Education Endowment Foundation:EEF blog: Reflecting on the Challenge of Mobilising Metacognition

“Metacognition and self-regulation approaches to teaching support pupils to think about their own learning more explicitly, often by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning.”

EEF Toolkit, Metacognition and Self-regulation strand

Metacognition has an enduring popularity with teachers and school leaders. For many, it offers the vital teaching approaches that guide pupils towards independent practice. Whether it is writing an essay in history, tackling word problems in Year 2 mathematics, or debating a controversial topic – planning, monitoring and evaluating appear to be valuable steps in learning that we need to make explicit for pupils.

The broad evidence collated in the EEF Toolkit, and the evidence review undertaken by Professor Daniel Muijs and Christian Bokhove, indicate the positive potential of mobilising metacognition.

However, new evidence from an EEF effectiveness trial of the ​‘ReflectED’ programme, reveals the difficulties of translating knowledge about metacognition into impact on pupil outcomes.

A little reflection on the challenges of mobilising metacognition may prove both revealing and instructive.

What is ReflectED and what can we learn from it?

ReflectED was developed by Rosendale Primary School, with a focus on ​“assisting pupils to reflect on ​‘learning moments and strategies’ to support attainment”. At its core was an approach to developing metacognition across primary school, through all year groups.

An initial EEF trial, involving 30 schools, found a significant positive impact on mathematics (+4 months), but a negative impact on reading (-2 months). To explore the approach further, a larger ​‘effectiveness trial’ (i.e. can it work at a bigger scale?) was undertaken to see if this impact was sustained at scale.

The larger trial involved 112 schools across England. The approach consisted of 28 weekly half-hour lessons, in which pupils were taught strategies they could use to monitor and manage their own learning. Pupils were then encouraged to apply these strategies across the school curriculum.

Overall, the approach at scale showed no significant difference in Key Stage 2 reading outcomes and one month’s less progress for children in ReflectED schools compared to children in those schools in the control group who didn’t receive the programme.

Some teachers in the trial reported observing an ​“increase in pupils’ understanding and use of metacognitive language over the course of delivering ReflectED.

What should we take away from this report?

Why may this trial jar with the broader research that suggests a positive impact on average?

In the baseline survey for the trial, Headteachers and teachers perceived metacognition to be important.

Metacognition is recognised in the evaluation as a potentially ​“fuzzy” concept that can prove difficult concept to embed into daily teacher – and pupil – habits. And yet definitions around what this looked like in literature and practice were varied.

We can speculate: was this gap in defining and measuring the impact of metacognition too difficult to overcome through training?

A common misconception identified in our ​‘Metacognition and Self-Regulation guidance report’, is that ​“Metacognition is a general skill that can be separated from subject knowledge” (the very ​‘cognition’ embedded in the term). Potentially then, when scaled across lots of primary schools, it could be that whilst reflection may benefit learning in other ways, it isn’t translating to metacognitive tasks like mathematical problem solving, or extended writing in Key Stage 2.

A final, perhaps unsurprising, insight from the trial evaluation showed that schools could struggle to sufficiently embed the ReflectED approach at a whole-school level. For instance, using the technology app to record reflections was a problem for more than half of schools in the trial (using paper resources was more common). Schools, and teachers, are really busy and tech can fail!

In summary…

Schools undertaking an approach to developing pupils’ metacognition need to ensure there is a clear, shared understanding amongst teachers. It can be a ​‘fuzzy’ concept that is difficult to mobilise, even with good CPD.

Research indicates that approaches to develop pupils’ metacognition needs to be closely aligned to curriculum subjects for impact (e.g. metacognitive strategies for maths problem solving). Generic tools, such as ​‘Supporting pupil independence questioning tool’, or the ​‘Seven-step model’ for modelling independence, can be applied to specific curriculum areas and study strategies.

Any whole-school approach requires so much support to be implemented well. For instance, narrowing the scope e.g. testing out an approach with a year group, or a specific subject area – and supporting that change, may prove helpful to better mobilise metacognition. Read our ​‘Putting Evidence to Work: A School’s Guide to Implementation’.

You can read the full ReflectED (Regrant) evaluation report here.

To find out more about getting involved in EEF trials – read more here.