Module 4: What is metacognition, Learning Strategies, and Teaching for transfer.
Module 4: What is Metacognition, Learning Strategies, and Teaching for Transfer.
Concept 1: What is Metacognition?
Summary:
Woolfolk defines metacognition as knowledge and skills. Knowledge about our own information-processing capabilities, the thinking and learning tasks we face, and the strategies needed. (Woolfolk, page 340).
Reflection:
I believe we start using metacognition at a young age but we just don't know it yet and at the time we didn't know the correct way to define it. Even now as adults, we use our metacognitive abilities when it comes to reading a book. Part of our metacognitive ability is to have the knowledge on when to skim over the text our read it carefully, know what time of day you are most productive, deciding where to focus attention, determining if you understood what you just read, determining if you have study enough for a test, deciding to get help among many other things (Woolfolk, page 341). The point being is that all of us have these abilities because we know ourselves. For myself, I know I hate waiting until the last minute to get assignments completed and turned in. Especially, when this week I have the 6-10 page paper that is due along with two lesson plans I have to submit at the end of this week. It was safe to say that I had a plan of what I wanted to get done first so that way I can have more time to focus on my bigger projects. Metacognitive thinking..... see... it's everywhere.
I would also like to mention how there are three essential metacognitive skills that are used and they are planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Planning involves just that you are planning for your assignments like I was. So yesterday I wanted to get all of my AEDU 311 assignments done so I can be ready for the two lesson plans. Today, I am trying to finish everything on the syllabus for this week besides the research paper so that way I can put all my attention towards my research and writing. Monitoring is I feel a self-evaluation of how I am doing on all my assignments so far. Do I think I'm where I need to be by this time? I can already tell ya now that I'm determined to get the rest of the discussions, quizzes, and blog posts are done by tonight. If I'm not, then I fail myself on my self-evaluation! Just kidding, I'll drink some coffee and finish it before I go to bed. Evaluating involves making judgments about the process and outcomes. For example, it mentions asking yourself "should I get help?" and for me that answer is always YES! When I was younger I would always be worried about what everyone else would think if I asked for help. Yeah, not anymore! Asking for help doesn't look weak, it does look like you want to do the best job you can on an assignment!
Summary:
Woolfolk defines learning strategies as a special kind of procedural knowledge or knowing how to do something (Woolfolk, page 344).
Reflection:
There are thousands of learning strategies which some are general and some are taught in schools such as summarizing or outlining. One learning strategy I like is using mnemonics for remembering direction "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" for North, East, South, and West. Another I like is PEMDAS but I'm horrible at math but I'll try to remember.. Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Divison, Addition, Subtraction. Best of luck to you if you're a math teacher and reading this and if you're an English teacher oh boy! But my point being is that I learned those two examples among many others years ago. I've been out of high school for 15 years and those have still stuck with me to this day. Another one but for sports "BEEF" Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow-through (I'm feeling it now!) There more students are exposed to different learning strategies that better off I believe that they will be. Let's not forget that what one strategy might work could be completely different for another student so the more we expose students the better chance they have of finding what works best for them (Woolfolk, page 345). I believe that Woolfolk's statement is very accurate when she says that students need to learn when to use these strategies and how to use them. A student could be very good at knowing strategies but it does them no good if they don't know when to use them or how to use them. I remember being in English class and being drilled by teachers and support staff on knowing the time to use a strategy. Even today, as a Teacher's Assistant there are strategies being used in the classroom. At first, I was a little taken back but then I soon realized that these strategies were very beneficial to these students.
Concept 3: Teaching for Transfer
Summary:
Woolfolk's definition of a transfer occurs when a rule, fact, or skill learned in one situation is applied in another situation (Woolfolk, page 368).
Summary:
The best way that I can summarize what teaching for transfer is what it's like to fill out a job application. What you learn in your English classrooms from the time your in elementary school all the way through high school I feel is in a job application. I'm not saying that an elementary student could fill out a job application fully, they'd probably get past the home address part and then need help. But how you need to apply the rules of punctuation to an application and when they ask you to answer short answer questions is when what you have learned from your classroom comes into play. I can say from experience, ever since I have started working in the educational field and coaching sports I have gained more knowledge in public speaking than I ever did before. I know public speaking is a big fear most people have but it does help overcome your fears the more you are forced into that role of having to always present yourself to students, players, or parents. I can also say that for a lot of these assignments we have due in this class or my other classes, I have taken my experiences as a T.A. and tried to involve them in my answers to help me better relate to what I'm being asked. I believe that the more we can involve teaching of transfers the better off students will be, the better off we will be as well. This might sound silly and totally off but whenever I know a student is struggling in math I try to find out if they like basketball. If they do, great and if not I'll find a different way to help. But if they do like basketball, I know basketball involves numbers obviously so I will use their favorite player and involve them in the equation to help get their interest and want to solve the problem. I think this is a skill I have learned over time and I'm still trying to develop it but I know if I can get the student's attention then the battle is halfway won.
Concept 1: What is Metacognition?
Summary:
Woolfolk defines metacognition as knowledge and skills. Knowledge about our own information-processing capabilities, the thinking and learning tasks we face, and the strategies needed. (Woolfolk, page 340).
Reflection:
I believe we start using metacognition at a young age but we just don't know it yet and at the time we didn't know the correct way to define it. Even now as adults, we use our metacognitive abilities when it comes to reading a book. Part of our metacognitive ability is to have the knowledge on when to skim over the text our read it carefully, know what time of day you are most productive, deciding where to focus attention, determining if you understood what you just read, determining if you have study enough for a test, deciding to get help among many other things (Woolfolk, page 341). The point being is that all of us have these abilities because we know ourselves. For myself, I know I hate waiting until the last minute to get assignments completed and turned in. Especially, when this week I have the 6-10 page paper that is due along with two lesson plans I have to submit at the end of this week. It was safe to say that I had a plan of what I wanted to get done first so that way I can have more time to focus on my bigger projects. Metacognitive thinking..... see... it's everywhere.
I would also like to mention how there are three essential metacognitive skills that are used and they are planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Planning involves just that you are planning for your assignments like I was. So yesterday I wanted to get all of my AEDU 311 assignments done so I can be ready for the two lesson plans. Today, I am trying to finish everything on the syllabus for this week besides the research paper so that way I can put all my attention towards my research and writing. Monitoring is I feel a self-evaluation of how I am doing on all my assignments so far. Do I think I'm where I need to be by this time? I can already tell ya now that I'm determined to get the rest of the discussions, quizzes, and blog posts are done by tonight. If I'm not, then I fail myself on my self-evaluation! Just kidding, I'll drink some coffee and finish it before I go to bed. Evaluating involves making judgments about the process and outcomes. For example, it mentions asking yourself "should I get help?" and for me that answer is always YES! When I was younger I would always be worried about what everyone else would think if I asked for help. Yeah, not anymore! Asking for help doesn't look weak, it does look like you want to do the best job you can on an assignment!
Summary:
Woolfolk defines learning strategies as a special kind of procedural knowledge or knowing how to do something (Woolfolk, page 344).
Reflection:
There are thousands of learning strategies which some are general and some are taught in schools such as summarizing or outlining. One learning strategy I like is using mnemonics for remembering direction "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" for North, East, South, and West. Another I like is PEMDAS but I'm horrible at math but I'll try to remember.. Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Divison, Addition, Subtraction. Best of luck to you if you're a math teacher and reading this and if you're an English teacher oh boy! But my point being is that I learned those two examples among many others years ago. I've been out of high school for 15 years and those have still stuck with me to this day. Another one but for sports "BEEF" Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow-through (I'm feeling it now!) There more students are exposed to different learning strategies that better off I believe that they will be. Let's not forget that what one strategy might work could be completely different for another student so the more we expose students the better chance they have of finding what works best for them (Woolfolk, page 345). I believe that Woolfolk's statement is very accurate when she says that students need to learn when to use these strategies and how to use them. A student could be very good at knowing strategies but it does them no good if they don't know when to use them or how to use them. I remember being in English class and being drilled by teachers and support staff on knowing the time to use a strategy. Even today, as a Teacher's Assistant there are strategies being used in the classroom. At first, I was a little taken back but then I soon realized that these strategies were very beneficial to these students.
Concept 3: Teaching for Transfer
Summary:
Woolfolk's definition of a transfer occurs when a rule, fact, or skill learned in one situation is applied in another situation (Woolfolk, page 368).
Summary:
The best way that I can summarize what teaching for transfer is what it's like to fill out a job application. What you learn in your English classrooms from the time your in elementary school all the way through high school I feel is in a job application. I'm not saying that an elementary student could fill out a job application fully, they'd probably get past the home address part and then need help. But how you need to apply the rules of punctuation to an application and when they ask you to answer short answer questions is when what you have learned from your classroom comes into play. I can say from experience, ever since I have started working in the educational field and coaching sports I have gained more knowledge in public speaking than I ever did before. I know public speaking is a big fear most people have but it does help overcome your fears the more you are forced into that role of having to always present yourself to students, players, or parents. I can also say that for a lot of these assignments we have due in this class or my other classes, I have taken my experiences as a T.A. and tried to involve them in my answers to help me better relate to what I'm being asked. I believe that the more we can involve teaching of transfers the better off students will be, the better off we will be as well. This might sound silly and totally off but whenever I know a student is struggling in math I try to find out if they like basketball. If they do, great and if not I'll find a different way to help. But if they do like basketball, I know basketball involves numbers obviously so I will use their favorite player and involve them in the equation to help get their interest and want to solve the problem. I think this is a skill I have learned over time and I'm still trying to develop it but I know if I can get the student's attention then the battle is halfway won.
I like how you highlighted how important it is to expose students to multiple different learning strategies so that they can learn what works best for them. I think often teachers get stuck teaching in the way that is most comfortable for them. Although this may make the teacher’s life easier, it can also be harmful to the students. For example, if a student is only exposed to one type of learning strategy and they don’t learn well at all with this particular strategy, they might go through school thinking they are stupid and become discouraged. However, maybe the one thing they needed to be successful was to learn through a different strategy. That is why it is our job as teachers to make sure that we are deliberate in the way we teach and that we provide students with multiple different learning strategies so they can have multiple tools at their disposal in order to succeed.
ReplyDeleteTeaching for transfer is beginning to gain hold in education, but we're still not there. Obviously we still have different subjects, each with their own specialized teachers and periods during the day. However, there is more emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and use a problems based instruction approach, where you begin with a big problem and then use all sorts of research, knowledge, and skills to solve the problem and present solutions, often with idea of convincing others that you have a good solution. How do you think a system like this might happen when we still have so much that is discipline specific? At least PE teachers are now also responsible for literacy, so that's a step.
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