VIEWS From the pen of… JENNIFER WEBB
From the pen of Jennifer Webb
Using metacognition for the benefit of all your students
This month JENNIFER WEBB, author of The Metacognition Handbook, published by John Catt Educational, discusses the benefits of providing pupils with a framework for thinking about learning.
It’s Thursday afternoon. You have spent two weeks learning some critical content and going over exam technique. You have explained, modelled, quizzed, questioned, explored and given feedback. ‘Any questions? Great. Right, off you go.’ Then the questions start – ‘Do we need to use paragraphs?’ ‘Should we add quotations?’ ‘I’ve finished, what should I do now?’
We have all witnessed students exhibiting ‘baby bird syndrome’ - this strange helplessness even though they all have the tools to help themselves, and all of these questions and insecurities detract from the effectiveness of our lessons. It can be infuriating, we are here to help, that is our job, but we’re not here to do their thinking for them. So what is the alternative? Is it possible to train students to become independent learners with intrinsic motivation?
Metacognition is not new. It has been around for almost 50 years - built on a solid foundation of cognitive science and understanding of how effective learners operate - there is a vast array of research and analysis supporting its effectiveness. Metacognitive practices and ideas are woven into cognitive load theory, formative assessment, generative learning, retrieval practice, modelling. Most of us are already using these strategies – either consciously or unconsciously. We know instinctively that independent, motivated and self-aware learners are more successful.
The EEF toolkit ranks metacognition and self-regulation as the second highest impact strategy of all classroom practices, sitting just behind feedback. Described as ‘high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence’, they recognise its effectiveness for low achievers, and that students can make an average of seven months additional progress per year.
Metacognition is highly effective and cheap - so why isn’t it ubiquitous in our schools? There are two barriers - politics and implementation. Metacognition and self-regulated learning have been the victim of raging politics within the profession. Lumped in with many spurious ‘theories’ such as learning styles and multiple intelligences, metacognition has suffered by association and been derided by some as being incompatible with the recent move towards evidence-informed, traditionalist, knowledge-rich curriculum and classroom practice.
‘Implementing’ new classroom practice is complex and often problematic, it requires a change of behaviour and teacher learning at a profound level. This doesn’t happen just because staff have been told to do something on an Inset day. I would question any leadership team which seeks to impose top-down initiatives in teaching and learning by diktat. Many of us have a vague or partial understanding of metacognition - as often happens with sound pedagogical theory - it is either over-simplified or over-complicated and loses its nuance and impact. Metacognition is not a set of non-negotiables - ‘just exit tickets or sentence starters’ - it’s a range of learned, long term, sustained behaviours.
I am not interested in the politics of over-simplification and polarisation which are rife in the education sphere. I am interested in implementing strategies that work and benefit students and metacognition simply provides a framework that enables students to learn more effectively.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metacognition-Handbook-Practical- Teachers- Leaders/dp/1913622533/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+metac ognition+handbook&qid=1631016201&sr=8-1
October 2021 BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA)
Wellbeing in a digital world
Writing in the regular BESA column slot for Education Today this month, Policy Analyst MONICA THOMPSON examines the four aspects of digital wellbeing.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying policy responses, including lockdowns and school closures, have had a severe impact on many people’s mental health and wellbeing and created new challenges for those already suffering from mental illness. Research published by ‘
InternetMatters.org’, commissioned by Dr Diane T Levine at the University of Leicester, refers to the ‘wellbeing in a digital world’ that acknowledges a digital dimension of wellbeing and offers practical solutions. There are many ways of defining and measuring wellbeing. The authors of
the study propose that digital wellbeing is assessed along four dimensions, which comprise developmental wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, physical wellbeing and social wellbeing.
1) Developmental wellbeing People should be able to think and reason and apply their abilities to problem solving and to become able to use technology in ways that suit their needs. • To develop well in a digital world, you can benefit from: opportunities for learning new skills and developing a sense of wonder; opportunities to develop thinking, collaboration, organisation and problem-solving skills; opportunities to bring together content to offer to others. • You will need to manage the risks from: exposure to disinformation; fake news; fallacies and conspiracy theories; wasting or missing opportunities to learn; seeing examples of unhelpful and irrational thinking; cybersecurity challenges.
2) Emotional wellbeing Emotional wellbeing does not mean avoidance of all difficulties or negative emotions. • To be well in a digital world, you can benefit from: opportunities for creativity and self-expression, for example online curation of links to hobbies; opportunities to be authentic, for self-validation and building self-worth. • You will need to manage the risks from: addiction; low self-worth; increased emotional distress; destructive behaviours or beliefs such as self- harm or radicalisation; shaming and isolation; unrealistic comparisons.
3) Physical wellbeing Physical wellbeing means being healthy, growing, and thriving. • To be well in a digital world, you can benefit from: opportunities to maintain a healthy balance between sedentary and active behaviours; to develop new physical skills; opportunities to participate in mobile digital activities; access to supportive or assistive technologies. • You will need to manage the risks from: losing opportunities of doing healthy and joyful activity in favour of sedentary or shut-in lifestyles, sometimes called ‘displacement’; sleep disruption.
4) Social wellbeing We are members of multiple communities and wider systems. • To be well in a digital world, you can benefit from: relationships with significant others who bring care and support, opportunities to both keep apart, and integrate online and offline relationships and the knowledge of when to do this. • You will need to manage the risks of: experiencing and exhibiting bullying behaviour, grooming and other forms of exploitation; forming and/or being unable to escape from destructive relationships; withdrawal and alienation; lack of communication or loneliness; unhealthy comparison with others.
Even though face-to-face teaching has returned, digital interactions have
become even more essential for participation and progress, and the development of these skills is an essential part of preparedness for adult life. This article examined what wellbeing in a digital world means today and assessed the four dimensions of wellbeing proposed by ‘
InternetMatters.org’.
Monica Thompson, Policy Analyst
monica@besa.org.uk @Monica_BESA
Besa.org.uk
www.education-today.co.uk 13
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