Learners attitude towards metacognitive strategies at higher education in west bengal

Abstract

The capacity to understand and regulate their own thinking benefits students of all ages and abilities. The use of metacognitive strategies enables students to become flexible, creative and self-directed learners. Metacognition particularly assists students with additional educational needs in understanding learning tasks, in self-organizing and in regulating their own learning. The teaching and support of metacognitive skills in the classroom not only allows learners to learn more effectively, but it also improves cognition in all students at all levels of ability. It allows them to become aware of their own thinking and to become proficient in choosing appropriate thinking strategies for different learning tasks. Metacognitive knowledge also lays the foundation for the development of self-regulation, which is an essential pre-requisite for independent, self-directed learning. This is particularly relevant to some aspects of special educational needs. Metacognition in the classroom, at both individual and collective level, underpins the reflective cycle that supports the culture of school self-evaluation (SSE), where self-evaluation as learning occurs. Good teachers are highly metacognitive they reflect on their expertise and teaching and refine their pedagogy accordingly. Metacognitive thinking will, therefore, also support the observation, planning, monitoring and evaluation that is involved in the SSE process. newlineIn general, metacognition is thinking about thinking. More specifically, Taylor (1999) defines metacognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably. newline