Elements of Metacognition: What is Transferred?

When designing for transfer, knowledge of metacognitive training strategies alone is not enough. Successful transfer is dependent on students being able to effectively control and monitor their learning. This in turn is influenced by the elements of metacognition, some of which are:

Metamemory

Metamemory refers to learner awareness of which strategies are used, and should be used, for certain tasks. It includes knowledge about memory systems and memory strategies. Research indicates that young students and novice learners have difficulty accurately estimating their comprehension and that metamemory strategy instruction should focus on specific strategic knowledge. This may include knowing when, where, and how to use strategies. Variables related to person, and task and strategy should also be taken into consideration. Variables such as feeling of knowing or judgment of recall readiness relate to person while task variables include the perceived value of the task. Perceived self-efficacy is also a factor as students with low self-esteem or external locus of control will not likely invoke correction strategies.

Metacomprehension

Effective comprehension monitoring involves knowing when you don't understand and knowing how to take remedial action to ensure successful comprehension. Remedial action is more spontaneous when errors are detected in context as opposed to being detected in isolation. The use of specified local criteria to gauge understanding improves detection.

Research with children has been varied; however it seems likely that young learners lack metacomprehension strategies because of their limited opportunities to develop such skills. On the other hand, older and more knowledgeable learners have acquired skills through experience. It requires considerable effort to master metacognitive strategies; training should be in accord with ages and expert levels of learners. Initial training should be specific and embedded strategies must not overburden learners; in the likelihood of this happening it would be preferable to have learners develop strategies outside the lessons.

The aim of methods to empower learners is to automatize strategies. Learners should be helped to develop strategies based on independent and individual assessments of learning needs, thus gaining executive control. It seems however that many strategies are learned best if they are embedded in a lesson, so while strategies should facilitate learning of specific content they should also promote strategy use.

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation refers to metacognitive adjustments students make concerning errors. This may be as a result of inherent knowing, trial and error, or hypotheses formulation. Executive control may be transferred to students through modeling as they adapt modeled processes for their own use. Social interaction provides additional models while feedback from peers lets learners observe the comprehension strategies of others. Since many researchers express concerns about reliance on external prompts, self-regulation should strive to strike a complementary balance between external cueing and internal regulating mechanisms.

Schema Training

Schema training is important to meaningful learning because it helps learners generate their own cognitive structures or frameworks for understanding information and experiences. Learners who are informed about the significance of the training and master strategies during training appear to use them independently and on a continuing basis. Individual schemas result in less reliance on external mechanisms and more reliance on internalized comprehension monitoring strategies.