metacognition
Metacognition (noun) means Awareness and understanding of your own thinking, including knowing how you learn, judging how well you understand something, and choosing strategies to fix the gaps. Example: “Teaching metacognition helps pupils notice when they have not really understood a text.”
How to Use Metacognition
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThinking about how you think and learn.
Technical, common in education and psychology rather than everyday speech.
The adjective is metacognitive. The prefix meta- here means "about itself", the same sense as in metadata.
Trace the full origin ↓Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
Teaching _____ helps pupils notice when they have not really understood a text.
Etymology
From Greek meta 'beyond, about' plus Latin cognitio 'knowing', from cognoscere 'to get to know'.
Synonyms
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Rhymes for metacognition
Frequently Asked Questions
What is metacognition in simple terms?
It is thinking about your own thinking: noticing what you do and do not understand, and deciding what to do about it. Checking whether you have really learned something before an exam is metacognition in action.
What is the difference between metacognition and cognition?
Cognition is the thinking itself, such as reading, remembering or solving a problem. Metacognition sits one level above and watches that process, judging how well it is going and adjusting the approach.
What are examples of metacognitive strategies?
Planning how to tackle a task, self-testing rather than rereading, asking yourself whether an answer makes sense, and reflecting afterwards on what worked. All involve monitoring your own understanding.