Metacognition Learning In The Classroom – ‘How To Think’ Vs ‘What To Think’

The five Ws (Who, What, When, Where, & Why), in combination with How, form the fundamental foundation of metacognition learning in the classroom. Together they drive science, music, literature, mathematics, humanity, and whatnot towards wisdom, innovation, and erudition—they practically propel the world; and he who invokes them within embarks on a journey towards great excellence and intellectualness.  

Imagine Sir Issac Newton ignoring the apple when it detached from the tree and hit the ground. As amusing and “no-school-happy” as it sounds, if that were the case, we wouldn’t have rockets to project into space, we wouldn’t have sky-touching skyscrapers to build, we wouldn’t have accomplished a lot of things that make our lives easier, smarter, better, and faster. Newton’s first thought when the fruit fell from the tree was how it happened and why it happened. He invoked the metacognition in him to think out of the ordinary. This curiosity later made him a key figure in the scientific revolution. 

Cut to a few centuries later, children in schools are blindly learning (more like being taught) what happened that provoked Newton to define the laws of motion and the theories themselves, and they are subsequently learning what to think from the incident but rarely taking away the gist from happening and trying to learn how to think. There it is! The preface of this article: The importance of installing metacognition in the classroom for kids so that they can think about thinking, wonder in imagination, aspire to dream and dare to question. 

Thoughts About Thoughts 

How many of us give words a thorough thought before uttering them out? How many of us give actions a thorough thought before executing them in public or elsewhere? If we were to continue such a question, there would probably be thousands of such kinds all aimed at invoking a sense of reassessment. If we develop a capacity to analyse, examine and process matters/situations carefully before acting upon them, our perception enhances, our vocabulary strengthens, our judgement improves, so on and so forth. Teaching children all that from the start is crucial for their individual, emotional and mental development as well as physical development. This can happen when schools give up their regular practices of prioritising academics and, make a move towards including metacognition learning in the classroom.

At Meru International School, emotional and mental developments receive equal importance as academics. Metacognition is a vital part of Meru, and the school ensures to structure its curriculum around that because we know how it affects comprehension, acquisition, retention and application of learning in children. Besides modifying the learning skills, critical thinking and problem-solving also tend to improve. Moreover, teaching it early on enables self-control and self-regulation among students.