Metacognition vs Critical Thinking
Some have said that metacognition is internal and critical thinking is external. I think that the differentiation is more than that. Sure we can all agree that metacognition involves self reflection and identification of strengths and weakenesses and that critical thinking employs strategies that involve the world at large in a variety of ways. Metacognition does involve conscious reflection on one’s learning process and ability to learn. LEARNING TO LEARN is essential for this to be a reality- and so many students do not know how they learn at all. Metacognition involves active monitoring, or as Baird (1986) defines it “ the awareness and control of one’s own learning”. So what then is critical thinking? Does it have a relationship with metacognition or is it another term with the same meaning? I believe that the inherent difference is in skills required to actively interpret or evaluate what one sees and the communications one has- in other words, the skills required to think critically. To think critically we need to be aware of what we are trying to do while we are doing it and employ strategies like questioning and analzyising in order to construct knowledge- whereas metacognition is personal– a reflection during or at the end of a process or learning activity that enables us to become cognizant of what we know, what we don’t know and to reflect and develop strategies that will help improve our levels of cognition.
In the Amusement Park Physicas example- the students were critically thinking while they were trying to solve the problems (questions) using different tools, approaches and hypothses. They asked questions and analysed various results along the way to (attempt to) find a solution that worked and made sense to each team member. It wasn’t until the initial postvisit interview after the field trip that the students began to employ their metacognition- they reflected on their learning process.
The greatest barriers to implementing constructivist instructions and metacognitive learning are:
-students prior knowledge and ability to learn about learning
-balance of strategies, not letting one or the other take over
-student’s ability to understand expectations and processes, differentiation
-curriculum can be a barrier to both, especially in terms of time allocation