Developing Metacognition in K–12 Education

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
—Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa

Helping students understand how they learn is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen their independence and confidence as learners. Often described as “thinking about thinking,” metacognition plays an essential role in learning. In fact, research shows that metacognition is an even stronger predictor of learning outcomes than intelligence (Muijs & Bokhove, 2020). Metacognition helps students identify learning goals, plan their approach to a task, monitor their progress, and improve their thinking skills. Developing metacognition is an essential goal in K–12 education because it enables students to be more strategic, adaptable, and self-aware, helping them apply their learning in both school and their broader lives.

In a recent review of school-based interventions, Perry and his colleagues (2019) found that teaching metacognition has consistent, medium-sized effects on a range of educational outcomes. Furthermore, these low-cost interventions are effective across grade levels, subject areas, and student populations, including minoritized ethnic groups and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. However, this same group of researchers concluded that “there is little to suggest that schools are using such strategies in any widespread manner” (p. 484). As a result, many students are left without the guidance they need to develop these critical skills.

Without targeted support, many students take a relatively passive approach to learning and do not fully understand or apply their metacognitive abilities. Fortunately, metacognition is a skill that can be taught, and it can be easily woven into existing classroom routines. To help close the gap between what research shows and what tends to happen in classrooms, the following sections outline what metacognition is and provide concrete strategies to help K–12 educators nurture it.

What is Metacognition?

Metacognition is closely related to other high-level thinking processes like self-regulation and executive function. Together, these terms describe the different strategies learners use to purposefully monitor and direct their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Metacognition focuses specifically on thought processes, and it describes both what students know about their thinking (metacognitive knowledge) and the strategies they use to regulate their thinking (metacognitive skills).

Metacognitive knowledge refers to students’ understanding of how learning works, and it consists of declarative knowledge (understanding how thought processes work), procedural knowledge (understanding how to perform thinking strategies), and conditional knowledge (understanding when and why a thinking strategy should be used). For example, a student might understand that summarizing helps them understand a text (declarative knowledge), know how to carry out the steps of an effective summary (procedural knowledge), and recognize that summarizing is especially useful after reading a dense or unfamiliar passage (conditional knowledge).

There are also several different metacognitive skills, which reflect a student’s ability to plan, monitor, control, and evaluate their thinking. Expanding on the earlier example, a student might plan to pause and summarize after each chapter, monitor their understanding as they read, control their thinking by rereading a passage that confused them, and evaluate how well their summary helped them remember the key ideas. These different aspects of metacognition and their relationships are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Components of Metacognition: Adapted from Stanton et al. (2021)

How Does Metacognition Develop?

Metacognition emerges early in life and grows gradually throughout childhood and adolescence. Even at two or three years old, children show early signs of metacognition. For example, preschool-aged children might consider what materials they need for an art activity (planning) or ask for help when they feel confused (monitoring). These early behaviours form a foundation for more sophisticated metacognitive knowledge and skills that strengthen throughout the school years, with notable growth occurring during late childhood and early adolescence.

Early on, metacognitive skills tend to be tied to specific tasks, but they become more generalized over time as students learn that strategies can be applied in different situations. For instance, a student might learn how to use a traffic-light or thumbs up system to monitor their understanding in math class: green/thumbs up = “I understand and do not have any questions,” yellow/thumbs sideways = “I kind of understand but have some questions,” red/thumbs down = “I do not understand and have a lot of questions.” At first, they might only use this system when solving math problems. But, with practice and guidance, they may begin using this same strategy to monitor their understanding when reading a challenging text, editing a paragraph, or encountering new information in other subjects.

Although it develops naturally in children, key takeaway for teachers is that metacognition is also teachable. Some students may develop strong metacognitive skills on their own, but many will not. Without instruction and support, learners often rely on trial and error, use strategies inconsistently, and overestimate their level of understanding. Fortunately, researchers have identified a range of effective strategies that can help foster metacognitive growth in both home and school environments.

How Can We Teach Metacognition?

Sophisticated metacognitive skills “develop only if an individual receives direct instructions, close supervision in critical situations or challenging tasks, and feedback from skilled partners” (Roebers, 2017, p. 41). Considerable evidence has shown that metacognition can be purposefully developed in educational settings, and these interventions are effective across subjects, ages, cultural backgrounds, and socioeconomic contexts (Muijs & Bokhove, 2020). Research has also demonstrated that teaching metacognition improves students’ motivation, use of learning strategies, and academic performance, and it supports their wellbeing by building confidence in learning and helping them feel good at school (Perry et al., 2019).

Educators can use a range of explicit and implicit instructional techniques to teach specific metacognitive strategies (such as goal-setting) and gradually build broader metacognitive skills like planning or monitoring. Explicit instruction involves directly teaching students a strategy by explaining what it is, why it is important, and how to use it. Implicit instruction is a more indirect approach that involves prompting students to use strategies in different situations without providing direct teaching. Each approach has unique strengths, but using them together is the most effective way to develop student metacognition.

Explicit instruction can target strategies related to any of the four metacognitive skills; for example, setting learning goals (planning), assessing whether they are paying attention (monitoring), making connections to prior knowledge (controlling), or judging how well they have retained information (evaluating). When teaching these strategies, it is important to build students’ metacognitive knowledge by teaching them what the strategy is (declarative knowledge), how to use it effectively (procedural knowledge), and when and where it should be applied (conditional knowledge). For example, in a science unit, an educator might teach students how to set learning goals by explaining what a strong goal looks like, modeling how to create one, discussing when goal‑setting is most useful, and then providing opportunities for guided practice as students develop their own learning goals for an upcoming scientific investigation. By taking this explicit approach to developing metacognitive skills and knowledge, teachers can help students become more aware of their learning processes and develop a range of strategies that can be used purposefully to solve different problems (Perry et al., 2019).

When students have learned a specific metacognitive strategy, teachers can then use implicit instruction to prompt students to use the strategy during different class activities where metacognition is not the primary focus. To build on the previous example, after explicitly teaching students how to set learning goals in science, the teacher might use similar prompts to cue students to use these strategies when they begin reading a new book in language arts, start an inquiry project in social studies, or prepare to go on a field trip. These cues help students apply strategies in a variety of authentic situations, developing metacognitive knowledge and building stronger, more transferable metacognitive skills.

Researchers like Lai (2011) and Rhodes (2019) have highlighted many other effective approaches to developing student metacognition, including:

• thinking out loud to model different metacognitive skills;
• asking students questions about their thought processes;
• making students’ thinking visible using things like writing frames or mind maps;
• having students share ideas and evaluate one another’s thinking;
• incorporating formative assessments to help students monitor their learning; and
• highlighting instances where students have effectively applied metacognitive strategies.

As with the earlier examples, it is important to clearly explain the metacognitive skill being targeted, highlight concrete strategies students can apply, embed these strategies across different subjects, and provide opportunities to practise them over an extended period. The following vignettes illustrate how some of these approaches can be applied in different classroom contexts.

Monitoring Comprehension in Grade 3 ELA

During a read aloud, Ms. Chen models how to summarize a short story, explaining how summarizing helps her check whether she understands what she’s reading. She then introduces a simple graphic organizer to guide students through the same process with a new text, using questions like “What was this story about?” and “How well do I understand what I just read?” to prompt students to monitor their comprehension. Throughout the term, she uses similar questions to cue students to apply the strategies during different tasks. Over time, the cues become a natural part of classroom discussions, and students begin using them independently when they encounter new texts.

Planning and Problem Solving in Grade 7 Mathematics

Mr. Patel introduces a step-by-step process for solving word problems in his math class. By thinking out loud, he illustrates how he determines what the question is asking, identifies key values, selects and applies a strategy, and checks his work. Students then work through several problems together as Mr. Patel helps them plan their approach by asking “What is this question asking you to do?”, “What information do you need?”, and “What steps do you need to take to solve the problem?” He prints a poster of these step-by-step skill cues and refers to it throughout the year as students tackle more complex problems.

Organizing and Connecting Ideas in Grade 11 Science

In biology class, Mrs. Lalond explains how mind maps can be a useful tool for studying and making sense of complex ideas. Using key concepts from their previous lesson, she works with the class to build a mind map that organizes information and highlights connections between ideas. Students then create mind maps organizing information from the whole unit, and Mrs. Lalond asks them to reflect on how the process helped them understand relationships between concepts. In later units, she encourages students to use mind maps as a regular study tool and asks questions like, “How are the concepts in this unit connected?” to reinforce the strategy more broadly.

Even with these instructional techniques, teaching metacognition can be difficult. Metacognition is complex, resources often define these skills and strategies differently, and students sometimes find it difficult to explain their thinking. To navigate these challenges, educators need space to continue developing their own metacognitive knowledge and skills, and they must feel supported as they integrate new instructional approaches. At a broader level, developing student metacognition requires school-wide conditions that make this work possible: opportunities for extended professional learning, support for teacher innovation and metacognitive teaching, and a culture that promotes active, reflective learning across the school community.

Conclusion

Metacognition refers to the knowledge and skills that enable students to understand and direct their own thinking. Although they mature naturally to some degree, more refined metacognitive knowledge and skills can be purposefully developed in K–12 settings through a range of explicit and implicit instructional strategies. These approaches can be easily embedded in existing classroom practices, they have many benefits for students’ learning and wellbeing, and they are effective across diverse disciplines, grade levels, and student populations. Because it is accessible, efficient, and effective, teaching metacognition offers educators a powerful way to cultivate thinking skills that will support students throughout their journeys as lifelong learners.

Reflection Questions

1. What strategies do I already use to help students plan, monitor, control, and evaluate their thinking?
2. What metacognitive skills do my students need to strengthen, and how can I use explicit and implicit instruction to support their development?

References

Lai, E. R. (2011). Metacognition: A literature review. https://www.academia.edu/download/76688967/Metacognition_Literature_Review_Final.pdf

Muijs, D., & Bokhove, C. (2020). Metacognition and self-regulation: Evidence review. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Metacognition_and_self-regulation_review.pdf

Perry, J., Lundie, D., & Golder, G. (2019). Metacognition in schools: What does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools? Educational Review, 71(4), 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1441127

Rhodes, M. G. (2019). Metacognition. Teaching of Psychology, 46(2), 168–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628319834381

Roebers, C. M. (2017). Executive function and metacognition: Towards a unifying framework of cognitive self-regulation. Developmental Review, 45, 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2017.04.001

Stanton, J. D., Sebesta, A. J., & Dunlosky, J. (2021). Fostering metacognition to support student learning and performance. CBE Life Sciences Education, 20(3), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-12-0289

Meet the Expert(s)

Dr. Gregory Trenton Boldt

Researcher, Assistant Professor, St. Thomas More College - University of Saskatchewan

Gregory T. Boldt, PhD, is an assistant professor of developmental psychology at St. Thomas More College – University of Saskatchewan. He has worked in different educational and healthcare settings assessing and supporting children with developmental disabilities and behavioral exceptionalities. His research focuses on the creative process and how to nurture creative potential, while also encompassing broader elements of 21st-century learning, talent development, and flourishing.

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Catherine A Little

Professor, University of Connecticut

Catherine A. Little, Ph.D., is a Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. She teaches courses in gifted and talented education and in the undergraduate honors program. Her research interests include professional learning, differentiation of curriculum and instruction to support advanced-level learning, and classroom discourse practices.

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