

2. Reg­u­la­tion of Cog­ni­tion
   1. Set­ting goals and plan­ning
   2. Mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol­ling learn­ing
   3. Eval­u­at­ing own reg­u­la­tion (assessing/reflecting if the strat­e­gy is work­ing or not, adjust­ing, and try­ing some­thing new)

The dia­gram to the right depicts the metacog­ni­tive cycle devel­oped through the process of knowl­edge and reg­u­la­tion of cog­ni­tion. The arrows remind us that metacog­ni­tive think­ing is a reflec­tive process and requires the learn­er to con­stant­ly scru­ti­nize what is work­ing, what is not, and actions to take.