Exploring Air Quality

Metacognitive strategies

Pilot

When you “think about your own thinking” you are engaging in the process of metacognition. The word metacognition comes from the Greek prefix meta- and the root word cognition. Meta- means "going beyond." For example, you can think of metaemotions as the emotions you have about your own emotions. This could be feeling disappointed that you got angry at a friend. Cognition refers to the process of thinking. Thus, metacognition refers to an individual thinking about his or her own thoughts.

You can think of the process of metacognition as similar to a person piloting a plane. An airplane pilot makes decisions and oversees every aspect of a flight. Similarly, you are the pilot of your own learning — you manage your thoughts about and plans for learning. In order to effectively manage and direct your learning, you can develop an awareness of your thought processes and the strategies that will enhance them.

Just as a pilot uses a checklist to monitor a flight, you can use a checklist of four metacognitive strategies to manage your learning: understand and plan, monitor, evaluate, and loop back. This will guide you in using your metacognitive skills most effectively.

You can enter this loop at any point during learning and then move forward as you strategize. This animation will loop you through an exploration of metacognitive strategies.


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