Meta Cognitive Observation

Introduction
Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them, e.g., the learning-relevant properties of information or data. —J. H. Flavell (1976, p. 232). Metacognition is referred to as, as “thinking about thinking” and can be used to help students “learn how to learn.”

Metacognition is important, human uses metacognition in thinking, problem solving, learning, etc. Metacognitive involves activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task.

This activity will help the students understand on how metacognition should be applied to improve the different study skills. Procedure
Interview 3 different children – one age 4 – 6, one age 7 – 9, one age 10 or older.

These will be semi-structured clinical interviews. Record the questions you ask and the child’s answers. You do not have to ask the questions exactly as they are posed below, but the questions should be very similar. Follow up with additional questions when children seem like they have more they can tell you. Remember to record any follow up questions you ask. You do NOT have to rewrite the notes you take while conducting the interviews, but you do need to hand them in.

Develop a list of 10 UNRELATED but common words. Take a familiar story (like a fairy tale or fable) and rewrite it so it is OUT OF ORDER (it may help to actually write out the story so that you do tell it out of order).

For a child in kindergarten or younger, follow this procedure.

Tell child that you are going to say a list of 10 words, and you want the child to remember the words and you’ll ask the child to repeat the list in a little while. Remind the child to listen closely, and then say the list slowly (about one word every second or two).

Ask the child the following series of questions:

How many words do you think you will remember? What do you need to do to remember the words? Are you good at remembering?

Do some filler questions (what are your favorite things, what do you like to do… to fill up about 5 minutes between giving the list and now).

Ask the child to list all the words you asked them to remember. (Record their list) Ask the child what did they do the help them remember? Did it work?

Tell the child you are also going to tell them a story and that you want them to listen carefully and retell the story JUST LIKE YOU TOLD IT. Tell the story you rewrote.

Bring a children’s book of appropriate age. Using the book, ask children things like, “where is the title of the book,” “where does it tell who wrote the book”, “where’s the beginning and where is the end of the book”. {These are essentially filler questions}.

Ask the child to retell the story, reminding them they should retell it in the order you told it.

Thank the child for helping you.

For a child in first grade or older, do the following:

Tell child that you are going to say a list of 10 words, and you want the child to remember the words and you’ll ask the child to repeat the list in a little while. Remind the child to listen closely, and then say the list slowly (about one word every second or two).

Ask the child the following series of questions:

How many words do you think you will remember? What do you need to do to remember the words? Are you good at remembering? What kinds of things do you do to help you remember things? Does your teacher give you ideas to help you remember things? What different ideas has your teacher given you? Do you remember some specific examples of things you have learned in school to help you remember things? Do you use them? Do you think they are helpful?

How do you think you learn things best – by seeing it, by hearing it, or by doing it? Does your teacher help you figure out how you learn things best, or help you learn that way? Do you do activities to help you learn things in school? What kinds of activities do you do? Do you think they help?

Ask the child to list all the words you asked them to remember. (record their list) Ask the child what did they do the help them remember? Did it work?

Tell the child you are also going to tell them a story and that you want them to listen carefully and retell the story JUST LIKE YOU TOLD IT. Tell the story you rewrote.

Ask the following series of questions: Do you like to read, why or why not? Is there something that could change at school that might make you like reading more (even more)? What kinds of things do you read at school? Do you get to choose some of the things you read at school? Do you read outside of school – if so, what do you like to read? Why do you prefer to read those kinds of things/books? If you don’t read outside of school, why? Do you think reading is important? Many people think that reading well helps you do better in school – do you? Why or why not?

What kinds of things do you do when reading to make sure you understand what you are reading? Has your teacher helped you learn ways to help you read better? To help you understand and remember what you read?

Ask the child to retell the story, reminding them they should retell it in the order you told it.

Thank the child for helping you.

Reflection:
1. How accurate were the children in predicting how well they would remember the word list? How well did they remember the list? Were they able to tell you what they did to remember the words after repeating the list? Were there any differences in age in terms of how accurate were their predictions or their lists?

The three children were able to get five words out of the ten list words. After the interview and observation we concluded that they tend to think and analyze the words in their mind for them to be able to remember several words that are given. They were able to remember the five words after and they said that familiar words to them are more easily to remember. Yes, as they give their predictions on a specific word we have also encountered different problems like for example in spelling and pronunciation, “dress is spelled as ders.” Younger learner encountered problems more on the given words compared to older one.

2. How well did the children do in retelling the story? Did the children tend to tell the story in the “correct” order or in the order you told it? Were their age differences in how they responded here?

As the first child did retelling story she was starting to give the characters in the story, she is familiar with the story that’s why she was able to tell the story in order it was and she also gave the moral lesson of the story, amazingly she was able to retell the story in her age six. The second child also have a great job in retelling the story but he retell the story the way we have told him, we intentionally told the story out of the order. The last child was able to arrange the story in order and retell it to us. She was able to identify the characters in the story and she also analyzed the moral lesson of the story. Their age’s differences also give connotation that the younger one has metacognition in terms of organizing a structure of a story compared to older one.

3. Consider the older children’s responses to the questions about memory and reading. Given their responses, how well do schools seem to support children developing meta-cognitive strategies for memory and reading? Did the children have a sense of which way they learn best? Do they seem to think that teachers help them with this? How effective do schools seem to be in creating/supporting an appreciation of reading in children? Do the children seem to see teachers being helpful in these areas?

School helps children to develop their metacognitive strategies for memory and reading by giving different activities such as telling stories, giving home works and conducting reviews in school. The children learned best by means of the different strategies, for example telling stories it helps them to improve their vocabulary, grammar, reading skills and their comprehension. Teacher has the great help to them because they served as the facilitator of learning in their students.

They have the task of cooperating, motivating, and encouraging their students to learn and improve their cognitive strategy for memory and reading. Schools also provide several textbooks for the students to read with, they think that through this instructional materials the children will able to improve their cognitive strategy for memory and reading. The school is effective in terms of creating and supporting the reading of the children, we can see that they provide reading materials and they also provide different activities for the children, we concluded that school and teacher is very important agent of learning in students/children. School and teacher works together to give as much as quality service for their students to learn more and do better in other areas.