I now have a podcast on metacognition and you can download episodes here https://metacognition.podbean.com/ & https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-metacognition-channel/id1535074653
The importance of metacognition for quality learning and problem solving is well documented. Howe... more The importance of metacognition for quality learning and problem solving is well documented. However, despite such acknowledgement metacognition remains a fuzzy concept with a range of variously agreed upon definitions. A consequence of this is that ...
Abstract This paper reports on the development, self-critique and evolution of research methods f... more Abstract This paper reports on the development, self-critique and evolution of research methods for interpreting and understanding students' metacognition that were developed through the Metacognition and Reflective Inquiry (MRI) collaborative study. The MRI ...
Several problems persist in relation to students' science learning. One problem is that stude... more Several problems persist in relation to students' science learning. One problem is that students have often been found to be lacking in metacognition, that is, they show minimal evidence of knowledge, awareness and motivated application and control of learning processes associated with higher order learning including cognitive strategies. A second problem, not restricted to science learning and related to the first problem, is that students have been repeatedly found to possess narrow views of teaching and learning that restrict their willingness to be self-regulators of their own learning. Both problems are associated with students' lower than desired learning outcomes in science education and the as yet unresolved problems associated with students' possession of alternative conceptions of science phenomena. A means of communicating with students regarding alternative views of teaching and learning and empowering learning processes is required to try to address these pr...
Second International Handbook of Science Education
This chapter builds on Richard White’s (1998) chapter in the previous edition of this Internation... more This chapter builds on Richard White’s (1998) chapter in the previous edition of this International Handbook of Science Education. In that chapter, White focused on decisions and problems in research on metacognition. My intention in writing this chapter is to review progress in the area of metacognition over the past 10 or so years, particularly in science education, but also, as space permits, across the fields of education and cognitive psychology in general. My reasons for drawing broadly from the literature for this chapter relate to a growth in interest in the study of metacognition across education and psychology that is evident, for example, in the establishment of a Special Interest Group (SIG) on metacognition within the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and the publication of the journal Metacognition and Learning, the flagship publication of that SIG.
Abstract Mainland China has over 100 million secondary students and they are successful in intern... more Abstract Mainland China has over 100 million secondary students and they are successful in international science comparisons. However, there is little empirical research into Mainland Chinese students conceptions of science learning. The study analyzed data provided by ninety-six students from ten secondary schools in two provinces in northern China. Seven categories of conceptions of learning science emerged from the phenomenographic analysis: listening to the teacher, attending to exams, memorizing, understanding, doing problems, hard work, and improving oneself. Three of the seven categories, i.e., listening to the teacher, attending to exams, and hard work, are not found in the literature of conceptions of learning. These three categories of conceptions of learning are reflections of Confucian heritage Chinese culture that values hard work, advocates respect for teachers, and that holds a long history of imperial examinations. The outcome space of the conceptions of learning is proposed as a holistic structure in which the seven categories of conceptions of learning share equivalent positions. This is in contrast to the hierarchical structures commonly found in the literature. The variation in conceiving science learning among the participants resides in the two or more sub-categories of each of the seven categories. The implications for educational reform and school practices are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to establish the factorial construct validity and dimensionality of... more The purpose of this study was to establish the factorial construct validity and dimensionality of the Metacognitive Orientation Learning Environment Scale-Science (MOLES-S) which was designed to measure the metacognitive orientation of science classroom learning environments. The metacognitive orientation of a science classroom learning environment is the extent to which psychosocial conditions that are known to enhance students' metacognition are evident within that classroom. The development of items comprising this scale was based on a theoretical understanding of metacognition, learning environments and the development of previous learning environments instruments. Four possible hypothesized structure models, each consistent with the literature, were reviewed and their merits were compared on the basis of empirical data drawn from two populations of 1026 and 1223 Hong Kong secondary school students using confirmatory factor analysis procedures. The scale was calibrated using...
Metacognition refers to an individual’s knowledge, control/regulation, and awareness/monitoring o... more Metacognition refers to an individual’s knowledge, control/regulation, and awareness/monitoring of his/her thinking and learning processes. A more simplistic and less useful definition often used is that metacognition is thinking about one’s own thinking. Research and scholarship in metacognition in science education typically draws on metacognition theory from educational psychology and engages and adapts that theory to address issues regarding the learning and teaching of science. Metacognition is executive, higher-order thinking that is superordinate to but that also interacts closely with the cognitive processes that students employ to construct knowledge and develop understanding via their science learning experiences. Successful science learners are consistently found to be adaptively metacognitive for the demands of their learning environments. While it might be appealing to view an individual’s metacognition as good or bad, this is a simplistic notion. Rather, what might be valuable metacognition in one context or culture may be considered less or more valuable or adaptive in another, depending on the task or learning and cognitive demands of that particular context or culture. It is important to consider contextual and cultural factors when theorizing and investigating metacognition. Developing and enhancing metacognition is congruent with existing and reform directions in science education such as conceptual change, scientific inquiry, and the use of information technology. Each of these reform directions has both commonly shared and reform-specific cognitive processes associated with them, and students should develop metacognition in relation to such cognition. For example, students should be metacognitive regarding the process of consciously considering new information against their existing scientific conceptions and theories and should be able to engage in conscious revision of their existing views in light of new information that might become available via the use of, for example, a microworld computer simulation. Further extending this example, students should be metacognitive regarding how the use of the computer technology might facilitate their learning and conceptual revision compared with, for example, the use of a textbook or a laboratory investigation. It is increasingly acknowledged that while domain-general metacognition across curricular subject areas is important, metacognition research and scholarship in the field of science education should and increasingly does account for the domain-specific science information to be learned by students and also the cognitive processes and metacognition to be employed by them to learn, understand, and employ that information and those processes within and beyond their science classrooms. Metacognitive knowledge can be classified as declarative, e.g., definitions and/or conceptions of thinking and learning; procedural, e.g., knowing how to engage in learning and/or cognitive processes; and conditional, knowing when and why to engage particular learning and/or cognitive processes to achieve learning objectives. Science learners are all metacognitive to varying extents, but because metacognition is internal, it can be difficult to qualify and/or quantify an individual’s metacognition. Much of students’ metacognitive knowledge is tacit, and they often do not have a language to detail or explain their metacognitive knowledge or thought processes. This can lead to difficulty in evaluating the nature of students’ metacognition and/or the impact of interventions
Abstract A constructivist framework was used in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to i... more Abstract A constructivist framework was used in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to investigate the effect of the metaphor" learning is constructing" on students' metacognition and learning processes. Many students became increasingly metacognitive ...
Abstract A debate is ongoing in Hong Kong regarding whether local and international schools vary ... more Abstract A debate is ongoing in Hong Kong regarding whether local and international schools vary in the extent to which they provide classroom learning environments that support the development of students' higher order thinking and metacognition. This study ...
Changing students' views of themselves as learners and the learning strategies they ... more Changing students' views of themselves as learners and the learning strategies they use requires methods to make their views regarding teaching, learning and their roles as learners explicit to themselves and to teachers. This was an interpretive study that ...
As a teacher I have always been interested in how students learn. My experiences in schools and n... more As a teacher I have always been interested in how students learn. My experiences in schools and now universities has seen me continually question how to teach students how to learn and, more recently, how to teach pre-and in-service teachers to teach their ...
Internationally there is concern in relation to the traditional learning environments evident in ... more Internationally there is concern in relation to the traditional learning environments evident in many science classrooms and the levels of understanding of science developed by students in such environments. Further, students have generally been found to be poor ...
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 2002
... Gregory P. Thomas The University of Hong Kong Campbell J. McRobbie Queensland University of T... more ... Gregory P. Thomas The University of Hong Kong Campbell J. McRobbie Queensland University of Technology, Australia ... Elle est centrée sur l'utilisation des micro-ordinateurs dans un laboratoire de chimie destiné aux étudiants et aux étudiantes de 1 lc année d'une école ...
The importance of metacognition for quality learning and problem solving is well documented. Howe... more The importance of metacognition for quality learning and problem solving is well documented. However, despite such acknowledgement metacognition remains a fuzzy concept with a range of variously agreed upon definitions. A consequence of this is that ...
Abstract This paper reports on the development, self-critique and evolution of research methods f... more Abstract This paper reports on the development, self-critique and evolution of research methods for interpreting and understanding students' metacognition that were developed through the Metacognition and Reflective Inquiry (MRI) collaborative study. The MRI ...
Several problems persist in relation to students' science learning. One problem is that stude... more Several problems persist in relation to students' science learning. One problem is that students have often been found to be lacking in metacognition, that is, they show minimal evidence of knowledge, awareness and motivated application and control of learning processes associated with higher order learning including cognitive strategies. A second problem, not restricted to science learning and related to the first problem, is that students have been repeatedly found to possess narrow views of teaching and learning that restrict their willingness to be self-regulators of their own learning. Both problems are associated with students' lower than desired learning outcomes in science education and the as yet unresolved problems associated with students' possession of alternative conceptions of science phenomena. A means of communicating with students regarding alternative views of teaching and learning and empowering learning processes is required to try to address these pr...
Second International Handbook of Science Education
This chapter builds on Richard White’s (1998) chapter in the previous edition of this Internation... more This chapter builds on Richard White’s (1998) chapter in the previous edition of this International Handbook of Science Education. In that chapter, White focused on decisions and problems in research on metacognition. My intention in writing this chapter is to review progress in the area of metacognition over the past 10 or so years, particularly in science education, but also, as space permits, across the fields of education and cognitive psychology in general. My reasons for drawing broadly from the literature for this chapter relate to a growth in interest in the study of metacognition across education and psychology that is evident, for example, in the establishment of a Special Interest Group (SIG) on metacognition within the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and the publication of the journal Metacognition and Learning, the flagship publication of that SIG.
Abstract Mainland China has over 100 million secondary students and they are successful in intern... more Abstract Mainland China has over 100 million secondary students and they are successful in international science comparisons. However, there is little empirical research into Mainland Chinese students conceptions of science learning. The study analyzed data provided by ninety-six students from ten secondary schools in two provinces in northern China. Seven categories of conceptions of learning science emerged from the phenomenographic analysis: listening to the teacher, attending to exams, memorizing, understanding, doing problems, hard work, and improving oneself. Three of the seven categories, i.e., listening to the teacher, attending to exams, and hard work, are not found in the literature of conceptions of learning. These three categories of conceptions of learning are reflections of Confucian heritage Chinese culture that values hard work, advocates respect for teachers, and that holds a long history of imperial examinations. The outcome space of the conceptions of learning is proposed as a holistic structure in which the seven categories of conceptions of learning share equivalent positions. This is in contrast to the hierarchical structures commonly found in the literature. The variation in conceiving science learning among the participants resides in the two or more sub-categories of each of the seven categories. The implications for educational reform and school practices are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to establish the factorial construct validity and dimensionality of... more The purpose of this study was to establish the factorial construct validity and dimensionality of the Metacognitive Orientation Learning Environment Scale-Science (MOLES-S) which was designed to measure the metacognitive orientation of science classroom learning environments. The metacognitive orientation of a science classroom learning environment is the extent to which psychosocial conditions that are known to enhance students' metacognition are evident within that classroom. The development of items comprising this scale was based on a theoretical understanding of metacognition, learning environments and the development of previous learning environments instruments. Four possible hypothesized structure models, each consistent with the literature, were reviewed and their merits were compared on the basis of empirical data drawn from two populations of 1026 and 1223 Hong Kong secondary school students using confirmatory factor analysis procedures. The scale was calibrated using...
Metacognition refers to an individual’s knowledge, control/regulation, and awareness/monitoring o... more Metacognition refers to an individual’s knowledge, control/regulation, and awareness/monitoring of his/her thinking and learning processes. A more simplistic and less useful definition often used is that metacognition is thinking about one’s own thinking. Research and scholarship in metacognition in science education typically draws on metacognition theory from educational psychology and engages and adapts that theory to address issues regarding the learning and teaching of science. Metacognition is executive, higher-order thinking that is superordinate to but that also interacts closely with the cognitive processes that students employ to construct knowledge and develop understanding via their science learning experiences. Successful science learners are consistently found to be adaptively metacognitive for the demands of their learning environments. While it might be appealing to view an individual’s metacognition as good or bad, this is a simplistic notion. Rather, what might be valuable metacognition in one context or culture may be considered less or more valuable or adaptive in another, depending on the task or learning and cognitive demands of that particular context or culture. It is important to consider contextual and cultural factors when theorizing and investigating metacognition. Developing and enhancing metacognition is congruent with existing and reform directions in science education such as conceptual change, scientific inquiry, and the use of information technology. Each of these reform directions has both commonly shared and reform-specific cognitive processes associated with them, and students should develop metacognition in relation to such cognition. For example, students should be metacognitive regarding the process of consciously considering new information against their existing scientific conceptions and theories and should be able to engage in conscious revision of their existing views in light of new information that might become available via the use of, for example, a microworld computer simulation. Further extending this example, students should be metacognitive regarding how the use of the computer technology might facilitate their learning and conceptual revision compared with, for example, the use of a textbook or a laboratory investigation. It is increasingly acknowledged that while domain-general metacognition across curricular subject areas is important, metacognition research and scholarship in the field of science education should and increasingly does account for the domain-specific science information to be learned by students and also the cognitive processes and metacognition to be employed by them to learn, understand, and employ that information and those processes within and beyond their science classrooms. Metacognitive knowledge can be classified as declarative, e.g., definitions and/or conceptions of thinking and learning; procedural, e.g., knowing how to engage in learning and/or cognitive processes; and conditional, knowing when and why to engage particular learning and/or cognitive processes to achieve learning objectives. Science learners are all metacognitive to varying extents, but because metacognition is internal, it can be difficult to qualify and/or quantify an individual’s metacognition. Much of students’ metacognitive knowledge is tacit, and they often do not have a language to detail or explain their metacognitive knowledge or thought processes. This can lead to difficulty in evaluating the nature of students’ metacognition and/or the impact of interventions
Abstract A constructivist framework was used in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to i... more Abstract A constructivist framework was used in conjunction with an interpretive methodology to investigate the effect of the metaphor" learning is constructing" on students' metacognition and learning processes. Many students became increasingly metacognitive ...
Abstract A debate is ongoing in Hong Kong regarding whether local and international schools vary ... more Abstract A debate is ongoing in Hong Kong regarding whether local and international schools vary in the extent to which they provide classroom learning environments that support the development of students' higher order thinking and metacognition. This study ...
Changing students' views of themselves as learners and the learning strategies they ... more Changing students' views of themselves as learners and the learning strategies they use requires methods to make their views regarding teaching, learning and their roles as learners explicit to themselves and to teachers. This was an interpretive study that ...
As a teacher I have always been interested in how students learn. My experiences in schools and n... more As a teacher I have always been interested in how students learn. My experiences in schools and now universities has seen me continually question how to teach students how to learn and, more recently, how to teach pre-and in-service teachers to teach their ...
Internationally there is concern in relation to the traditional learning environments evident in ... more Internationally there is concern in relation to the traditional learning environments evident in many science classrooms and the levels of understanding of science developed by students in such environments. Further, students have generally been found to be poor ...
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 2002
... Gregory P. Thomas The University of Hong Kong Campbell J. McRobbie Queensland University of T... more ... Gregory P. Thomas The University of Hong Kong Campbell J. McRobbie Queensland University of Technology, Australia ... Elle est centrée sur l'utilisation des micro-ordinateurs dans un laboratoire de chimie destiné aux étudiants et aux étudiantes de 1 lc année d'une école ...
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