Metacognition and Learning

Abstract

McCormick presents a brief historical overview of metacognition and its emergence in the early 1970's with a concentration on metamemory. Contemporary research that focuses on underlying metacognitive processes and concepts are reviewed as is research on the role of metacognition in individual and classroom learning. Contemporary research is reviewed on classroom interventions designed to facilitate the development of metacognition. Four areas for future research are outlined: how to more accurately assess metacognition; neuropsychological processes and their relation to metacognition; the role metacognition plays in bilingualism and the education of bilingual students; and how to best integrate metacognition into initial and ongoing teacher preparation programs.

Metacognition in Language Learning and Teaching

“…Successful writing is often associated with metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation behaviour (McCormick 2003). While a number of researchers give examples of metacognitive components in several sub-processes of writing, e.g.…”

“…While a number of researchers give examples of metacognitive components in several sub-processes of writing, e.g. planning, organising, goal setting, translating, evaluating, monitoring and revising (Dimmit and McCormick 2012;McCormick 2003;Sitko 1998), others argue that writing as a whole is "applied metacognition", and therefore needs to be defined from a metacognitive perspective (Hacker, Keener, and Kircher 2009, 160).…”

“…Conditional knowledge refers to knowing when, where and why to make use of declarative and procedural knowledge. This is especially important when it comes to the effective selection of strategies and allocation of resources (for a more detailed description of these knowledge types, see for example or McCormick 2003. In the writing process, conditional knowledge enables the learner to make particular decisions about how to approach a given task-for example, what writing environment needs to be created when carrying out particular parts of the writing process-or which strategies to choose.…”

“…Research shows, for example, that metacognitive knowledge positively influences the quality and effectiveness of learning (Hartman 2001;McCormick 2003;Paris and Winograd 1990;, the use of learner strategies and self-regulated learning (Wenden 2002), the development of learner autonomy (Victori and Lockhart 1995) and academic success (Zimmerman and Bandura 1994). The role of metacognition has also been widely acknowledged with respect to writing (Dimmit and McCormick 2012;Hacker, Bol, andKeener 2008, Hacker, Keener, andKircher 2009;Harris et al 2009;McCormick 2003;Sitko 1998).…”

“…Research shows, for example, that metacognitive knowledge positively influences the quality and effectiveness of learning (Hartman 2001;McCormick 2003;Paris and Winograd 1990;, the use of learner strategies and self-regulated learning (Wenden 2002), the development of learner autonomy (Victori and Lockhart 1995) and academic success (Zimmerman and Bandura 1994). The role of metacognition has also been widely acknowledged with respect to writing (Dimmit and McCormick 2012;Hacker, Bol, andKeener 2008, Hacker, Keener, andKircher 2009;Harris et al 2009;McCormick 2003;Sitko 1998). In the present paper, I use the notion of metacognition, initially defined as "knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena" (Flavell 1979, 906) in order to investigate the potential role of reflection about learning processes in foreign language writing instruction (see also Forbes 2018, this volume, who explores the potential of the foreign language classroom for developing metacognitive writing strategies, and the extent to which these strategies are transferred between FL and L1 classroom contexts; and Zhang and Qin 2018, this volume, for a study on EFL learners' metacognitive awareness of writing strategies in multimedia environments).…”