Metacognition

QW: When you want to learn something new, what strategies do you use? What works well for you when you are trying to learn something? What doesn't work?

In last week's post, I discussed neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to grow and change as you learn, and the fact that young people between the ages or 12 and 25 experience a period of increased neuroplasticity. During this period of neuroplasticity, learning something new is easier and more efficient that it is likely to be as you get older.  It turns out there are strategies you can use to make your learning even more efficient during this (and any other) time in your life.

Cognition is "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses"; that is, cognition is the act of thinking. The term "metacognition" refers to thinking about your thinking - analyzing what you are thinking, why, and how you might change your thinking. You can think of it as "driving your brain" - directing how you think about and engage in learning, rather than setting it on autopilot as you move through your learning experiences. Sometimes you might need to back up and look at something again, or take a detour to gather more information about a topic before moving on. You might need to go slower, or faster, to improve your learning efficiency.

In addition to thinking about your thinking, metacognition involves monitoring your thinking and directing your thinking. An example of monitoring your thinking is when you are reading a passage in history, and realize partway through that you are not understanding what you are reading. At this point, you may realize you need to back up and re-read it, you may need to go back to a previous section to fill in some background knowledge, or look up some information. You may decide you need to take notes as you are reading, or stop after each paragraph and summarize for yourself what you just read. This whole process starts with monitoring your thinking and being aware of what you are and are not understanding. An example of directing your thinking is when you realize you are getting distracted by details, and you refocus your thinking on the main idea of what you are reading or hearing. Another example is when you find your mind wandering, and realize you need to stop and refocus your attention.

Activity:
Read the article below about metacognition, and answer the questions that follow:

Metacognition: How Thinking About Thinking Can Help Kids

Questions:

1. In your own words, describe what is meant by metacognition.
2. How can metacognition help you learn better?
3. Specifically, what strategies of metacognition (thinking about thinking, monitoring your thinking, and directing your thinking) can you apply to your learning this week? How will you apply these strategies?
4. Are you driving your brain, or just cruising on autopilot through your learning? What can you do to more effectively focus your thinking and learning?
5. Think about a recent test or assignment (one that you struggled with), and how you approached it. Was your approach effective? What could you have done differently to improve your study or work habits?
6. Think about an assignment or problem you are having right now. What have you tried? What are some other things you could try? How might you approach this problem or assignment differently? 
7. If you are stuck on an assignment, where can you look for help? Identify at least 3 actions you can take to get unstuck.

Mindset

QW: Describe a time you had to do something difficult.  How did you go about it?

Background Information:
Over the past decade or so, our ideas of how the mind works have changed drastically.  Many people used to believe that intelligence was a relatively fixed quantity, something that couldn't change substantially.  People also used to believe that once you achieved adulthood (indeed, shortly after you left your toddler years), you were stuck with the brain you had, and it wouldn't really change much over the course of the rest of your life.

Recent research has changed all of this.  Neuroscientists have discovered that in pre-adolescence and adolescence, the brain goes through a period of rapid growth in neural connections, followed by pruning of unused connections, similar to what happens with toddlers (for more information on this, see this article). This makes adolescence an incredibly important time for learning.  The neural connections that are used repeatedly will be kept and strengthened, those that are not used will be lost.  The implications are that this is the most efficient time to learn something - if you want to learn a language or how to play a musical instrument, for example, it will be much harder once this period of growth and pruning is over.

Another recent area of research is concerned with how students think about learning.  Researchers at Stanford have looked at how mindset, or how students think about their ability to learn, affects their academic success.  These attitudes are characterized as fixed mindset or growth mindset.  People with a fixed mindset think that intelligence or ability is something that is more or less pre-determined, and can't be changed much.  Those with a growth mindset, however, believe that through effort and meaningful feedback, people can improve their intelligence and abilities.  Current neurological research strongly supports the second idea - as we learn new things, new connections (called synapses) are actually created in our brains; that is, our brains actually change physically as a result of our learning.

Activity:
Read the following articles on learning and mindset:

Student's View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
Forget Talent: Why Practice is Key to Most Prodigies' Success

Then answer the questions on this Google Doc: Growth Mindset Reading Questions

You can learn more about the idea of a growth mindset here or here, and a ton of information on how mindset affects performance in math particularly at Jo Boler's Youcubed website.

Structure and Function of the Brain

QW: What do you appreciate most about your brain?

We're going into a new section of the course now, which might seem a little off-topic, but bear with me.  New research shows that the brain is much more adaptable than was previously thought, and that it continues to grow and change throughout your life.  The next few assignments relate to the structure and function of the brain, how the brain reacts to stress, and how mindset is related to student performance and achievement.  The first step is to learn a little about the different parts of the brain, and how they relate to perception, thinking, and emotion.

Activity: Watch the video below from Bozeman Science about the structure and function of the brain.  Using the information from the video, or other online resources, color and label the attached diagram of the brain. For each region you label, include a brief explanation of what that regions does.

Here is the diagram:

Assignment: Choose one of the brain regions you identified in the diagram, and write a thank you letter showing your appreciation for what that part of the brain does for you.  Be sure to include the major functions of the particular brain region and why this is important to you.  Your letter should be roughly a page long.  Turn in your letter to your EF.

Letter From Your Future Self

QW: Take five minutes to describe where you think you will be in 10 years, and what you will be doing. What will your life be like?

Imagine yourself sometime in the future (at least 5-10 years after graduating from high school). By this time, someone has invented a trans-temporal postal service that can deliver mail to the past. As your future self, write a letter to yourself now, describing accomplishments and experiences you've had and sharing any advice for yourself going forward.

Your letter should be about a page long. Turn the letter in to your EF.

Optional: If you want, you can also write an email TO your future self. On the websitehttps://www.futureme.org/, you can write an email to yourself in the future, specify how far in the future you will want to receive this email, and they'll send it at the appropriate time.