An example of a general thinking strategy is evaluating new ideas by comparing them with other things you know about, to see if the ideas fit together and make sense to you. In relation to a Chemistry course, students can make connections between macroscopic observations and molecular-level explanations. Both are essential for developing a high-quality understanding of Chemistry. We can see that the infusion of teaching metacognitive skills is a promising approach to helping students learn to use their content knowledge more appropriately and flexibly. 


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There was a question of, should teachers be responsible for developing students metacognitive skills? The simple answer is yes. Teachers will need to include instruction on the use of relevant thinking strategies in their courses. Teaching general “critical thinking” skills aside from context knowledge is not sufficient to allow students to transfer those skills to new situations. Instead, general thinking strategies, concept maps, conceptests, Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) Taks, and The Model-Observe-Reflect-Explain (MORE) Thinking Frame, should be implemented to encourage metacognition. 

Can Metacognition be Taught?

Dawn Rickey and Angelica M. Stacy. Journal of Chemical Education (2000), 77(7),915 DOI:10.1021/ed077p915 


The Role of Metacognition in Learning Chemistry 

Metacognition in Education: General Thinking Strategies

In order to promote metacognition, students need to be aware of their ideas and this can be done through concept maps. Concept mapping, developed by Novak and Gowin, involves the construction of a diagram that emphasizes relationships between concepts. In relation to the Chemistry course, students are asked to construct concept maps before and after each chemistry laboratory session. This can be ineffective for those students who are more verbal learners. However, the majority of students had a better understanding of the concepts taught. 


Metacognition in Education: Concept Maps

ConcepTests are multiple-choice questions carefully constructed to expose student ideas that are at odds with scientifically accepted views. The students are presented with a question during a lecture, asked to vote, then given time to discuss their thoughts with others, and asked to revote. Any shift from the initial vote is observed and the test ends with the instructor's explanation of his or her thinking about the question. Mazur has found that lectures taught using peer instruction improve students’ conceptual understanding and problem solving. 


Metacognition in Education: ConcepTests

Champagne, Klopfer, and Anderson developed the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) taks, which allows students to make predictions about an event and explain the reasons for their predictions; highlighting their initial ideas. Then, they conduct or observe an experiment and are required to reconcile their observations with their predictions; this is where students think about the phenomena being studied causing them to re-examine their initial ideas. POE-based instructional approaches have been successful in promoting conceptual change in physics.


Metacognition in Education: (POE) Tasks 

The Model-Observe-Reflect-Explain (MORE) Thinking Frame is an adaptation of the POE task intended to get at the goals of the course by providing students with a framework to guide their thinking. The MORE Thinking Frame differs from the POE task in several ways; (1) students begin a laboratory module by representing their initial ideas about the experimental system as a whole (their initial model) which requires students to reflect on their ideas about various aspects of the chemical systems rather than on an isolated experimental outcome, (2) it includes an explicit reflection component, (3) it includes the idea of model refinement therefore after each experiment in a module, students are explicitly prompted to reflect upon the implications of their observations for their model and revise their ideas accordingly, and (4) it uses metacognitive strategies such as connecting macroscopic observations with atomic- and molecular-level explanations. 

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