Ongoing engagement

Simple Metacognitive Activities

Some simple questions that can help students develop their metacognitive learning skills.

With Maha Bali

Educator prep: None

Student prep: None

Synchronous or Asynchronous

No tech needed

Duration: < 5 mins

Activity purpose

Help students develop metacognitive learning strategies.

Useful for

Beginning of semester or throughout the semester.

Preparation

None. You could ask students to prepare the questions beforehand.

Instructions

This can be done as an assignment or live on class.

Ask students to reflect on one or both of these questions:

What is one thing you do very well?
How did you get good at that activity?

[You can also modify the question to refer to a course they succeeded in, but there's value in them reflecting on non-academic skills also]

Think of something you're not very good at:

What evidence do you have that you're not good at it?
How do you feel when someone asks you to do this thing?

Duration

You can send these questions to students ahead of time to give them time to think of answers. You can ask them to answer as an assignment viewable by you, or as something viewable to others (anonymously or not). Or you can ask students to discuss in pairs or small groups. After having a collection of these, ask students to make connections and think about how they might apply what works for them in other areas of their life to their academic life.

Adaptations and examples

Variable. It works synchronous or asynchronous.

Technical requirements

Google doc or google form or poll.

Useful resources

These strategies were inspired by this book:

McGuire, S. Y. (2015). Teach students how to learn: Strategies you can incorporate into any course to improve student metacognition, study skills, and motivation. Stylus Publishing, LLC. Publisher link: https://styluspub.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781620363164/Teach-Students-How-to-Learn