Reflecting on the challenge of mobilising metacognition

“Metacognition and self-regulation approaches to teaching support pupils to think about their own learning more explicitly, often by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning.”

Metacognition has an enduring popularity with teachers and school leaders. For many, it offers the vital teaching approaches that guide pupils towards independent practice. Whether it is writing an essay in history, tackling word problems in Year 2 mathematics, or debating a controversial topic – planning, monitoring and evaluating appear to be valuable steps in learning that we need to make explicit for pupils.