STEP 4: 7 Strategies for Metacognition - Discussion Forum

It could be as simple as "how would someone of ______ background respond to your statement?"  Ethical applications and other fields' perspectives are a focal point to much of what we do.

This is why I love teaching English. Literature is directly connected to so many issues and students appreciate discussions which challenge how they think about those issues.

This is something that I use in criminal law.  We discuss so many controversial issues.  I find myself reminding the students that sometimes hearing a different view on something may change your thoughts on the topic, but it also may strengthen your own views on a topic. 

I approach this in reading class by providing a variety of reading experiences that will challenge student's thinking.  Power of choice in reading is important; however, I think we have to guide students to read issues that present opportunities that may challenge their beliefs.

We use an approach similar to this in a lesson with our freshmen regarding decision making.  After breaking into small groups, we use scenarios and ask students how they would react to certain situations.  The 'answers' that students share are not necessarily correct nor incorrect, but get them thinking about their own decision making process and help them to understand those around them.  Facilitation the conversation without filtering the students thoughts and ideas (barring extremely inappropriate thoughts and ideas) allows students to gain a better sense of empathy and challenge themselves on where they stand on certain issues.  Ideally, in regards to formative assessment, over a student's high school years they would become more open and understanding to other perspectives and be able to integrate those perspectives with their own.

I challenge social stereotypes when we discuss Roman dress because much like today, what a Roman wore also spoke on a societal level about social class and gender-modesty issues.  I would like to incorporate this more in class especially when we discuss stoicism or eventually when I create a Roman laws unit.

I challenge my students with social stereotyping when we discuss Roman dress because much like today, the way a Roman dressed spoke to societal values, social class and gender-modesty issues.  I would however like to use this more in cultural units especially when we discuss stoicism and eventually when I create a unit about Roman laws.

One thing that I could do is after kids do their self assessment and then take their quiz, I could have them look at there self assessment score and their quiz score and see how accurate they were predicting how well they would do.

I am a firm believer that how a teacher treats another student is how other students will treat that particular student.  Modeling acceptance and respect for cultural diversity will be key component in the project that we are working on. Formative assessments may include self reflection and comments on what information is needed to better understand a specific topic.  Recognizing the importance of understanding what may be "unknown" to the whole improves the "whole" in it's entirety when it comes to diverse populations of learners.  

These are topics that come up quite frequently in both my Global Studies and Criminal Law classes. I enjoy watching students begin to form their own opinions and opening their eyes to the perspectives of others as well. My unit is on genocide and so reflexive thinking is naturally built in to most aspects of it.

Positing a moral dilemma is a good strategy for upper level Spanish classes.  In Spanish there are several such as immigration, stereotyping and illegal drugs. to name a few.  There are some groups that can handle a debate better than others.  

I highly enjoy having students discuss/write about/reflect upon moral dilemmas. I think that this can facilitate growth and change over time.

Reflexive thinking is a great strategy to help students dive deeper into the content and ask questions, make inferences and provide information around higher level thinking. I will try to use this when a student is having difficulty with implementing his/her self-advocacy skills.

With our project we will be able to have students dig deeper into their cultural thinking and understand that everyone is different, but also they same. It will help them reflect on their culture and connect it to others, along with celebrating them both.

Letting students discuss their perception/ perspective in a way that is safe and understanding by all parties helps trigger reflexive thinking. Having students ask their "out of the box" questions no matter what level they may be at; then discussing it.  

Reading different pieces of literature about different cultures and backgrounds will help students see life in different perspectives and be more accepting and not as biased.  Having them reflect  by writing about it would be a good progress monitoring tool.

this metacognition strategy can come into play in my unit on common problems, and root causes of social issues lessons. Being aware this is a metacognition strategy will give another lense to the discussion as people become aware of their own biases in their thinking. 

Great article - We  all discussed the power of self awareness.  The importance of reflexibility process.

After reading this article, especially the 7th step Facilitate reflexive thinking, I came up with a brainstorm. In the AP Biology Classroom we are supposed to be preparing our students to be successful on the National AP Test which has several essays. I think a great formative assessment would be to give the students an essay question in class but have it be a small group of 2 or 3 that collaborate to write the essay and then present their answers to the class.  I have never done this before and think it would be awesome!

I like the idea of providing students with opportunities to reflect on their learning - to think about their deeper understanding of a topic, how their thinking has changed or deepened.

How and where might you implement this practice in the project you're working on?  

How might this help you to innovate formative assessment?

We really wondered whether this reflexive thinking is relevant to a third grade level.  Getting a young student to think about biases is very difficult as they are still developing deeper thinking and problem-solving skills.

Because of student’s age and how they value parent opinion still, we feel that we need to be really careful about pushing our own biases, since they are still in a developmental stage.

Student conversation and engagement is key in a learning environment. Effective conversations can create deeper thinking and student to develop strategies to think about their own thinking.