Unit 1.1. How to design metacognitive teaching and learning strategies?

Do you know how your students learn? Do students know how they learn? By helping students understand the learning strategies and methods that help them learn better, you can promote their engagement, performance and success. Metacognitive learning opportunities can help students take ownership of their learning. In addition, metacognitive knowledge fosters learners’ forethought and self-reflection, which are crucial for self-regulated learning. 

The teacher is responsible for designing metacognitive strategies that would foster learners’ SRL, by going through the design (forethought), teaching and learning (monitoring) and re-design (self-reflection) phases in the courses s/he holds. Research confirms that metacognitive activities in online higher education generated from learning analytics enhance teachers’ reflection in a more systematic way. As a consequence, better decision-making on how to improve learning design is possible. At the same time, metacognitive learning strategies help teachers measure student awareness of their roles as learners and the teaching and learning process.

This unit will illustrate the metacognitive learning strategies that you should use to foster student engagement and to create activities that generate evidence and inform the instructional design of your courses.