Metacognition in the Metaworld: Engaging Critical Thinking Online pt. 1

First, I think we need to talk about what metacognition is. Let’s broaden the idea though:

If cognition is referring to thinking, then metacognition is thinking about thinking. This means that we're going to look at an idea, see how it connects to our lives, and then connect that information to what we have learned. Basically, metacognition is a pumped-up stage of critical thinking.

You want your students to engage in metacognition in online environments because they're going to be learning this information online. So how do you get your students to engage in metacognition in a situation where they can't interact with one another? Information is all right at their fingertips so why even bother with teaching new information? Well, that’s the old way of thinking.  

With online environments are expanding faster than ever before, students can engage almost like they are in person.  Instead of finding information being detrimental, people can now actively engage in conversations like never before. 

Keep Minds Engaged

Not everyone can be in a quiet place. Keep this in mind when you are engaging your students. Make sure that your content is loud enough and that there are a few options available for your students to make things more accessible.  If you throw activities into the mix,  your students are going to understand the material more deeply!

Activities may seem simple,  a little mundane, or childish.  However, activities and strategies are going to be the best way to help your students engage with the material.  

Let’s think about engagement for a moment.  If you have a student that is just reading off the slides, they are not going to retain the information very well compared to a student who has an activity or finds a way to interact with the material: this is regardless of a person’s age! However, this is most valuable when teaching adults. 

Surprisingly or not, adults need hands-on experience. They need to see the how, why, where, and the when, all of it. To keep adult students engaged, it is best to make sure that they have access to a wide array of strategies.

Have engaging discussion questions

Students are going to want to talk. They're going to want to engage. They are going to want to be with their fellow students. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this 😊

One goal of an eCourse is to create a community. So sometimes your class is going to be a little bit talkative. On the flip side, when your students are chatty, this is a great time to ask them questions that really gets them thinking about the material. Not only are they already talking, but now their peers are too! The perfect time to have a solid discussion.

Now how do you make a solid discussion question? First, review the content and see what the students have talked about here recently. Then look at any discussion questions that students have asked you recently.  If you build your questions from seeing how your students are working through the material, then you can really address where they are struggling.

The next thing that you want for any type of discussion question is to try and reference something that you've already talked about in class. If you've already talked about it and you are trying to connect it to current information, then your students are going to benefit heavily from a discussion-based type of lesson. This will allow them to really work through the material and help one another. Keep in mind this is also a great place and a great time to start using those strategies.

Next Steps

Metacognition and its strategies are a really big topic.  That’s why this is split into two parts.  If you want to get notifications of when new blogs come out, make sure you sign up for our email list!  Click below to sign-up if you haven’t yet and stay tuned for the next part.