‘Never mind children’s cognition, what about mine?’ Teachers’ perspectives of the enactment of policy : The case of metacognition

Funding Information: This work was supported by a 42‐month Carnegie PhD Scholarship from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland I wish to thank all the participants of this study. Thank you also to the Carnegie Trust for funding this research project through a Carnegie PhD Scholarship, and to my PhD supervisor David Donaldson. Thank you also, to Anna Teitz, who assisted in aspects of data collection.Peer reviewedPostprin

Teachers matter for metacognition : facilitating metacognition in the primary school through teacher-pupil interactions

Despite the ubiquity of Structured Thinking Activities (STAs) throughout primary school education in the UK and beyond, little is known about the ways that activities such as learning logs are used to support pupils to think about and manage their own thinking (i.e., engage with metacognition). Here we investigated how pupils engaged with STAs throughout a school year by conducting an in-depth case study of one Scottish primary four classroom, examining factors that facilitated and/or inhibited pupil metacognition. By triangulating data from participant observation, interviews and document analysis, we found that pupils were often un-motivated to engage with STAs, with responses provided during written and oral activities typically revealing superficial references to classroom topics of interest. Whilst factors such as the classroom culture and the timing of activities were found to influence pupil engagement with STAs, observational data indicated that teacher-pupil interactions are essential for eliciting metacognition from pupils (i.e., via discussions that occurred as part of the STAs). Our findings suggest that teachers play a critical role in encouraging elaboration from pupils in relation to descriptions of their own thinking and learning, particularly when pupils’ initial responses are broad or superficial. We discuss the critical importance of teacher talk for metacognition, emphasising the ‘dual role’ that teachers must play when facilitating metacognition within the classroom.PostprintPeer reviewe

Learning from learning logs:a case study of metacognition in the primary school classroom

Structured thinking activities (STAs) are pedagogical tools used to support metacognition in classrooms. Despite their popularity, little is known about how pupils use STAs as platforms to think about and manage their own thinking (i.e. as metacognitive tools). This case study investigated pupils’ use of STAs in relation to metacognition throughout a school year. We focus on two 8-year-old pupils, Amy and Laura, as they completed two specific STAs through weekly class meets and termly achievement logs. Data were triangulated through participant observation, qualitative interviews and analysis of written texts. We found clear differences between Laura's and Amy's written STAs, however observation and interviews revealed that engagement with STAs was similar beyond that suggested by the written evidence alone. Whereas Amy used easily spelt ‘stock’ responses, Laura used ‘bare minimum’ responses to meet teacher expectations. As such, neither Amy nor Laura used STAs as metacognitive tools, however in negotiating STAs, both exhibited strategic regulatory skills indicative of metacognition. Whilst our findings highlight that pupils may still be developing explicit metacognitive knowledge necessary to take full advantage of STAs, we highlight the clear value of persistent approaches to using STAs as tools to support developing metacognition, particularly in association with teacher–pupil interactions.</p