Eclectic Technology

What habits and strategies to skilled learners have that other learners may be missing? And can others learn them? The answer to the second question is yes, that can be learned through practice. As to the first question, some of the habits and strategies are below, but you will need to click through to the post to find the rest of them.

1. Skill learners think about their own learning.

2. Skilled learners ask more questions.

3. Skilled learners make mistakes work for them, not against them.

4. Skilled learners use previous learning to help promote new learning.

5. Skilled learners share what they've learned.

How can we work with out students to they learn about their thinking and learn, and view themselves as thinkers and learners?

This post provides an overview of metacognition, beginning with studies of young children. Additional research is shared that discusses of metacognative practices and there is an excellent section Putting Metacognition into Practice where a number of resources are provided.

Four assignments for explicit instruction are shared (and the brief version is below and quoted from the post):

* Preassessments—Encouraging Students to Examine Their Current Thinking

* The Muddiest Point—Giving Students Practice in Identifying Confusions

* Retrospective Postassessments—Pushing Students to Recognize Conceptual Change

* Reflective Journals—Providing a Forum in Which Students Monitor Their Own Thinking

This is followed by a section on "recommendations for developing a classroom culture grounded in metacognition."

The post offers links to three tables that assist with this. The tables focus on:

* Questions for students to ask themselves

* Prompts for integrating metacognition

* Questions to help faculty metacognitively assess their own teaching

The post continues to discuss these topic and provides access to additional tools, resources and examples. It provides a wealth of information and resources about metacognition and the tables of questions and prompts (linked to above) are worth checking out if one of your goals is to help your students understand what it means to be a thinker and learner.