A pupils’ learning capabilities and achievements vary. Some pupils seem to learn like they are just eating peanuts so they say while others seem to struggle to attain even minimal learning objectives. Various researchers attributed a pupil’s learning success to metacognition.
Metacognition is defined as a student’s awareness of their level of understanding of a topic. It is related to comprehension. How a pupil deduce concepts in a studied material measures his/her level of metacognition.
There are some beliefs that seem to influence how a pupil or a person learns. One is that being good in a certain subject is inborn talent. This is usually connotative with Mathematics. Another is that knowledge is composed of isolated facts. When a pupil fail to recognize relationships of concepts, it would most probably happen that he/she will really find difficulty in learning a subject.
Another misconception is that learning is fast. Some would think that a child is being given more than a spoonful he/she can handle in learning. The key is to assess what, why, and how a pupil learns and from there, providing learning concepts can be easier to plan and feed to them.
One more wrong belief is being good at multi-tasking. While there is nothing wrong per se with this skill, in learning, it would be more helpful and healthier if a pupil learns one concept one step at a time in a particular subject. This allows for better metacognition and mastery.
Metacognition can be instilled and enhanced in a learner. A teacher would need some time to pre-assess a pupil so he/she would know how to help him/her better particularly in the aspect of being able to raise his/her awareness on understanding concepts and lessons presented to him/her.
References:
Dunlosky, J. & Bjork, R. A. (Eds), Handbook of Metamemory and Memory. Psychology Press: New York.
Flavell, J.H. (1979). “Metacognition and cognitive monitoring. A new area of cognitive-development inquiry”. American Psychologist
Garner, R (1990). “When children and adults do not use learning strategies: Toward a theory of settings”. Review of Educational Research
By: Ruel P. Labrador | T – III | Morong Elementary School
