Examples in Action – Teach Anywhere

Metacognitive Learning Strategy awareness Activity	Pre-Assessment of Content Activity	Concept Mapping & Visual Study Tools Activity
Classroom Assessment Tools

There are many ways to include Metacognitive practice into a classroom. Each of the below practice seeks to enlighten the student of their own threshold of knowledge, or self-guide the student in realizing the degree of knowledge or understanding they currently have on a concept or topic.

Metacognitive Learning Strategy awareness Activity

Engage your students at the beginning of the semester with an activity that helps establish the connection between study methods and their connection to Knowledge of Cognition. Have students fill out this handout: Approaches to Learning Chart (3 Approaches) – PDF Version.

After students have placed a check mark or X beside each statement, provide the following definitions:

Deep Approaches to Learning: Students examine the significance of what they are learning, try to make sense of it, connect and think more elaborately and holistically about the topic. They develop their own understandings of new knowledge from integrating it into their existing knowledge structures and critically analyze the new information coming in. Students tend to read beyond the course expectations, have a high motivation to learn and make use of evidence, inquiry, and evaluation skills throughout their studying. This approach usually results in greater success with retaining information and recalling it easier.

Strategic Approaches to Learning: Students organize their learning with the intention to achieve high scores/grades or other positive outcomes. Learners organize their time and distribute their effort to the greatest effect. They seek out previous exams and assignments to predict questions. Strategic learners use both shallow/surface and deep strategies depending on what is being learned or what time they have available. Strategic learning works best when it is more closely aligned with deep approaches.

Shallow or Surface Approaches to Learning: Students focus on discrete details and pieces of information that they feel is important to learn. There is an emphasis on memorizing these pieces of information that falsely gives the learner a sense of comprehension of the whole picture. The learning approach is narrow as they concentrate on details (definitions, key words, theories, etc.). Students focus on reproducing unconnected facts that they think will help them in a test or exam. Students focus on “what do I need to pass the test”. Learning is superficial and does not promote real understanding.

Now ask your students to determine which definition matches the statements in each of the 3 blocked areas of the chart. By completing this self-assessment activity, students are faced with a summary of their own personal learning strategies and a sense of their effectiveness through the above definitions. For those who strongly align with deep strategies, excellent news. For those who instead align with mostly shallow strategies, this provides space to pause and consider next steps. This simple activity can help your students develop further Metacognitive awareness of their own learning path.

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Pre-Assessment of Content Activity

Finding out what students already know about a topic can help students begin to think about how learning works. This activity requires students to really consider and personally evaluate the depth of knowledge they possess on a given topic. Through this self-reflection students are further developing their metacognitive skills. Here is one way to conduct a pre-assessment (or a student self-assessment) of new content.

Create a few key questions about the content/topic. Give the questions to students a week or two prior to when the topic will be discussed in class. Questions should focus on asking students what they know already about the topic, possible identification of any misconceptions they have about the topic, challenges or successes they have had with the topic, exploration into past experiences or applications of the content/topic. These questions may be in the form of a homework assignment, an in-class poll, a short reflective writing piece done in class and handed in etc.
Have the students individually hand in their responses anonymously. Skim through the answers after class. Possibly categorize/summarize all responses by themes.
Share responses with students the next class either verbally or a summary of themes.
Have a discussion with students about how these questions can help them in thoughtful planning of how they might approach a new idea or topic or how they will approach course content and associated studying/learning strategies.

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Concept Mapping & Visual Study Tools Activity

Concept maps help students to be creative and see the connections between multiple concepts or topic areas all on the same page. The act of concept mapping requires a metacognitive outlook to seek out connections and correlations between different topics within a course, or courses within a program. The visual arrangement of bit sized information helps students to see the overall picture, rather than getting bogged-down in specific details. When conducted as a group activity, more voices and connections can be generated that may not have been considered by each student individually. As these connections are analyzed, each student must consider their own thoughts on connections and implications for what is written. Do they agree with everything proposed? Do they desire further explanation or rationale for an arrow or topic? Are there inaccuracies? Each of these actions helps students to develop their metacognition.

Below is an example of a partial mind map for a biology course. This can be created quickly and free with class collaboration with many different online platforms. This one is a Public Diagram that can be used as a template for any topic provided by Coggle.

Here is another AI driven app that can assist in making mind maps

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Classroom Assessment Tools

There are many short activities you can do during class time that will help promote metacognitive thinking in your students. Sometimes these little activities are called “Classroom Assessment Tools” or simply “CATS”. Below is a sampling of a few tools to consider with your students. Each tool takes a few minutes to do in class and minimal time to plan beforehand. The intent of CATS is to provide immediate feedback to students, and sometimes also faculty, on the depth of understanding each person has on a topic or concept. CATS are best deployed throughout the learning journey to create time for students to pause, evaluate their learning, and make adjustments if necessary. A larger list of CATS is available.

Assessment Method	Description	How To Use
Ticket-Out-The-Door	During the last few minutes of class, students write a response to a question or two about class concepts or a question or two about how the learning experience was for them etc. Hand in as exiting the class.	Review/read all before next class and use to clarify, correct or elaborate more for students.
One Minute Paper	During the last few minutes of class, students write response to “Most important thing I learned today” and “What I understood the least today”.	Review/read all before next class and use to clarify, correct or elaborate more for students.
Muddiest Point	Similar to One-Minute Paper – but only ask students to describe what they didn’t understand during class and what they think might help them understand better.	Same as One-Minute Paper but if many students have same problem, reteach concept another way.
Student-Generated Test Questions	Divide the class into groups and assign each group a topic on which they are to each write a question and answer.	Use as many of the questions as possible on next test.
Memory Matrix	Students fill in cells of a two-dimensional diagram with instructor-provided labels such as a comparison chart outlining similarities and differences in two columns against a variety of concepts in the discipline.	Tally the number of correct and incorrect responses. Look for patterns amongst the incorrect responses. Address in class.
K-W-L Chart	Label three charts K (What I KNOW Already), W (What I WANT to Know) and L (What I have LEARNED). Complete the first two before a unit/topic and the last one at end.	Discuss with students – their perceptions of what they thought they knew, what they have come to know etc.
Directed Paraphrasing	Ask students to write a layperson’s “translation” of something they have just learned (geared for a non-expert audience) to assess their ability to comprehend/transfer concepts.	Categorize student responses according to characteristics you feel are important. Address in class.
One Sentence Summary	Students summarize knowledge of a topic by constructing a single sentence to cover the core concept. The purpose is to require students to select only the defining features of an idea.	Evaluate the quality of each summary in brief fashion. Note if students have identified the core concepts of the class topic. Share with students.
Think-Pair-Share	Give the class a question. Allow everyone to think on own for a few minutes jotting down some thoughts. Then ask students to pair up with a peer and discuss thoughts for another few minutes. Can do groups of 4 as well. Ask to share with whole class.	Use when you want to have a better discussion by a greater number of students. By thinking alone first and with small groups of peers, shared responses should be richer and more varied.
Application Cards	After teaching a theory, principle or procedure, ask students to write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned to determine if they can see the transfer of their recent learning.	Quickly read through once and categorize them according to quality. Pick out a broad range of examples to share with the class the next day.
Classroom Opinion Polls	Using ‘clickers’, or online polling questions, ask students a variety of questions about a topic and seek their anonymous opinion.	Often polling devices can present immediate results back to the class to provide discussion and next steps.
Weekly Report	Written by students each week in which they address three questions: What did I learn this week? What questions remain unclear? And What questions would you ask your students if you were the instructor to find out if they understood the material?	Read at end of each week, categorize responses and share with class. Follow up on unclear questions with class or small group of students.
Concept Tests	Instructor presents one or more questions during class involving key concepts, along with several possible answers (multiple choice). Students indicate (by show of hands, or poll/clicker voting) which answer they think is correct. If most of the class has not identified correct answer, students are given a short time to persuade their neighbor(s) that their answer is correct. The question is asked a second time to gauge class mastery.	Often lasts a few minutes but uncovers misunderstandings, and great conversation amongst students. Share answer after second voting session to see how the class responses changed or didn’t change.
Instructor Meetings	Instructor meets informally with students either in class or after class to answer questions, inquire about conceptual understanding or provide feedback on student learning.	Design specific questions to help guide the meeting and address concepts and understandings you want to know more about.

The below videos are from the K. Patricia Cross Academy. Although not every resource provided on the their website is “metacognitive” in nature, they provide many powerful tools and examples of best practice for post-secondary educators. From the K. Patricia Cross Academy website:

“We are dedicated to supporting faculty by offering free instructional videos, downloadable resources, and CrossCurrent articles that clearly outline how to:

Implement high-impact, evidence-based teaching techniques that improve all students’ learning; and

Document student learning in ways that provide the information teachers need to improve their teaching as well as assist them in their efforts for hiring, tenure, and promotion”

Link: https://kpcrossacademy.ua.edu/techniques/lecture-wrapper/

Link: https://kpcrossacademy.ua.edu/techniques/think-pair-share/

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