Teaching Metacognitive Skills

“Usually, when we think of teaching, we think of the teacher passing content knowledge to the student.”  I have heard this sort of talk from faculty members at many institutions, even today, and I find it a bit alarming.  The component of teaching that separates it from mere instruction, I argue, is the element of thinking skills. Metacognition, or learning about learning, is one of the fundamental skills that needs to be stressed more often in today’s classroom.  Metacognitive skills such as critical and creative thinking are essential to the success of your students in the classroom.  How might we define and implement them in our everyday class lessons?

Critical thinking skills are those which enable students to make reflective, rational decisions based on arguments, evidence, and logic. Critical thinking is primarily concerned with deciding what to think, believe, or do; its goal is to enable students to come to fair, objective, clear, and accurate decisions about the problems with which they are faced. Creative thinking, on the other hand, allows the thinker to form new combinations and conclusions from given material. Creative thinkers have faith in their own thinking and that of others, and mull things over thoroughly before arriving at a conclusion. How can we foster these skills in the classroom?

Above all, we teach thinking skills by example. Teachers who question, probe, and think critically themselves encourage diversity of opinion, foster flexibility in the face of new evidence, and demostrate that risk-taking is an acceptable--if not always rewarded--action. The kinds of questions we employ go a long way toward fostering the thinking skills of our students. Divergent questions--using words like how, why, interpret, show, and explain--challenge students to defend their reasoning.  Trying to get students started on the road to good thinking skills can be the hardest part of your task.  A good way to begin is by setting aside one lesson period for teaching thinking skills. You should inform your students about what they are expected to accomplish and why that is desireable. In this manner, your students will be able to look at their own thinking processes in a metacognitive manner. That, and a healthy respect for others’ conclusions, is the goal of such a lesson.

You can foster critical and creative thinking skills without spending an entire class period, as well. Wait at least three seconds for an answer to a question. By allowing your students time to consider, you are more likely to receive more well-thought-out answers. Following up questions with why? also encourages your students to take ideological positions and to think critically. Teacherly judgments on student questions should be avoided. By not selecting one answer as “the best one,” you encourage students to think of their own cognitive processes as equal to those of their peers. Praise should be public; negative concerns should be addressed in private. One strategy which encourages metacognitive skills is the technique of playing “devil’s advocate.” By giving arguments contrary to those presented by the student, you challenge students to come up with reasons to defend their positions.  Use the “open question”:  value judgments, or questions which do not have one correct answer, often elicit students’ grasp of material more effectively than more narrow, convergent questions. This is especially true if you encourage your students to re-trace the steps leading to their conclusions. 

We teachers have the responsibility for instilling in our students good critical and creative thinking skills. As I have shown, the methods for doing so are easily integrated into a current traditional lesson plan, and many metacognitive skills can be taught in very subtle ways. The benefits of this kind of improved thinking are enormous; it leads to a more open and effective classroom setting; as well as to students who are more able to grasp, assimilate, and use the content that they are presented in the classroom.