Self-regulation part 2: Linking Metacognition and Self-regulation

Executive Functioning
This blog follows on from an earlier blog that I wrote after Christmas where we looked at the idea that children, when they are very young, develop self-regulation when faced with the situation of having to deny immediate self gratification in order to achieve a greater goal over time. It was obvious that children develop different degrees of self-control and the lack of self-regulation can lead to a diminished ability to learn independently. In school many children with literacy-related learning difficulties are at a disadvantage because the delay in development of adequate self-regulation becomes an executive functioning problem.

Metacognition is a type of executive functioning that enables learners to control their own learning behaviours and develop more effective self-regulated strategies. Matt Bromley has written a very good summary  of the "Educational Endowment Foundation's" (EEF) Teaching and Learning Tool kit report which outlines much of the recent work on metacognition and parallels my own  research since 2006.  In "Reading Comprehension: Assisting children with learning difficulties "(2011) I used similar ideas to help children who were struggling with reading comprehension and self-regulation.  Around this time I developed an intervention comprehension program that utilised a conceptual framework that could be applied in multiple learning contexts. The program became known as the "COR Literacy Framework"  and was implemented in many schools in Queensland with Independent Schools Queensland in partnership with Griffith University.

Literacy framework incorporating metacognition & self-regulation 
At first it was envisaged to be used to train teachers and teacher aids during 2008 but it was such a huge success that it was extended for another three years. During this time the framework was improved through a number of iterations, due, impart to the feedback I received from many teachers that took part in the research. Initially it began as an intervention program for children with reading comprehension difficulties for upper primary students but it was found to include a much wider application for children in lower primary and also in some high school settings. This was because the framework is not content specific but was built upon a metacognitive and self-regulation structure. I have a 12 part series of blogs, called "COR Literacy Framework Part#", where I discuss a number of teaching and learning principles and strategies that have contributed to the success of the program.

Product OR process ?
Many of the ideas that resulted from this research were applied in my first book (above) and also in "Developing literacy in the primary school" and "Developing literacy in the secondary school". I consider that metacognition, self-regulation and comprehension strategies should be taught explicitly in all school contexts from lower primary to secondary classrooms. However, often teachers are so focussed on teaching content (or product) that they neglect to concentrate on the process as well. The links above may help teachers have a more informed understanding of executive functioning in learning and when to apply the skills appropriately.

Woolley, G. E. (2011). Reading comprehension: Assisting children with learning difficulties. Dordrecht: Springer.

Woolley, G. E. (2014). Developing literacy in the primary classroom. London: Sage.

Barton, G. & Woolley, G. E. (2017). Developing literacy in the secondary classroom. London: Sage.

                     

                                                       

Developing Literacy in the Primary Classroom

'Primary literacy involves many different learning processes, which can make it challenging to teach, particularly in diverse classroom environments.
 
Combining an examination of theory and research with practical case studies and real examples of teaching practice, this book shows trainee and early career teachers how to engage and motivate children to develop a range of primary English skills.
 
Chapters incorporate broader aspects of primary teaching such as active learning, self-regulation and assessment, and activities and discussion points explore how to apply important principles to your own teaching. 
 
Drawing from international research and aware of policy developments in different countries, the book covers key topics on primary teacher education courses, including:

• The foundations of reading, writing and oracy skills

• Planning, assessment and classroom organisation

• Using new technologies and social media as tools for learning
• Engaging with the literacy needs of diverse learners.' 

Sage Publications Ltd 

Publication date late June 2014

'Gary Woolley’s new book gives us a comprehensive overview of what we mean by both literacy and literacies in our modern world. It is thoroughly researched and offers student and practising teachers, and those working in Higher Education, a balanced and informed overview of the theory behind our present teaching practices.'

Howard Cotton

Lecturer in Language and Literacy, Plymouth University, UK

'Highly recommended. The author has left no stone unturned in this extremely comprehensive exploration of how best to develop students’ literacy skills. Beginning teachers, and those with experience, will find much here to influence their positive thinking and their classroom practices. A truly 21^st century perspective.'

Peter Westwood

Education Consultant and Author, Australia

'Developing Literacy in the Primary Classroom is a comprehensive overview of the critical topics all teachers need to understand and apply to be effective literacy educators.  Teachers need to know and understand what literacy is, how students learn and advance in their literacy skills, and how to direct, structure, monitor and adapt their literacy instructions and practices, as required for different purposes. This book is strongly focussed on developing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge across the different elements of literacy and across the changing demands of students’ literacy enhancement across the school years.'

Professor Ian Hay

Past Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania

COR Literacy Framework Pt 3a - Questions

In teaching, questions are like seeds that fall on fertile ground and germinate. They focus attention and they anticipate the types of meanings that are most likely to be constructed when answering them. The National Reading Panel (2002) investigation of recent reading research found that asking and answering questions were two of the most powerful reading comprehension strategies. One the most important elements of the COR Literacy Framework is the strategic use of questioning. This is because getting answers to questions is at the heart of comprehension. Obviously, you are more able to build better comprehension if you ask the most appropriate questions.

From research conducted in conjunction with the COR Literacy Framework a number of Australian schools found that most children were not able to ask strategic questions when given the opportunity in class. They could often ask literal or surface level questions such as 'what', 'when' or 'where'  questions but seldom asked 'why' or 'how'. It was assumed that the children were used to answering questions and were not usually required to ask questions in class. The impression that children often have is that the most powerful person in the classroom, the teacher, usually asks all the questions. However, by giving the children the responsibility for devising their own questions the teacher is actually transferring the learning responsibility to the children. This is often referred to as transferring the locus of control and it is one contributing factor for developing learning self-regulation.

Good self-questioning needs to be modelled and practiced by individuals on a regular basis. Teachers should develop a habit of asking higher order questions during class discussions so that the children become familiar with the various types of questions that can be generated. When teachers actively promote discussion in class using open ended questions it promotes divergent thinking, creativity and enjoyment in an atmosphere of inquiry. This will provide fertile ground for the children to explore learning by seeking to ask their own questions when given the opportunity.

One way to scaffold questioning for the children is to provide question stem cue cards that give a sample beginning of different question types for the children to use as a guide. For example, "How do you think...?" or "Why do you think that...?" It is, however, not just a matter of providing a random set of question stems for children to choose from but explicitly teaching when and how they can be used most effectively.

In the COR Literacy Framework there are three levels of questions that are related to the three cognitive or thinking levels. At the surface level (stepping foreword) the question will have a literal focus and will relate to factual knowledge. They will also relate to the decoding process. For example, self-questioning such as "Is this making sense?" or "Does this sound right?" will focus on the confirming or correcting during the reading process.

At the deeper level (stepping into) the questions will often relate to making connections of old knowledge with the new knowledge to enable comprehension and create new meaning.  The QAR (question-answer relationship) strategy (Raphael, 1984) is a particularly good method to demonstrate to students that not all the answers can be found in the text, whether they are literal or inferential. It requires students to connect text information to their prior knowledge.

Students need to ask:

1.     Is the answer right there in the text? Answers to literal questions can be answered there in the text.

2.   Do I need to think and Search the text? The answer is in the text but the reader must tie it together from two or more sentences in the passage.

3.   Is the answer found in my head? The answer is not in the text. The reader needs to use his/her own background experiences to answer the question. Is there a part of this text that reminds me of something else I have read? or Is there a part of the text that reminds me of something else?

4.   Is the answer a combination of the author and me? The answer is not in the passage. It is found in the reader’s own prior knowledge and also from the text.

The questions that you ask will anticipate the type of information that you are seeking. This is a type of stepping back - it is a metacognitive process that operates at the third cognitive level. They focus attention and act as anticipation guides. This self-regulating process usually enhances the efficiency of  the stepping forward and stepping into processes.

After thought:
I have recently been reading several blogs or articles about exploring a problem first before researching possibles ways to solve the problem.  Why not explore a problem first using background knowledge and intuition and then devise questions (goals) to research and find possible solutions. Go to
http://meaning2mean.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/three-examples-of-creativity-through.html

For some question ideas go visit my Pinterest site:
http://www.pinterest.com/garywoolley/reading-comprehension-ideas/

References:

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: Report of the comprehension instruction subgroup to the National Institute of Child Health and Development. Washington, DC: NICD.

Raphael, T. E. (1984). Teaching learners about sources of information for answering questions. The Reading Teacher, 28, 303-311.

COR Literacy Framework Pt2 - Feedback

Feedback is any information provided by a teacher, parent, book, experience, or peer that gives the recipient knowledge about their performance on a particular learning activity. It is given before, during or after instruction so that learners can be encouraged and informed about ways to improve performance and to develop further the ability to perform to higher levels.

Feedback is often given in classrooms, however, some forms of feedback are ineffective and often quite counter-productive. Feedback considered as praise, for example, carries very little feedback information about student performance and will have very little impact upon learning. Praise is often directed at the self and is far too general and uninformative to be of any use for meaningful learning. Expressions such as, "Good boy!" or "Great effort!" often seeks to convey a positive message but can sometimes give a very negative impression. For example, if the teacher says, "Good girl!" at a time when the performance does not meet what the learner expects then the impression the student perceives is that the teacher does not expect any better from her. As a consequence, the student may begin to have doubts about her own future performance. Consequently, over a period of time, the student may develop poor self-efficacy with the expectation that it is not worth trying in the future if a lower level of performance is the expected outcome.

I have recently read Hattie and Timperley's (2007) seminal article on feedback and have noted that teachers (or others) can effectively direct feedback to three different levels of cognitive functioning that will enable students to engage, comprehend, or to become more self-supporting in the learning process. Hattie's three levels: task, process, and self-regulation closely correspond to the three levels in the COR literacy framework. In other words, feedback should be aimed at moving learners from the task level to the process level and then to the regulation level. The task level (perceptual) is more often addressed and seeks to provide students with information about how well a task is being accomplished, for example, how well the surface information is being gained, distinguishing correct from incorrect answers, and acquiring new or different information. At the performance level (cognitive) the student receives feedback on the learning process itself, such as the efficacy of certain strategies or learning processes that the student employs to perform a learning task. This feedback tends to be more effective than task level feedback because the information can be applied to future learning tasks. This process is often referred to as deep learning because it is more endurable. The third level is self-regulation (metacognitive) feedback. However, it is seldom addressed in classrooms but is the most enduring because it is directed toward developing self-regulated learning.

Hattie and Timperley proposed that effective feedback should be directed to all three levels and that it should answer three strategic questions. The three questions are: "Where am I going?", "How am I going?", and " Where to next?". Once again this is consistent with the COR Literacy Framework in that these questions can be modelled by the teacher and directed at both the task and process levels. When the students generate questions concerning the task (or product) and process they are automatically operating at the self-regulation level. For this process to be effective there needs to be clear task(product) and clear process goals set at the beginning of the activity.  The goals need to be authentic and attainable for each student and so "Where am I going?" should address these goals. "How am I going?" is a self-monitoring question that seeks information about comprehension at processing level. It also monitors and regulates the learning strategies employed during the learning task. "Where to next?" is a reflective question that promotes self-efficacy and focuses on future challenges.

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.