"Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner."
Via Beth Dichter
Being a man, I'm very poor at reflection, but by breaking it into metacognitive practices helped me think about my thinking.
To facilitate these activities, she also offers three useful tables:
Questions for students to ask themselves as they plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking within four learning contexts—in class, assignments, quizzes/exams, and the course as a whole (p. 115)Prompts for integrating metacognition into discussions of pairs during clicker activities, assignments, and quiz or exam preparation (p. 117)Question"Metacognition is one of the hardest aspects of student's learning to get from them. Children find it difficult to communicate about their thinking and teacher's find it difficult to teach these skills. This is well worth a read to help develop our own understanding of metacognition.