Today, after playing with Camtasia, I continued watching Lilly Conference. Dr. Stephanie Foote from the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellent in Undergraduate Education presented on “Metacognitive Teaching: Reflecting on Our Teaching Practice.” I watched one or maybe two sessions led by Foote as part of the Lilly Conference last fall and enjoyed how interactive the presentations were. Foote began asking the audience how they were feeling, sharing a Wakelet with resources (including the slides?), and stating three learning outcomes for the session. Metacognition was described as “thinking about thinking” and several references and details were included. Foote started by explaining that metacognitive strategies help students. Foote listed several strategies that are metacognitive: think-pair-share, the minute paper, and, one I haven’t heard about “good for” assignment. In the “good for” assignment students describe why a concept or resource is useful. Lecture wrappers were also listed. Self-regulation and the self-regulation cycle by Zimmerman were interpreted and explained by Foote. The cycle includes: forethought/planning/goal setting, monitoring/acting, regulation/control, and reflection reaction. Foote also shared another version that was displayed in a different way yet included similar planning and reflection practices. Foote mentioned being more intentional about responding to students as a metacognitive teacher: this includes reflecting on practices and adjusting. Metacognitive teaching in practice, as described by Foote citing Foote 2020 and Tanner 2017, includes:
- Forethought (planning)
- What are my goals for this course/class/meeting?
- What do my students already know about this topic, concept, or idea?
- What evidence do I have that they know a particular topic, concept, or idea?
- Performance (monitoring)
- What types of reactions did I observe when I introduced this concept?
- How did these reactions change as students engaged more with the concept?
- What helped change their perception of the topic, concept, or idea?
- Self-reflection (evaluating/reflecting)
- How did the class session go?
- What would I do the same and what would I do differently the next time I introduce this particular topic, concept, or idea?
- … and asking “Why?!”
I appreciate that Foote spent some time describing the importance of asking “why?” about how we are teaching, who we are including, what we can change, how can we include and value… Foote mentioned recording an asynchronous session about this and being reflective during the pandemic. Foote used a Google Jamboard to pause and ask the audience to reflect on what they are doing to be more reflective. I also didn’t know Jamboard has a limit of 50! Foote asked volunteers to unmute and one attendee mentioned asking undergraduate learning assistants for feedback.
Foote talked about modeling metacognitive behaviors and this includes being open about personal learning challenges. Foote also shares examples of notes, concept maps, and drawing. I have not done this and should! I could share whiteboard outlines and planning documents. I could also share my GoogleDoc notes. Foote then mentioned admitting limitations and and making “in-the-moment” adjustments. Telling students about ways in which WE apply self-regulated learning intentionally. I haven’t told students about this blog; however, I do post course announcements that are reflections on our journey through the course. There were several additional useful suggestions, including using exam wrappers for teacher feedback. One question was differentiating metacognition and self-regulation, and Foote explained that self-regulated learning is a component of metacognition. I had never thought about it this way… and agree! I was also impressed by how Foote manages to always include interaction, audience input, and a steady pace. During the last part of the presentation, Todd mentioned that he thinks we will start thinking more about the affective elements of taxonomy. I think so too! Even when writing learning objectives we focus on the cognitive domain and there is so much we don’t know about the influence of affective elements on learning. I wonder if metacognition bridges some of this?
