#15 - Metacognition and Parents

These weekly newsletters have been designed to provide support for schools looking to develop metacognition in their learners. Advocating a whole school approach, we've looked at various aspects of metacognition over the last 14 weeks, aimed mostly at school leaders. I do also want to be aware of subscribers who are not leading organizational change, but who nonetheless are interested in the development of effective thinking skills in children and young people.

Amongst those most obviously keen for children to thrive, are their parents and carers, so let's think about the way in which the parental role plays a part in the development of metacognition. As a school leader, I would urge you to engage with parents on this topic, so that they feel able to influence their child's progress from home. As a parent, you might like to ask whether your child's school has any plans to ensure that their students have access to support for this way of thinking.

Parents will be only too aware of how effectively their children 'learn' quickly from birth onward, using a natural unconscious ability to soak up information from the environment, which is mostly led by curiosity. (Think child locks and stairgates etc!) However, as they move through Primary school, the expectation is that pupils will switch to a more conscious, disciplined way of learning, through being taught by trained educators!

Remember as parents, you were your child's first teacher, so there is no need to abdicate completely from that role once they start school. I'm not talking about needing to be familiar with the curriculum or modern teaching methods, just being aware that some children who have been successful independent learners prior to formal education, fall behind in school as they struggle to access a taught curriculum because they haven't made the switch from one type of learning to another.

That's where metacognition comes into it's own! Your first question of course is likely to be, 'what exactly is metacognition'? As a word, it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it, and yet it's a vital component of your child's mental health and academic achievement, so really worth knowing about!

The prefix 'meta' usually indicates something that goes 'beyond' or 'transcends' whatever makes up the rest of the word. 'Cognition' as the second part of that word, embraces all the mental skills required to gain and use knowledge to our advantage, which fortunately is an inbuilt process that all children use unconsciously. Add 'meta' to the front of that and you're indicating a mind that has the awareness to think more deeply about the learning process and the ability to change the way it is thinking in order to get a different result.

So what helps children to develop that ability to access the metacognitive part of their brain (located in the prefrontal cortex behind the forehead) more effectively? We'll start that conversation here and continue with it next time. Metacognition is part of the decision making apparatus we use as adults, but the database we draw on to help make those decisions is stored in our subconscious brain. That database is a protection against overload, but it includes all the information we soaked up as children before we ever had the ability to reason on that content.

The view we hold of ourselves, our initial self-concept was formed during these early years, based on what other people said both; to us, and about us, as well as the impact of observing other people's reactions to all the experiences we were exposed to. It's affected by the culture we're born into, parental and community attitudes, and how people treated and responded to us as individuals. By the age of 5-7 we already have a very strong, usually unexpressed belief about our own abilities that affects the way in which we engage with education.

It's important as a parent or carer to know what is influencing the self-concept being formed in your child's mind. Encourage them to talk to you in a way that reveals how they feel about themselves, so that you can help reassure where necessary. A child who has a poor self-concept tends not engage well with education because their mind is telling them that everyone else is better than they are and that they're not capable of achieving the same results. Some will openly refer to themselves as 'rubbish'!

Remember that metacognition is what enables us to analyse what we're thinking and make a conscious choice to change it. You can encourage your child to change the view they have of themselves as a learner, by modelling positive self-talk. Don't let them hear you say anything negative about yourself (or school) and never refer to them as an individual in a negative way. Find out what they really think of their own ability and work with them to consciously change what is currently stored in their mental database if they don't have a strong belief in themselves as a learner.

Teaching metacognition is essential to helping students to both recognize and value 'self', particularly as it hands back to them some sense of 'control', which improves mental health! It also helps children to appreciate that they have control over their own academic progress leading to confident, independent learners. More about that next time!