In the Beginning

Every child is born with an inbuilt capacity to learn, often referred to as ‘cognition’. Barring serious health problems, even babies and very young children use this cognitive ability to learn instinctively through curiosity and personal experience. By doing so, they are unconsciously building a huge database of useful information, long before they go anywhere near a school.

This process employs the use of fairly long, slow brain waves, which are conducive to ‘learning’, but without the child having to consciously recognise that learning is taking place. We don’t actually ‘remember’ anything that happens before the age of 2 because we are just absorbing whatever’s going on around us and retaining that information for future use.

Starting School

If we take the average school starting age as between 4/5 years old, although a child’s thought processes are now functioning using slightly shorter, faster brain waves (which allow memories to form), imagination is still a strong influencing factor, and the complete range of reasoning skills are not yet in evidence.

By the time a child reaches school age however, they’ve created a massive database of useful skills and general knowledge about how the world works and their place in it. What’s remarkable is that they didn’t have to work very hard to obtain that information, because the brain is designed to learn a huge amount in a short space of time without overwhelm.

The environment in which a child spends those first few years, has a massive impact on their thinking as they get older, so it’s a good idea to ensure that their early years environment is positive and mentally stimulating if they are to fulfil their later potential. Keep in mind that a child’s self-concept (or view they hold of themselves), is formed during this time period, and is based on how people treat them, what they are told, what they see, and what they experience to be true for themselves.

All of this happens whilst they are unable to question or make judgement calls on what they are experiencing. By the age of 7, the young brain is interacting on a more conscious level as brain waves speed up and shorten even further. By then however, children already have either a fixed, or growth mindset toward achievement.

The Role of Metacognition

So, where does meta-cognition fit in, and what does that ‘meta’ prefix mean. It was a word devised by John Flavell when he was looking for a way to describe what learners need to do inside their heads in order to make academic progress. Meta is the Greek word for ‘going beyond’ or ‘rising above’ which he linked with the word cognition or ‘learning’.

So, metacognition, or ‘going beyond the learning’ highlights that children don’t just need to learn, but that they need to do it more effectively through changing the way they think. This is particularly relevant at the point where children have to make the big switch away from their first way of learning, (via natural curiosity), to being taught a curriculum.

Learning now becomes a conscious process, rather than the unconscious download experienced previously. Surprisingly, we never really explain or model how to do this successfully for students, so children, who were excellent learners pre-school, can very quickly get left behind, unless they start to use metacognition.

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Developing Metacognition

Scientists differ in when they feel metacognition starts, with some saying that even a small child will adjust what doesn’t work to find a better way of doing something, which is true. We are however in this context using metacognition as it was originally intended, within the framework of academic progress. It describes the ability to analyse your own thought processes, recognise what’s not working and make a conscious effort to change the way you’re thinking in order to get a different result.

Despite waxing lyrical on the benefits of developing metacognition in students, the education system as a whole is not really conducive to its development. The concept of sitting still, staying quiet, and doing as you’re told, whilst a teacher dictates proceedings, does not help learners to become independent thinkers.

Imagine the benefit of a classroom where every child; has the resilience to face challenges effectively, feels comfortable with the inevitable mistakes that come whilst experimenting with what works, and a willingness to practise the new way, on realising how mastery can be reached. Being more conscious about this process will help develop metacognition.

It’s important therefore that we sow the seeds that will encourage the natural development of metacognition in children during the early years. But how do we do that?

Preparing to Think Differently

We can help little ones to build a more metacognitive way of thinking by paying attention to the way in which we communicate with them during the early years. So, to finish, here’s the top ten suggestions for doing just that:

1. Be very careful about what you say both ‘to’, and ‘about’ a child, (however young), because that will become part of their self-concept.
2. Never use negative self-talk yourself, and always model a positive view of your own abilities, so that children see self-belief as a desirable attitude.
3. Always verbalise a positive view of school (remembering that they have to spend a large portion of their life attending one).
4. Demonstrate an unwavering belief in every child’s ability as a learner, so that they believe it themselves, lifting any limits that may have existed.
5. Encourage a learner to talk about their own experiences so that you find out how they view themselves, and can counteract any negative self-talk.
6. Don’t accept perceived ‘limitations’, and provide plenty of opportunities for a child to develop the skills needed to overcome them.
7. Teach children how to leave their comfort zone and sit with the natural discomfort of not knowing something, until they’ve learned it.
8. Model for young learners, a ‘can do’ attitude towards challenge, with a willingness to make mistakes so as to learn from them.
9. Allow children to see you ‘change your mind’ sometimes, and always explain how new information has led you to have a different view.
10. Always praise effort, focus and persistence, so that achievement is seen to come from personal endeavour!

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