This blog post discusses an intervention for developing metacognitive thinking for pupils undertaking the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE, typically ages 15–16) and Advanced level qualification (A-level, typically ages 16–18) in Art and Design in the UK.

In its 2018 guidance report, the UK-based Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) identified the teaching of metacognitive strategies as a highly effective approach for improving pupil outcomes, while acknowledging that it remains one of the more commonly misunderstood and misapplied pedagogic concepts (EEF, 2018). This perhaps stems from a notable lack of clarity in much of the guidance, with even the EEF’s report using the related terms ‘self-regulation’ and ‘self-regulated learning’ interchangeably (Mannion, 2018) and presenting examples of self-regulation as examples of metacognition. The report’s discussion of Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow experiment, for example, incorrectly labels the strategies used by children to avoid eating a marshmallow as metacognitive, when they in fact demonstrate self-regulation.

‘Metacognition involves thinking back over prior learning in a subject, considering the task-specific thought processes encountered in this prior learning and deciding which of these to apply to a new task or piece of work.’

Metacognition involves thinking back over prior learning in a subject, considering the task-specific thought processes encountered in this prior learning and deciding which of these to apply to a new task or piece of work. The EEF report’s example of applying metacognition to the production of a self-portrait (EEF, 2018) illustrates this well. Self-regulation, by contrast, involves self-consciously monitoring and exercising control over our emotions and behaviour during the undertaking of a task. Within a single lesson this might involve a pupil considering whether they are being sufficiently attentive and focused on learning activities or teacher instruction. On a longer time scale, this could involve effective exam revision and preparation, such as creating a weekly schedule with regular rest and food breaks. Self-Regulated Learning is the umbrella term for both of these.

Task-specificity is an important part of metacognition (EEF, 2018). As pupils progress on to key stages 4 and 5, they will, however, need to apply metacognitive thinking to more complex tasks, drawing on a broader body of knowledge. The challenge for teachers is to engage pupils in metacognitive thinking without losing that essential principle of task-specificity. Within my own context, as Head of Art and Design, I have recently engaged pupils with metacognitive thinking when studying the works of artists and developing personal outcomes. This is a complex process that requires pupils to consider their propositional (factual) and procedural (skills/processes) subject knowledge, identify which parts relate to an artist they are studying, and finally consider how to employ their insights in the creation of an original artefact.

Shari Tishman’s Artful Thinking programme has influenced my teaching of this. One of the programme’s strategies involves the teaching of ‘Thinking Routines’, which guide pupils through a step-by-step process for analysing an art work. In my version, pupils undertake a Describe/Consider/Connect process.

Figure 1: A step-by-step process for analysing an art work

Step one serves as a scaffold for pupils to generate a response to a piece of visual culture. The second step involves pupils reasoning about the meanings, messages and ideas communicated. Importantly, both step one and step two scaffold pupil’s responses not just to what is represented in the work but also how it is represented – how the artist has used materials and presented the work. This aims to give pupils practice at developing what Pierre Bourdieu refers to as the ‘aesthetic disposition’ (Bourdieu, 2010) – moving beyond evaluating a work solely in terms of its representational content, or whether it is pleasing or gratifying, and considering the style and manner of its construction as integral to its meaning.

The steps are the same each time, thereby creating a sense of task-specificity, but the outcome will differ depending on how pupils access and employ the body of art and design knowledge they possess.

Teaching this has first involved lots of guided instruction and worked examples (EEF, 2018), where I can model my thinking and generate responses to sources with students, through forms of dialogic teaching (Alexander, 2020). Pupils subsequently apply this process to independent research but remain supported in the final step of the process, where they develop their ideas into an artwork, through ongoing dialogue in lessons.

This has applications across subjects: parallels can be drawn, for example, with the three-step process described by Bogard and colleagues (2023) in their development of higher order thinking skills in A-level History. I have been very impressed with the outcomes in my pupils’ work and, in follow-up discussions, intervention groups have been able to correctly recall the steps in the process and articulate their understanding of the underlying metacognitive aims. Next steps have involved adapting the Describe/Consider/Connect process for lessons across key stage 3, to develop pupils’ fluency with this process by the time they reach GCSE level.

References

Alexander, R. (2020). A dialogic teaching companion. Routledge.

Bogard, D., Melville, A., & Patel, N. (2023). Developing metacognition and higher-order thinking in A-level studies. Impact, 19. https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/developing-metacognition-and-higher-order-thinking-in-a-level-studies/

Bourdieu, P. (2010). Distinction. Routledge Classics.

Education Endowment Foundation [EEF]. (2018). Metacognition and self-regulated learning: Guidance report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition

Mannion, J. (2018). Metacognition, self-regulation and self-regulated learning: What’s the difference? Impact, 8. https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/metacognition-self-regulation-and-self-regulated-learning-whats-the-difference/