More Resources

Metacog­ni­tion (think­ing about think­ing, learn­ing about learn­ing) is a core com­pe­ten­cy all stu­dents should acquire to assist them with under­stand­ing how they learn and then reg­u­lat­ing their learn­ing with effec­tive strate­gies. If we don’t ensure stu­dents have com­pe­tent skills to learn and under­stand their own learn­ing – then why are we even teach­ing?

Web­sites & Hand­outs Research Arti­cles Books
Web­sites & Hand­outs
10 Very Use­ful Teach­ing Strategies/Activities The first hand­out (curat­ed, edit­ed and enhanced by L. Knaack – 2023) shares a sum­ma­ry of 10 very use­ful teach­ing strategies/activities that any post-sec­ondary teacher can use in their cours­es. Along with the hand­out, there are asso­ci­at­ed doc­u­ments that go along with some of the strate­gies men­tioned.
  • Top Ten Metacog­ni­tive Teach­ing Strate­gies – PDF Ver­sion
  • Mod­i­fied Metacog­ni­tive Aware­ness Inven­to­ry (MAI) – PDF Ver­sion
  • Scor­ing Guide for the Mod­i­fied Metacog­ni­tive Aware­ness Inven­to­ry – PDF Ver­sion
  • Approach­es to Learn­ing Chart (3 Approach­es) – PDF Ver­sion
  • Suc­cess­ful Stu­dents Dif­fer Chart: Shal­low and Deep Learn­ers – PDF Ver­sion
Def­i­n­i­tion: Think­ing about One’s Think­ing
Metacog­ni­tive Teach­ing Strate­gies
Stu­dent Resources to Sup­port Metacog­ni­tion
Class­room Assess­ment Tech­niques
 Class­room Assess­ment Tech­niques (CATs) refer to for­ma­tive, assess­ment as learn­ing activ­i­ties for instruc­tors to use to help build metacog­ni­tive skills and pro­vide use­ful and time­ly feed­back to stu­dents. Ange­lo and Cross wrote the defin­i­tive book in 1993, but oth­ers have tak­en their work and shared online.
  • 50 CATS by Ange­lo and Cross: Tech­niques for Assess­ing Course-Relat­ed Knowl­edge & Skills – Hand­out
  • Class­room Assess­ment Tech­niques – Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Class­room Assess­ment Tech­niques Hand­out – North Island Col­lege PDF Ver­sion
Cog­ni­tive Wrap­pers
 Cog­ni­tive wrap­pers are reflec­tive ques­tions that are asked of stu­dents before, dur­ing and/or after a les­son, an exam, an assign­ment etc. The ques­tions encour­age stu­dents to reflect upon how they pre­pared, how they stud­ied, how they planned and orga­nized their time and how they will apply their learn­ing to a future expe­ri­ence.
Con­cept Maps
 Con­cept maps pro­vide rep­re­sen­ta­tions of rela­tion­ships between con­cepts in a visu­al man­ner.
Note-Tak­ing If stu­dents had a more metacog­ni­tive approach to tak­ing notes, they may be able to study and learn bet­ter.
Reflec­tive Writ­ing When stu­dents have oppor­tu­ni­ties to reflect, think pur­pose­ful­ly about their learn­ing and have a chance to think about what is work­ing and what is not – learn­ing can be enhanced.
Metaphors For Teach­ing Using metaphors to help explain a com­plex or abstract con­cept can help stu­dents con­cep­tu­al­ize and make bet­ter con­nec­tions with the con­tent.

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Research Arti­cles
Def­i­n­i­tion: Think­ing about One’s Think­ing
Metaphors for Teach­ing

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Books
Learn­er Cen­tered Teach­ing: Five Key Changes to Prac­tice by Maryellen Weimer (2nd Edi­tion – 2013)
  • Maryellen Weimer―one of the nation’s most high­ly regard­ed author­i­ties on effec­tive col­lege teach­ing
  • learn­er-cen­tered teach­ing focus­es atten­tion on what the stu­dent is learn­ing, how the stu­dent is learn­ing, the con­di­tions under which the stu­dent is learn­ing, whether the stu­dent is retain­ing and apply­ing the learn­ing, and how cur­rent learn­ing posi­tions the stu­dent for future learn­ing
Cre­at­ing Self-Reg­u­lat­ed Learn­ers: Strate­gies to Strength Stu­dents’ Self-Aware­ness and Learn­ing Skills by Lin­da B. Nil­son (2013)
  • An easy book to fol­low with trea­sure trove of short activ­i­ties any instruc­tor can embed into an exist­ing course or class to increase stu­dents’ aware­ness of how to learn
  • Most of our stu­dents nei­ther know how learn­ing works nor what they have to do to ensure it, to the detri­ment both of their stud­ies and their devel­op­ment as life­long learn­ers
Class­room Assess­ment Tech­niques: For­ma­tive Feed­back Tools for Col­lege and Uni­ver­si­ty Teach­ers by Thomas A. Ange­lo and Todd D. Zakra­jsek (Third Edi­tion, June 2024)
  • Com­plete­ly revised and updat­ed third edi­tion pro­vides a research-based, engag­ing guide to assess­ing stu­dent learn­ing where it mat­ters most―at course and class­room lev­els

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