Metacognition
Photo by Daniel Mingook Kim on Unsplash
I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I realized, whoa, ‘look what’s telling me that’.
Metacognition involves the ability to think about and control one's own thinking. To think critically about the media we consume, we'll want to cultivate and actively use a capacity to identify and work with mental processes that affect the quality of our thinking. Developing effective metacognition is foundational for answering questions like the following:
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Do I know enough about this topic to effectively evaluate the author or speaker's claims?
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Am I motivated to deny a claim simply because it runs counter to my prior beliefs? Alternatively, am I motivated to accept a claim because it supports my beliefs?
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Am I treating an author's arguments differently because of how they look or the group to which they belong?
Further, simply answering questions like these won't do us much good. It's important to have good ideas about what to do once we identify weakness or irrationality in our thinking. The point of this module is to offer some foundations to support aspects of metacognition that we can carry with us as we process information and engage with others via digital media.
Contents of This Module
This module is organized into five parts or chapters linked below. Click the links to navigate to each. Below the menu, you will also find the Metacognition Library, which contains additional resources to give you new ideas and support your thinking.
Metacognition Library
1. Thinking About Thinking: How to Challenge & Change Metacognitive Beliefs | Katy O'Brien | TEDxUGA
This TEDx talk might give you some ideas about how to harness metacognition to assess your own learning process. What do you believe about the effectiveness of your own learning and how can you exert control over your thinking to learn better? Katy’s talk uses the context of interventions for developing better metacognitive habits among students coping with acquired brain injury. She spends quite a bit of time on the example of beliefs about one’s ability to exert attention and remember information. Keeping in mind the talk's context while also recontextualizing for thinking about your media consumption may expand your thinking about deliberately using metacognitive strategies to learn better.
2a. Promoting Student Metacognition
2b. Metacognition
The above two articles are intended to introduce teachers to ideas about metacognition and its importance for student learning. This is, of course, relevant to educators, but this different angle (i.e., teachers as the intended audience) can be useful for expanding thinking for all. Perhaps, for instance, you might see how strategies useful for promoting metacognitive processes in the classroom can be adapted for independent learning. The first article has a look at the general concept of metacognition to help you frame the overall topic (I suggest only reading up to the more specific application to teaching biology). The second article looks at some ideas for how to integrate metacognitive learning goals into the classroom.
3. The art of cognitive blindspots | Kyle Eschen | TEDxVienna
This TEDx talk uses its 15 minutes to illustrate one simple thing: we have cognitive blindspots and it’s very hard, if not impossible, to avoid falling prey to them. It does so using the example context of an illusionists theatrical deception. The analogy is striking and clear enough to help anyone see the impossibility of being an unbiased consumer of information. We often think we have an accurate read on what’s going on in front of us. But as conjurors show us, we don’t. While this is deeply unsettling, it's reality—you can't perfectly discern the info coming your way, but you can always do better.
This site provides a good look at some of the mental tools we can use help us be more open minded to others' perspectives. It's mentioned above in the sections on intellectual humility and strategies for overcoming bias. I use this one with my students—it gets students thinking about the interactions between mental life and the social world and spurs some intriguing discussion.
5. Noba - Teach and Learn Psychology for Free
The Noba Project is at the forefront of providing free education about psychology. I use it in some of my psychology classes and recommend it to anyone who is interested in furthering their independent education about thought and behaviour. Lots of interesting introductory modules to the various areas of psychology. Free to use and share!