The Master Teacher Blog

The process of thinking about one’s thinking, or metacognition, is increasingly important in today’s world, but it is not new. In fact, Socrates encouraged and taught this skill to his students. Although, it is unlikely that he called it metacognition.

There may have been a time when teaching students what to think was adequate to prepare them for the future. However, if those days existed, they are in the past. Today, unless students learn how to think and learn, they are likely to find themselves unprepared for what lies ahead for them in life and their careers. Of course, it remains important to give students moral guidance and grounding in ethical principles. But their success will lie in their capacity to reflect, assess, consider, and decide when and how what they know currently applies, and what they still need to learn.

Students who are proficient in metacognition have several advantages over those who do not. Metacognitive strategies can help students to choose the strategies and approaches most likely to lead to success. When students are skilled at thinking about their thinking, they are better able to diagnose false assumptions, uncover flaws in their thinking and approach, and adapt to unfamiliar challenges and situations.

So, what are some approaches we can use to teach students about metacognition and how to use it? Here are six proven effective strategies to consider and apply:

• Model our own metacognition for students. We might talk through how we understand, consider and approach a problem. We can explain and discuss steps we take in addressing a challenge or when trying something new, and why we chose each step. We might even reflect out loud about an error we made and by reflecting we were able to correct our actions or find a solution.
• Explicitly teach metacognitive strategies. A great place to start is to have students set goals for their learning. The existence of goals gives students something to focus on. Additionally, we might teach students to self-question as they read and study. Rather than plowing through content, students can reflect on what they understand, where they may be confused, and what more they need to know. Further, we can coach students to summarize as they learn. Summarizing helps students to confirm their learning and embed what they are absorbing in memory. Also, we can teach students to analyze errors. Pausing to reflect on why they made a mistake can be far more valuable than focusing solely on what they got wrong.
• Introduce students to planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning. We can coach students to think through their desired outcome before starting a learning task, beginning a project, or approaching a problem. Asking “What do I want to learn/accomplish/solve?” can provide direction and focus for their efforts. We can encourage students to pause during the activity to ask themselves whether they are following their plan or making progress toward the outcome they identified. Making mid-course adjustments also can be empowering and productive actions. Further, we can engage students in reflection about what went well, what they learned, and what they might do better next time.
• Have students capture their learning by journaling. Writing is a great way to process experiences and solidify learning. Journaling also helps to move learning from an externally stimulated experience to one the student owns. Capturing ideas, reflecting on experiences, and exploring questions can be powerful ways to build confidence and deepen understanding.
• Engage students in debriefing and reflective discussions with peers. Talking about learning experiences can build greater awareness and lead to new insights about what was learned. Explaining plans, summarizing strategies, and describing thinking can lead to greater clarity and introspection. However, this process may require us to provide some structure such as sentence stems: “My plan was…” “If I were to do this again…” or “What I noticed about my thinking was…” “I discovered that I learn best when…”
• Encourage and celebrate productive struggle. We can reinforce the importance and rewards of persistence combined with patience, reflection, and adjustment. Identifying options and changing strategies builds confidence and resilience. Meanwhile, shifting approaches often leads to learning breakthroughs. We might call out times when students felt stuck before shifting strategy, adjusting effort, and accessing their resources to find success. Of course, having students recount these experiences can be especially powerful and influential to classmates.

Thinking can be hard. Thinking about thinking can be even more challenging. Nevertheless, with practice, coaching, and support, students can become amazingly reflective, insightful, and flexible learners.

We know that the information provided by formative assessments is crucial to understanding what students know and how their learning is progressing. Formative assessments—quizzes, assignments, drafts, and other progress-related information—can tell us what students have mastered, where their learning is uncertain or shaky, and when they are ready to move their learning forward. The information that is generated can tell us how to plan for future instruction and tell students what to do next, how close they are to achieving learning goals, and when they are ready for summative assessments.

Yet, formative assessments often are fraught with confusion, misinterpretation, and even resistance. Too often, when students are introduced to the terms “formative” and “summative” assessments they immediately translate them into what counts for a grade and what doesn’t. As a result, they may conclude that they do not need to give effort or even regularly engage in work that is “formative,” assuming that it will not have an impact on their grade.

This thinking is often the result of an over-emphasis on grades and under-emphasis on learning. One of the crucial shifts in thinking and focusing on making formative assessment activities meaningful is to de-emphasize grades when it is practical to do so. Grades should reflect learning. Grades are results. The daily work of learning is what determines if students will do well when grades are determined. On the other hand, if grades are the only focus, formative assessments may not seem important.

It is crucial that students to see the relationship between information from formative activities and their performance on summative assessments. Doing well or showing progress on formative assessments almost always is predictive of how students will do on summative assessments.

It is worth noting that we work with young people who often lack the maturity or life experience to connect continuous, diligent effort with successful outcomes. They may not realize the connection between what they do every day and where they end up at the end of a teaching and learning cycle. This is an important life lesson for us to teach.

Of course, some students may do well on summative assessments despite not completing and submitting much formative evidence. When this is the case, we need to ask ourselves if the learning we offered was challenging enough to be worthwhile for the student, or possibly, if the student already knew the content or possessed the skill. 

So, how can we help students see and value the relationship between formative and summative assessments? Obviously, it depends on the nature of the barriers or confusion students have concerning this relationship. Here are seven arguments or explanations that might help.

We might start by reminding students of the importance of practice before a game or performance. Whether competing in athletics, performing in theater, making music, or playing chess, practice and rehearsal is what leads to success. Beginners, amateurs, and professionals all practice and measure their progress before attempting to compete or perform. Formative assessment activities measure where additional practice and skill development are needed.

We can draw on students’ experience with video games. Rarely is success achieved on a first attempt in a video game. Often many steps, multiple attempts and skill growth are required before significant progress and success are achieved. Formative assessment activities are intermediate attempts and progress markers.

We might present students with examples of how performance on formative assessments led to success in summative assessments for other students. We might also share counter examples that demonstrate that poor performance on formative assessments led to lack of success on a summative assessment. When students understand this relationship, it is easier for them to invest in formative activities.

We can give students tools to chart their progress. If we have students set goals for their learning, charting progress can be an informative and satisfying activity. Students need to see a purpose and use for formative assessment information. Progress monitoring becomes the data students use to see improvement and analyze where they need to improve or what they are ready to learn next.

We might make it a practice to meet and discuss formative assessment information with students. We can coach students on how to make sense of and use formative assessment information. We also might discuss with students the next steps in learning the information suggests. Planning together can build students’ understanding, strengthen their confidence, and lead them to value the information formative assessments can offer.

Finally, we can make a personal connection. We might say to students, “I care too much and desire too much for you to allow you to fail. I also want you to learn how to invest, persist, and achieve success in whatever you choose to do with your life. The process of assessing as you learn is a proven powerful strategy that leads to success in virtually any effort.”

Do you have additional ideas to encourage students to engage in and take formative assessment activities seriously? What would you suggest?

Teaching in today’s environment is challenging work. The press and stress we feel can lead us to pull back and rely on traditional, longstanding, seemingly safe instructional practices and strategies. We might think that traditional approaches will serve well enough and produce enough evidence of learning to satisfy the expectations we face.

It is true that there are many longstanding practices that have “passed the test of time.” However, the challenging and changing future our students face and what we have discovered about learning over the past few decades ask us to shift our thinking, adjust our practices, and embrace new levels of teaching and learning success.

In fact, some of the traditional practices and approaches we have been taught and have relied on can become distractions from reaching the levels of teaching and learning excellence we want to achieve. Consider these five traditional practices and how they might be adjusted to lift the learning of our students to new levels.

Distraction #1: Demanding compliance over nurturing commitment.

Demanding compliance has traditionally been the dominate and most frequently taught approach to instruction and classroom management. This approach is based on the assumption that in order for students to learn, their behavior must be controlled, and that students likely won’t choose to learn what we are asking of them unless they are forced. Obviously, we need a level of order and respect for learning to occur. However, depending on compliance alone offers little benefit beyond control of the physical actions of students. If we hope to have students invest in learning beyond what is mandated, we must do more. We need to invite interest, provoke curiosity, share awe, design challenge, encourage voice, and offer meaningful choices.

In a compliance environment, learning work is finished when demands are satisfied, and expectations are met. In a commitment-driven environment, learning continues until curiosity is satisfied, important questions are answered, and learning challenges have been defeated.

Distraction #2: Focusing on superficial understanding over deep learning.

Students can gain a surface level understanding of content presented to them by repeating what is said, retelling what they have read, and recounting other information they have been fed. However, deep understanding and pervasive learning comes when students dissect what is presented, debate what they are seeking to understand, digest what they have come to grasp, and learn to utilize the insights they have gained. If we want students to gain deep understanding, we need to value rich exploration and introduce new content with at least as many questions as clear and obvious answers. Information and skills need context to be compelling. Students need opportunities and reasons to investigate and assess what they are learning, not just be assessed to determine if they have learned.

The best evidence of deep learning can be found in students’ confidence and competence to apply their learning in varied contexts, use it to create new insights, and employ it to explore broader and deeper implications. 

Distraction #3: Settling for information consumption over knowledge creation.

Our education system is largely designed to have students consume information and learn skills taught to them. While this approach may have been adequate in the past, the world we need to prepare today’s students for will reward the ability to turn what is known into something more. Simply applying formulas, following processes, and replicating what can be digitized and programmed for performance by technology is no longer enough. Curiosity, imagination, creativity, questioning, and being challenged leads to learning for which students feel ownership.

When students discover new insights, uncover new implications, and formulate new ideas, they move from consumers of information to generators of knowledge. 

Distraction #4: Focusing on end-of-cycle learning assessments over learning retention.

When our attention and students’ focus are aimed solely on assessment performance at the conclusion of units and other learning segments, we risk students falling into the trap of “test and forget.” Unless learning has a greater, long-term purpose for students, they are likely to lose new learning soon after it is assessed.

If we want students to retain what they have learned, we need to help them connect new learning with past learning, frequently return to the learned skills and content for review and application, and design activities that depend on past learning to refresh recall and give students reasons to retain what they have learned. 

Obviously, there are many instructional practices that have served well in the past and deserve to be continued. However, we must be vigilant in our assessment of what our practices can produce and feel urgency in our quest to shift and modify our approaches to maximize their impact and enrich student learning.

Frustration around the expectation to entertain while educating has grown in frequency and intensity as technology, social media, and other sources of entertainment increasingly compete for the attention of our students. Fortunately, we do not necessarily have to choose one or the other. We can provide students with experiences that feature both entertainment and education. It is possible to hold two ideas in our thinking at the same time. We can focus on standards and learning goals while seeking the best ways to achieve them.

The Cambridge dictionary defines edutainment as “The process of entertaining people at the same time that you are teaching them something, and the products such as television programs, software, and others that do this.” Edutainment might be thought of as a continuum featuring entertainment and education. There is a time and place for edutainment and time for an exclusive focus on learning. Of course, overreliance on edutainment can lead students to believe that learning should always be colorful, entertaining, and fun. They can reach the conclusion that they are the audience and educators are the entertainers.

Stories, analogies, humor, examples, videos, role play scenarios, games, and simulations can provide a context, stimulate interest, and present crucial information to support learning. However, we must be careful not to focus so heavily on the supporting activities that shortchange or abandon the intended learning. Edutainment might be thought of as a resource and strategy to support a learning effort or activity. It is not pedagogy.

Building motivation and activating engagement play important roles in learning, but they are not learning. They can prepare students for learning, but they are not ends in themselves. Our work is to help students to develop cognitive connections and structure. This work requires thinking, reflection, and application. It may feature multiple attempts before success is achieved. It can be enjoyable and rewarding, but it is not always fun.

So how might we think about the role of edutainment in our classrooms without assuming that we must be entertainers? Here are six elements to consider:

1. Think of edutainment as a strategy. We might use it as a hook to build interest, a means to renew or build background knowledge, or an experience to make a connection.
2. Start with learning goals and outcomes. If we choose to engage in or enlist some form of edutainment, we need to be certain that it aligns with and supports what we want students to learn. If we don’t and they fail to make a connection, it is just entertainment.
3. Include multiple learning modes. The more ways in which we expose and engage students to hints, previews, visuals, sounds, and actions related to learning, the wider the range of students we are likely to engage.
4.  Search for emotional hooks. Some of the best options for engaging students involve love, hate, outrage, compassion, irony, intrigue, and other emotional connections. Compelling stories, persuasive analogies, heart-tugging examples, and other invitations for students to care can generate surprisingly strong motivation and engagement.
5. Find ways to involve students in creating the experience. Students might design games, develop role play scenarios, create videos, or other engaging activities to introduce and support learning.
6. Follow up edutainment activities. The value of this type of activity is found in the connections and reflections that students make. Observations, analyses, discussions, and even debates can move students from passive listening to active thinking.

Meanwhile, we need to be mindful of several cautions:

• Avoid activities that are overly simplistic and superficial. Our goal is to prepare students for the learning that lies ahead. Activities that lack depth and connections can leave students confused and unable to grasp the intended purpose.
• Resist over-engineering edutainment activities. Time and other resources are precious. Too much time spent preparing and conducting introductory activities can distract and compromise the focus on the time available for learning.
• Use edutainment sparingly. Overuse of fun, entertaining activities can reduce students’ attention spans and leave them impatient and intolerant of extended and rigorous learning.
• Make sure that students have access to necessary resources. Some students may not have the technology and other material resources necessary to participate. Check to be certain all students can participate before presenting an edutainment experience.
• Don’t confuse entertainment and instruction. The real work of learning comes after an edutainment experience. Explicit instruction, reflection, practice, application, and formative assessment are the elements that make learning happen.

The bottom line is that educators do not have to be entertainers. However, finding ways to engage students in experiences that make learning more interesting, intriguing, and compelling can build intrinsic motivation and support deeper engagement.

The workshop model of lesson construction is designed to focus student attention and activities on building understanding, developing ownership, and fostering independence. It also offers the advantage of application across disciplines and subject areas and has been proven to be successful when put into practice.

While there are variations in the ways workshop activities are labeled and described, they share core elements that help to accelerate, solidify, and extend learning. The following are six learning and teaching components common to widely accepted workshop approaches, and a description of how each component accelerates the learning process.

Component #1: Prepare students with engaging opening activities. We might start with a compelling narrative that reveals the relevance and importance of what students will be learning. The activity might reveal and reinforce connections to prior learning. It could be a challenge activity that invites students to solve a problem or find an answer that will be revealed in the upcoming lesson. This activity also might be a pre-assessment task that reveals what students need to review or may still need to learn.

Accelerator: Preparation activities activate thinking and help students get ready to learn.

Component #2: Present brief, focused, relevant mini lessons. Lessons that generate the greatest amount of learning are not long. In fact, maximum attention and information absorption typically extend only for about 10-20 minutes depending on the age and maturity of students, the complexity of the content, and the compelling nature of what students will learn. While we might be tempted to extend our explanation, provide greater detail, or delve into specifics, research shows that students’ attention will begin to wane when the information we share extends beyond this relatively short time span. The key is to discern what is most important for students to learn next, organize the content in the most understandable and manageable format, and present the information with energy, commitment, and authenticity. Mini lessons do not have to be provided through direct instruction. Flexible strategies and variations can be employed to expose students to new learning content.

Accelerator: Short, targeted instruction taps into students’ energy and attention while they are at their peak.

Component #3: Provide opportunities for reflection. When the lesson is finished, students need time to absorb and make sense of what they have heard, seen, and experienced. Often called “brain breaks,” these are important opportunities for students to place what they are learning in working memory where it is sorted and prioritized for storage in long-term memory. We might have students physically move, engage in a mindfulness activity, or another activity that does not require significant mental energy. As little as 3-5 minutes can be adequate to accomplish this goal.

Accelerator: Students’ brains immediately begin to organize and store new information in working memory.

Component #4: Design opportunities for students to interact with what they are learning. Activities such as peer teaching, think-pair-share, and drawing pictural representations and mind maps help students to process new information, strengthen their grasp of information, and articulate their understanding of what they are learning. Students may work alone, in pairs, small groups, or large groups, depending on the content and activity.

Accelerator: Students practice sorting new information, clearing up areas of confusion or misunderstanding, and readying new learning for long-term memory.

Component #5: Arrange for application of new information or skills. Using new skills and applying new understanding to relevant, purposeful, and challenging activities further solidifies learning and builds confidence in using new knowledge. Practice activities also provide additional opportunities to clear up remaining confusion and dispel any misconceptions.

Accelerator: The shift to application and practice completes the transition from learning dependence to independence.

Component #6: Debrief for clarity and understanding. As a concluding activity, debriefing provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Reviewing strategies, noting areas of struggle, and owning progress and new understanding helps to complete the learning process and move new information toward long-term memory. This can also be an opportunity to identify areas or elements of learning that still need support and review in the future.

Accelerator: Debriefing helps students to understand their learning journey, develop ownership of what they have learned, and provide us with feedback to use as we plan future instruction.

The workshop approach also offers the flexibility to be compressed or expanded depending on the content, amount of time available, and student readiness. Some components might be introduced one day and followed by remaining components the next day. Or, if time allows, the entire process can be accomplished in a single session.

Think about how you already employ elements of the workshop model. Are there areas or aspects you might strengthen or add? How might you adjust your approach depending on the content you teach, the age and maturity of your students, and schedule constraints you face?

A growing number of schools are investing in instructional coaches to help teachers to reflect on their practices, broaden their teaching strategies, and build their skillset. On its face, this seems like a great new resource for teachers and a wise investment for schools and school districts. However, instructional coaching is not always welcomed and valued.

Many veteran educators have not experienced a coach since they were a student teacher, and that experience may not have been positive. Consequently, they are now resistant to the idea of being coached. Some teachers are reluctant to engage with an instructional coach because they fear that having a coach may suggest that their skills and practices are not adequate or viewed positively. Still others resist coaching because they are not convinced that a coach will offer significant benefit in exchange for the investment of time and effort.

Yet, most top-performing CEOs and other executives have coaches to help them maintain and improve their performance. Top athletes are constantly coached to help them perform at their very best and remain at elite levels. World-famous visual and performing artists have coaches to help them refine their techniques and hone their skills. The list could go on, but the point is that receiving coaching does not mean that there is a skill deficit or performance problem. Rather, it reflects a commitment to constantly improve and perform at our best and, when done well, instructional coaching offers among the most powerful impact on student learning of all school-based professional development initiatives.

Instructional coaches are not necessarily smarter, better skilled, or more experienced that those they coach. Rather, they serve as reflectors, collaborators, resource providers, and explorers to help us do our very best work on behalf of our students and their learning. They may share observations, ask questions, explore options, and otherwise help us to reflect on and improve our practice.

The challenge we face when being coached is how to get the most from the experience. Coaching takes time, requires investment of effort, and may occasionally challenge us to take risks. We want to be certain that our investment pays off. Here are seven experience-proven insights we can tap to make the best of the coaching we receive.

First, we need to commit to active listening. The first step toward a successful coaching experience is being open to listen and consider what we hear. We may have years of experience under our belt and enjoyed significant success, but becoming even better starts with a willingness to hear and consider ideas and suggestions that do not originate with us.

Second, we must “put our ego in our pocket.” If it has been a while since we have engaged with a coach, it can be a challenge to accept someone else’s ideas and perspectives. We can feel the urge to resist or argue when our coach notices something or somewhere we might improve. We need to be humble enough to accept that there may be areas in which we can and need to improve and that sometimes others are in a good position to notice and suggest opportunities.

Third, we need to avoid making excuses. When we are nervous, defensive, or feeling less than successful, it can be tempting to look for ways to justify our behavior rather than accepting that something did not work or admit that we may not have given our best effort. We need to keep our focus on progress and what can help us to move forward rather than become distracted with deflections and justifications.

Fourth, we can adopt a growth mindset. Just because we have not tried something in the past, or have tried and not been successful, does not mean that we cannot develop a skill or learn a new technique. We may need a better strategy, renewed effort, or access to some additional tools or resources, but we have accomplished difficult things in the past and there is no reason to be less than confident in success if we give our best.

Fifth, we need to ask questions. We may hear something from our coach that seems unclear or confusing. We may not fully understand how to implement what they suggest. Our relationship and the results we and our coach seek to achieve will require clarity and full understanding. Asking for clarification, examples, and models can improve our ability to implement and succeed with new behaviors.

Sixth, we must commit to implementing the results of coaching. Coaching naturally involves conversations, but it truly matters when what we hear and agree to is translated into action. It is not enough to see how a change might be beneficial. We need to put our new learning and emerging insights into practice.

Seventh, we need to remember that our coach wants us to be our best. We may sometimes disagree with what our coach suggests, or we may have what we think is a better idea. But this is not a contest or a circumstance in which we need to win an argument. While we may occasionally choose not to implement a suggestion, we need to remember that our coach is our advocate. They want us to do our best. When we do, they win, too.

Engaging with an instructional coach may be challenging at first, especially if we have little recent experience being coached. However, with patience, commitment, flexibility, courage, and some humor, being coached can be a rich and rewarding experience.