Metacognition - What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
The term metacognition is a mouthful. Metacognition is defined as awareness and understanding of one’s own thought process. In simple terms, metacognition is the ability for you to understand how you think and process information, and go about making decisions.
Why we do what we do is often a mystery to others and even ourselves at times. But by having the ability to assess why we do things, perhaps more specifically even, why we make bad decisions or do things that leave us with regret, we may be able to learn, become more knowledgeable, and change behaviors.
Metacognition
What is metacognition?
Okay, so we already know that metacognition is self-awareness and a full understanding of our own thoughts. But what does that mean? Metacognition is a critical awareness of one’s thinking and learning and oneself as a thinker and learner. Critical thinking skills fall under metacognition.
Strategies of Metacognition
There is a lot of research on metacognition and it can be broken into stages, levels, strategies, and categories depending on which study you are reading. The basic strategies are to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.
There are four levels of metacognition. Perkins (1992) defined four levels of metacognitive learners: tacit; aware; strategic; and reflective. Tacit learners are unaware of their metacognitive knowledge. They do not think about any particular strategies for learning and merely accept if they know something or not. Reflective learners are not only strategic about their thinking but they also reflect upon their learning while it is happening, monitoring the success of any strategies they are using and then changing them as appropriate. Aware and strategic levels fall in between tacit and reflective.
Why does metacognition matter?
Metacognition matters for many reasons, the first one being the role it plays in your own mental and emotional well-being and your relationship with yourself. When you have self-awareness you can make improvements and become better at whatever you are trying to do. You become a better learner. When you have metacognition you can identify your strengths and weaknesses.
While metacognition can help with self-improvement, a lack of metacognition may be detrimental to your personal and professional life. Do not get me wrong, people who lack metacognition are not unhappy, in fact, in their case ignorance is bliss. They are woefully unaware of their lack of abilities, lack of knowledge, or how offensive or unappealing they can be to others. They are not good at reading the room or perceiving others.
If you are a learner and always striving to do better and be better, metacognition plays an important in your everyday life and interactions. Once we become aware, it only gets better from there.
What are your thoughts on metacognition? Please share your thoughts, opinions, and experiences with me!
