At Eaton Park Academy, our staff have a sound understanding of how our children learn best and we are determined as a school to develop our children’s thinking skills and how they use these skills to learn. Ensuring that our children leave us with a secure understanding of how they learn and can call upon a bank of strategies to support them is integral to us to support their learning behaviours and strategies.
What is metacognition?
Research carried out by The Educational Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) on Metacognition underpins our thinking in school. Metacognition is defined as not simply “thinking about thinking”; it is much more complex than this.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition
Metacognition is actively monitoring one’s own learning and, based on this monitoring, making changes to one’s own learning behaviours and strategies. A metacognitive approach typically focuses on allowing the learner to take control of their learning; however, our staff have a fundamental role in this in ensuring our children develop their own metacognitive skills. For our pupils to become metacognitive, self-regulated learners, we must:
- Set clear learning objectives.
- Demonstrate and monitor pupils’ metacognitive strategies.
- Continually prompt and encourage our pupils along the way.