How to Boost Metacognition with Pear Deck.
I love being a teacher, but sometimes I wonder how I ended up in education. Not to be melodramatic, but when I was a student, education felt drab. When I arrived at Irondale High School, I already had a reputation. I was the younger brother of Tyler Clark and the son of David and Sandy Clark. This meant people assumed I’d be turning in quality work without causing too much trouble.
Meanwhile, my teachers seemed to prioritize students in the margins. Understandable! But this reality created the space so I could turn high school into a pseudo-independent study defined by the daily endeavor to do the least amount of work possible while maintaining honor roll status. In the end, I engaged in lethargic transactions, swapping uninspired work for a grade that would appease my parents at report card time.
Then I was off to college.
When I arrived at Bethel University, I quickly realized that my old study habits wouldn’t cut it. Like many peers, I really had to learn how to learn. My educational psychology teacher, Mary Lindell, was instrumental in teaching me some effective ways to learn by modeling them when she taught.
According to a Pascarella and Terenzini study, I wasn’t alone. College students face a huge challenge: managing their own learning. During college, my successful peers mastered learning skills like keeping their workspace organized, completing tasks on schedule, making a plan for learning, monitoring their learning path, and recognizing when it might be useful to change course. Mastering these habits has a profoundly positive impact on learning.
There was a sharp contrast in my experience at high school and college. I’ve decided I want my class to prepare students to be future-ready learners. In my role as an innovation coach I get exposed to awesome teachers in our district, doing inspiring things, fairly regularly. So I got to thinking: Could I innovate in ways that would better prepare my students for life after 7th grade health class? I don’t know the definitive answer to that question, but I do know I love how author A. J. Juliani says it:
“Our job as teachers is not to ‘prepare’ kids for something; our job is to help kids learn to prepare themselves for anything.”
My search for something new lead me to metacognition.
My search for new tools led me to an effective, research-based strategy called metacognition. Metacognition is “thinking about thinking.” It’s a skill that can be scaffolded for young learners and, with practice, developed in all learners. It is central to future ready-skills like problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking. Noted educational researcher John Hattie names it as one of ten High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS). (HITS are instructional practices that reliably increase student learning.) Hattie explains:
“Metacognitive strategies teach students to think about their own thinking. When students become aware of the process, they gain control of their learning. Metacognition extends to self-regulation, or managing one’s own motivation toward learning. Metacognitive activities can include planning how to approach learning tasks, evaluating progress, and monitoring comprehension.”
When teachers use metacognitive strategies, students begin taking charge of their learning. They build capacity to think effectively and independently. They become less dependent on teacher stimulation to initiate learning tasks and monitor progress. Students build autonomy and become more effective learners. Teachers who succeed with metacognition are giving their students life-long skills.
I’ve found there is no one way to teach students metacognition. Every teacher will have to find their own style, model metacognition regularly, and give students lots of opportunities to practice. Since Pear Deck is a tool that I already use in my classroom every day, using it to support metacognition was a slam dunk.
How Pear Deck can support metacognition.
Pear Deck is an interactive presentation tool that actively engages and assesses every student. It works seamlessly with G Suite, supports effective pedagogy, and has a cult-like following among teachers.
If you’re not sure how to start incorporating metacognition in your classroom, then check out this Pear Deck Slide Deck with metacognitive prompts for planning prior to learning, monitoring during learning, and evaluating after learning. Clearly, this is not an exhaustive collection of what metacognition could involve, but it does provide a ready-made resource to infuse metacognition into your curriculum tomorrow.
What’s next?
As a middle school teacher, innovation coach, and life-long learner, I am driven to create an engaging learning experience for my students. Reflecting back to my time as a learner, I wonder what impact that metacognition could have had on my education. Going forward, my immediate goal is to update my curriculum with ample opportunities for students to develop metacognitive skills. With any luck, my students will be ready for whatever is next, maybe even becoming a middle school teacher.
