Metacognition Reflective Essay Toolkit (Self-Regulated Learning & Essay Writing Skills)

This metacognition teaching resource serves two primary functions:

• To teach students how to use the metacognitive cycle (planning, monitoring, evaluating and regulating) in relation to essay-writing: developing essay-writing skills

• To use essay-writing tasks as a way to encourage metacognitive reflection and help students gain metacognitive knowledge: developing metacognitive and self-regulated learning skills

The download includes an interactive PowerPoint presentation that can be used for multiple (x12) one-hour learning sessions as well as an accompanying information sheet about using metacognitive strategies for essay writing.

The learning sessions guide students through the essay writing process and dedicate time to planning, monitoring, evaluating and regulating the essay writing process. Twelve metacognitive/ self-regulated learning reflection topic options are provided with hints as to what students might want to include in their essays. The topics are:

1. Building On My Strengths & Weaknesses in This Subject
2. Effective Revision & Exam Preparation Strategies
3. How To Learn More During Lessons
4. How My Behaviour Impacts My Learning & My Rate of Progress
5. How Do My Emotions, Moods & Attitudes Impact My Learning?
6. Metacognition, Self-Regulation & Independent Learning in This Subject
7. What Could I Do Differently In Order to Maximise Learning?
8. How To Boost My Learning Power
9. The Ideal State of Mind for Learning & How I Can Cultivate It
10. My Obstacles to Learning & How I Plan To Overcome Them
11. Factors That Influence My Ability to Learn and Remember Learning
12. What Approach to Learning Works Best For Me

Essay topics 1-6 are subject-specific and can be used by teachers of any subject to foster metacognition and lead students towards metacognitive knowledge their particular school subject whilst essay topics 6-12 are general metacognitive reflection rubrics.

Aside from metacognition and self-regulated learning, we hope to work with educators towards building greater levels of learner autonomy in students: to this end the essay-writing session instructions also guide students towards developing their own assessment criteria that they (at the end of each session) will use to evaluate their own work. This approach ties in neatly with the ‘planning’ stage of the metacognitive cycle and helps students to consider the task requirements before engaging with it.

Teacher instructions are included (integrated into the PowerPoint file), the general lesson plan when using this tool is as follows:

• Introduction/Lesson Objectives
• Assessment Criteria Creation
• Essay Planning Stage
• Essay Writing Task (With Monitoring Break)
• Evaluation Stage
• Regulation & Target Setting Stage

The resource will help students to cultivate essay-writing skills whilst fostering metacognitive reflection: steering students towards metacognitive knowledge about their own learning processes and how to improve them.